Klarinet Archive - Posting 000630.txt from 2001/02

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Oral Moisture.
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 09:53:12 -0500

> -----Original Message-----
> From: N. Jayne Marquess [mailto:njmarque@-----.edu]
>
> My daughter's district solo and ensemble contest was this past
> weekend (the band director requires everyone in the top band to play
> something there or she wouldn't have gone) and I pickep up this tip from
> the judge in the "clarinet" room. <snip> After the
> performance the judge told her that it was much better to SUCK the
> moisture from the hole. I tried it the next time it happened to me and it
> was dry without swabbing for the next 20 minutes!!!
>

Obviously, nobody can dispute that this helped you in that instance. Whether
you blow, suck, or blot the water out with cigarette paper or the corner of
a swab, you're really performing an emergency maneuver. Almost always, the
water in the hole is simply the exit puddle of a stream that's running down
the bore of the instrument. Whatever water you manage to clear out of the
hole, there's usually more inside, waiting to take its place. You need to
run a swab through the bore at the first reasonable opportunity (between
movements or during a long rest in a performance) to get the rest of the
inside dried up. Then, if there's still water in the hole, sucking it out is
probably better than blowing it back inside, although I prefer blotting at
that point because it will dry the pad as well as clear the hole.

Karl Krelove

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