 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: VermontJM
Date: 2005-04-04 07:54
So during rehearsal the other night, my low Eb was not matching the rest of the section. I couldn't really tell if it was just me, or a mix of the others... so... I checked the pitch and realized that that note was playing a good 20 cents FLAT. This is really odd for my instrument (I am consistantly sharp and rarely have issues with being flat...) This lead me to wonder if there was something in the tone hole. Sooo... I removed the key and cleaned the tone hole. GROSS. Nasty, disgusting gunk and goo came out. I still can't believe it- I am REALLY diligent about swabbing well and making sure the water is out of holes before packing up. This further lead me to remove ALL of my trill keys and clean up. This helped the pitch. I am pretty sure those holes have not been looked at since the instrument was overhauled in 2000. I plan on removing all of the upper joint keywork and cleaning up sometime this week. (The thought of that nastiness in my instrument will keep me up at night...)
So I pose the question-
If I am maniacally diligent about cleaning my instrument and I am getting goo like this, can you imagine what the other clarinets in my section must look like when all they do is run a swab through once and throw it in its case?? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-04-04 11:48
You have to ask where the goo is coming from. Other players may have no goo at all.
Dead, shed skin cells from inside the mouth are a prime contender. Ask your dentist or dental hygienist if this could be the case and what you could do about it. There have been recent breakthroughs in care of soft tissue in the mouth.
Another contender to consider is food.
And finally, lint from the cloth or swab you use for your very diligent swabbing. Many pad savers and swabs drop a LOT of lint, especially as they pass the intruding tubes from the thumb tone hole and the register tone hole, especially if these tubes have relatively sharp edges, especially if the swab is a firm fit.
May I recommend Doctors Products' silk swab.
http://www.doctorsprod.com/accessories.html Excellent, and lint-free!
Post Edited (2005-04-04 11:48)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: pewd
Date: 2005-04-04 13:28
another reason to always brush your teeth before playing.
you should see what comes out of middle school kid's horns sometimes.
-paul
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-04-04 16:07
Not as disgusting, Brenda, as the top half of a sax (including pads) lined with an off-white, 0.5 mm thick layer of goo the consistency of a soft grease, or a one year old sax covered on the OUTSIDE with heavy corrosion and gunge as a result of what blew out of at least one of the player's head orifices.
Sometimes servicing instruments is positively reach-inducing. I just wish players would restrict themselves to blowing air from their lungs - only!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: larryb
Date: 2005-04-04 16:34
even if the player is assiduous and only blows the air from his lungs, there could still be quite a lot of phlegm, mucose and other effluvia breezing through the bore and gunking up the tone holes; not to mention what must be coming out of smokers' lungs: the tar and scar tissue, pustulous material, probably also detached polyps and membranial detritous; and then there's just the normal dental plaque, loose and deteriorated fillings, gingevitistic gum matter, blood, etc. etc.
oops, it's lunch time
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-04-04 21:39
Personally I don't think there is enough air speed from the lungs to the instrument to dislodge and carry any solid or liquid material unless:
- the throat is almost completely blocked
- that material is in the gap between reed and mouthpiece
- the material is on the tip of the tongue or roof of associated area of the roof of the mouth during tunguing.
In these three situations the much smaller air passage increases the LOCAL air speed to sufficient levels.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: VermontJM
Date: 2005-04-04 23:07
I use a silk swab only- pad savers are death, in my humble opinion...
I never play after eating and I keep Oral B brushups in my clarinet bag, just in case.
I only ever drink water.
Trust me, there is NOTHING more that I could do to assure a cleaner instrument.
I think that this is a build up from water and condensation that inevitably gets in the holes and then dries- it was stained the same color as the wood, which tells me that it's probably just a build up of the residue of a bit of spit, condensation and dust that accumulates. It's been 5 years since it was last cleaned so thoroughly, so I am sure that's part of it too.
No worries though- it's all clean now and life (and pitch) is good.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2006-01-16 15:33
Let me tell you about my new clarinet:
I've owned my Yamaha SEV for about 5 years now. During this time I've always been frustrated by the airyness & lack of balance of the throat tones. I've had the register key off a number of times to clean it, have had my clarinet rebuilt once. The rebuild helped but didn't cure the problem. I've never really been happy with that aspect of the clarinet but loved the rest of it. Finally last week I pulled the G#/A keys just to see if more venting would help. Imagine my surprise when I found the tone holes half plugged with something. My guess is that some of it was there from the beginning and additional gunk has been added over time due to swabbing & also to having a cat. I'm really quite surprised as I'm religious about brushing before playing, swabbing after, generally keeping everything clean. Anyway, after cleaning & reassembling, I now have a clarinet that is absolutely phenomenal! I love it in every way. The airyness is gone completely from the G#/A and the balance is great. The Bb is only slightly airy but balances well overall.
I have always been a swab mpc-bell person, and will still remain predominantly that. However, the orientation of the gunk was apparently made worse by the constant direction of my swabbing. With that said, I'm now going to be swabbing bell-mpc at least once each time I clean. I will also be pulling the keys at least once per year to clean the tone holes.
MOO,
Matt
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Alseg
Date: 2006-01-16 15:46
Not that this pertains to you specifically, but check this scenario:
Do you use cork grease...by the tube/cupfull?
Is there any on your hands when you play....like the baseball pitcher who juices the ball?
Is there any in the sockets forming clumps of gunk?
Do you oil the bore such that "Quaker State" knows you by name?
A friend gave me his son's Yamaha to look at since it was playing poorly.
It had new pads, etc. and dad was judicious about oiling the keys and bore....every week!!!! Son used gobs of cork grease. The build up in the tenon sockets was so bad it caused leaks. The finger holes looked like ear wax.
I had to scrape the stuff out. They were killing it with kindness.
