 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-11-17 02:25
Hey,
I have had several of my students tell me that their band directors have told them to swab their mouthpiece everyday. They usually accompanying this with a tale of "the kid who never cleaned their mouthpiece and it got maggots inside of it"!
I'm just curious if anyone knows if this adorable cautionary tale is based on a true event (my assumption would be a big fat no), or if it's just made up completely? With all the talk (and tv shows) about urban myths and their truthfulness, I was wondering if anyone had encountered this one (or any other ones) about clarinets/ clarinet playing? Maybe a clarinet left by a open window in winter that broke in half, or a person dying from a splinter on an improperly finished reed?? (I actually did hear once that some player died of a heart attack while playing the smear from Rhapsody in Blue... any truth to this?)
If the sewers of New York have alligators and dollar bills have cocaine on them, why can't we have maggots in our dirty mouthpieces??
Don Hite
theclarinetist@yahoo.com
ps -
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2003-11-17 02:31
A search only turned up this one mention of a clarinet in an urban legend, that John Lennon played clarinet on an un-released Beatles song:
http://www.snopes.com/music/hidden/circles.htm
|-(8^)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-11-17 02:58
Maggots would be unlikely, since generally blowflies are attracted to rotting/decomposing flesh.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2003-11-17 10:54
(Disclaimer - I sell a mouthpiece cleaning product)
At several ClarineFests and at the Texas Musical Educators Association Convention one year I have offered free mouthpiece cleaning for any and all.
Of course mouthpiece "crud" comes mostly in two varieties - inorganic (the mineral deposits, lipstick, etc.) and the organic form - skin detritus, food particles, etc. and the attendent growth of critters (mold, bacteria) growing on same in the warm wet environment of the mouthpiece.
I had been conditioned by beta testing my products at the local high school and middle school but was often surprised at the build up of both inorganic residues and moldy deposits of mouthpieces offered for cleaning. Never any maggots but scenes akin to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were not uncommon. Several mouthpiece makers and refacers refused to touch some of the mouthpieces until cleaned and disinfected. Magnified views of the insides of some of these mouthpieces would make a good horror movie!
A thorough rinsing with plain tap water after use is good insurance against build up of any kind. Drying mouthpieces between use will also discourgage critter growth. A regular schedule of mild cleaning (be careful of the products that you use on rubber mouthpieces - a lot of mouthpieces have been destroyed by home-brews) will prevent build up. I never put any object in my mouthpiece to clean or dry it - just my bias.
The Doctor
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2003-11-17 12:44
The Doctor said:
> I never put any object in my mouthpiece to clean or dry it - just my bias.
Now if we can just get the band directors to stop telling the students to drop the weighted end of the swab through the mouthpiece...GBK
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Anon
Date: 2003-11-17 14:16
I actually did have a student a long time ago (when I was an undergrad) who had constant colds and runny nose...
I eventually looked in her mouthpiece and she had green fuzzy mold in it...guess that explains the illnesses.
I taught her that very day about cleaning mouthpieces out the proper way!
YUCK.
PS Maggots in a mouthpiece might just send me over the edge!!!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2003-11-17 15:03
Maggots? Not seen by me. Anyway, I'd think they would blow away much too easily. Green slime? Yes.
And there really are no alligators in the New York sewers, For that matter, finding cocaine on a dollar bill is truly rare. It's commonly found on nothing smaller than a twenty, at least in major cities 
Regards,
John
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2003-11-17 17:49
Thanks, Mark. You have saved me from living in the prs-1997 past.
This rather makes me wonder where cocaine might NOT be found in the Chicago area.
Regards,
John
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: LeWhite
Date: 2003-11-17 22:53
I agree with the Doctor, but what's new there?!
I don't ever pull-through my mouthpiece, as there's the possibility I could change it's playing properties over time.
I just take the mouthpiece off and put it away each time I play, and I use the Doctor's mouthpiece cleaner regularly. This stuff is amazing, it cleans your mouthpiece is 15 minutes.
Sometimes, if I feel like my playing is bad, I just chuck my mouthpiece in the Doc's cleaner, and when it's clean, I feel like I play better because the mouthpiece is clean and fresh, as if I'm playing it for the first time!
So, avoid urban legend horror and get the Doc's mpc cleaner! If he won't take the opportunity for a free plug for himself, I WILL!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2003-11-18 19:08
Todd W. wrote:
> An interesting article on the "4 out of 5 bills contaminated
> with cocaine" figure can be found here on the snopes.com site:
It's a matter of quantity, not something made up, so it's not really an "urban legend."
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ted
Date: 2003-11-18 19:38
As a band director I come into contact with many mouthpieces, and always disinfect my hands promptly after practice. Mouthpieces can get bad , but it's the reeds that are a petri dish to some strange life forms. I'm sure if you put one under a microscope it would look like the locker in "Men in Black 2", full of extraterestials.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Todd W.
Date: 2003-11-18 22:01
Mark C. --
Agreed. Since, as snopes.com noted, this statement is verifiable, it probably does not meet a strict definition of urban legend, or even legend.
However, from what I've seen on the site, snopes.com is not posting only urban legends. Rather, it's investigating stories and statements that are widely circulated (often via the Internet) to try and determine if they are true or false. In this case, they found enough evidence to support the statement as true.
Also, I think there's an easily inferred urban legend from that "4 out of 5" statement: there are an awful lot of cocaine snorters out there. The snopes.com article, in describing how one "contaminated" bill can "infect" hundreds of others, debunked that unspoken legend.
I find it to be a useful site as a good starting point to check on unattributed and taken-out-of-context assertions and anecdotes.
Todd W.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: diz
Date: 2003-11-18 22:11
Alligators? Why not - afterall one can see mobs of kangaroos in Pitt Street or Collins Street if you look hard enough.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Todd W.
Date: 2003-11-18 22:17
Diz --
Don't you need those special Crocodile Dundee glasses for that? Fosters #10 aren't they?
Todd W.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: glin
Date: 2003-11-19 04:02
This is more of a myth/story than legend, but...
Back in the 80's when I was a student in public school, a trumpet player in regional band told me you could tell who the star players in a band were: their clarinets had the metal ring trim around the bell. Looking around the room of these all star players, the majority of the clarinet section had the metal trim. (probably a bunch of intermediate to pro level horns) Well, I figured it was true, back then. But like people on the board have said, it isn't the horn, it's the player. Larry Combs can probably make a student grade Bundy (sorry, not to pick on anyone who plays it) sound close to his professional horn.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2003-11-19 17:11
Does that mean we should or should not use $1 bills to remedy sticky pads?
|-(8^)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-11-20 00:05
As a repairer I have seen some of the more complex biological experiments of history inside the mouthpieces that come with school horns. I throw them in the bin, supply a new mouthpiece, and bill them. I have had few arguments when I show band comittee people. Just ask them to put the mouthpieces in their own mouths, it soon shuts them up. School kids, and some adults, seem to eat immediately before, after and during playing. Women often use lipstick whilst playing, remember girls nobody really ever died of dry lip syndrome. Soft drinks, soda's to Americans, leave a curious film on reeds, in mouthpieces and down the guts of instruments, particularly saxophones. I wash all the mouthpieces I use weekly, wipe them down gently but don't pull swab through and I have got 20 years + from my alto and tenor mouthpieces and at least 15 from my clarinet mouthpieces. The maggot issue is probably myth, filthy mouthpieces are all too common.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
![[frown]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie2.gif)
![[cool]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/cool.gif)
n b -