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-01-16 17:04
Matt wrote:
"additional gunk has been added over time due to swabbing & also to having a cat"
You really should brush your cat's teeth before allowing him to play your clarinet. Or buy him a clarinet of his own, maybe a Lark or a Parrot would appeal to him.
-----------
If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-01-16 18:20
I understood it that the cat creeps through the bore every so often. (yeuch, I'm allergic to cat hair <sneeze!>)
I'd buy a weasel, to hunt the dust bunnies.
--
Ben
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Alseg
Date: 2006-01-16 20:25
Giving new meaning to "gerbilling"
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2006-01-16 20:29
Alseg:
Do you use cork grease...by the tube/cupfull? No I use very sparingly & I use the Doctor's Doctor Slick. I also use a separate cleaning rag now for the tenons, have done for a while.
Is there any on your hands when you play....like the baseball pitcher who juices the ball? Always clean my hands after greasing.
Is there any in the sockets forming clumps of gunk? None that I've seen. I wipe off any excess I see.
Do you oil the bore such that "Quaker State" knows you by name? Bore gets oiled about once a year, not excessively.
I think that the aforementioned cat leaves hair that gets onto everything, including my swabs. A little cat hair, a little water - recipe for a mess I'm guessing. I'll need to wash the swabs more frequently.
David and tictactux:
Good points. I'll keep that in mind next time we play a duet and she uses my good instrument. She's really quite talented. If only she wouldn't scratch the wood with her claws.....................
I've only run her through the bore a couple times. She tends to catch on the register tube no matter which way she goes so I've had to go back to the silk swab. It's tough to get a stuck cat out of a tree, so to say!! She also tends to get a little perturbed when she pops out the bell so I don't swab with her too often.
MOO,
Matt
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Alseg
Date: 2006-01-16 20:42
Good.
I only raised the questions to point out what overdoing things can do to a horn.....and, as mentioned, my first sentence stated :
"Not that this pertains to you specifically" (Naturally I just KNEW it didn't)
Fortunately it doesnt pertain to you, unless the cat is using suntan lotion.
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2006-01-16 22:53
After reading this post, it made me take off half of my keys and clean it out. Hardly anything was found when I cleaned it out. Still, it bugged me to even think about what could be in my clarinet!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2006-01-17 11:53
Alseg:
I appreciate the questions & answered for completeness. In the past I did not use a separate cleaner for the tenons. Maybe my swab distributed the cork grease into the bore & tone holes. I now use a separate cloth for the tenons but have only been doing that for 6 months or so.
Thanks,
Matt
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ah Clem
Date: 2006-01-17 20:58
Interesting combination: This thread is totally disgusting, while at the same time being very informative.
Of course, I was playing while reading it-now I have stopped...
Ah Clem
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: hans
Date: 2006-01-17 23:40
VermontJM,
In addition to the suggestions above, I wondered if some of the goo could be toothpaste residue? Maybe Dr. Henderson could analyze a sample...
Regards,
Hans
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2006-01-18 17:44
Shadow Cat says she wouldn't be caught dead putting any part of herself into a stinky old clarinet, although she curled up for a nap in the bell of my bass sax once. I think the schmutz inside can be just about anything, including the outer space aliens who must regurgitate that stuff that looks like vomit inside some of clarinets I've bought at the flea market. I don't think defective hygeine can account for the entire ick-factor and I believe people who describe swabbing thoroughly, brushing teeth before playing, etc. and finding slime in the toneholes anyway. Filthy, rotted fangs, eating while playing and never swabbing will crud up a slob's clarinet a lot faster than a clarinet played by someone who's reasonably clean, as everyone seems to realize; but normal household air is so laden with microscopic life that these critters alone can grow until their colonies form visible scum inside any conveniently moist tube, when no running water or air circulation flushes the critters out. The clarinet that spends most of its time in a closed case must seem like a luxury hotel to travelling bacteria and mold spores. If The Blob grows in there despite normal hygeine, maybe it would be a good idea to leave the case open for an hour or so a day, to let the clarinet dry out inside. The swab doesn't reach all the crannies and doesn't leave the bore completely dry.
(My grade school band teacher used to make a theatrical event of asking all of his clarinet players to remove their reeds for mouthpiece inspection. He howled and groaned the whole time as if he were auditioning for a horror movie, and when he ran across a particularly loathesome example, he pretended he was about to throw up, to such dramatic effect that the reed inspection backfired: some of the boys let their mouthpieces fester on purpose, just for the entertainment.)
I rinse my mouthpiece and reed when I'm done playing, and I wash my mouthpieces with detergent occasionally. When I buy a used mouthpiece or when I'm handing a mouthpiece over for a friend to try, I use Sterisol. Otherwise, when I'm the only one using my equipment, I evict any passengers by mechanical means, with an ordinary silk swab, not with chemicals. According to my husband, recently retired from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's Pestcides Div., those antibacterial room sprays and wipedowns are worse than useless, btw. They kill just enough bacteria to give a genetic advantage to the bugs that survive. By trying to sterilize our environment, we're developing dangerously resistant pathogens. No need to try to sterilize the clarinet--just use a plain swab most of the time, air out the case now and then, and occasionally do exactly what the original poster is doing: take off the keys and clean up.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2006-01-18 17:47)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-01-18 18:18
Hans wrote:
> I wondered if some of the goo could be toothpaste residue?
<Dilbert>
Cleanup on hole #5, it's engineer spittle.
< />
--
Ben
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2006-01-18 20:14
When my students come in with junk in their toneholes, I ask them if they would buy a Clarinet with toneholes which were incorrectly or partially finished - cause that's about how it's playing currently.
Then I scoop out a chunk on a QTip and say "here, would you want to put this on your breakfast cereal?"
They get the point loud and clear then............
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
