 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Johnny Galaga
Date: 2013-11-09 19:28
I always swab the horn and mouthpiece everytime after playing. Just the other day I got some some cotton swabs, dampened them with just a little water, and smeared away some dark green/black gunk from the tone holes and the inside edge of the key rings.
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2013-11-09 20:04
Thanks for this important info!! I often thought about the possibility but always dismissed it. Luckily, I was spared ! (I'm 88).
richard smith
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Author: Funfly
Date: 2013-11-09 20:10
Just to display my total ignorance, what is the clarinet with the two little wheels between the keys on the lower section?
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Author: FDF
Date: 2013-11-09 23:04
How do you sterilize a clarinet and/or a sax? Especially, a wooden clarinet. But, in some ways I'm more concerned about my vintage sax. Avoiding sax lung disease at an advanced age (76) seems like a good idea.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2013-11-10 03:16
This scientifically proves that one should NOT play the saxophone.
I needed no further reasons.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2013-11-10 13:20
Paul, a gentleman is a person who knows how to play the sax but doesn't.
richard smith
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Author: FDF
Date: 2013-11-10 15:24
I thought that the "gentleman" was a bagpiper.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-11-10 15:25
At least on kitchen cutting boards, bacteria survive on plastic but not on wood.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/10/health/wooden-cutting-boards-found-safer-than-plastic.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/28/dining/squeaky-clean-not-even-close.html
A junior high school player once complained to me that her clarinet had become impossible to play. I looked at the mouthpiece and saw it encrusted with a thick layer of dried gunk, which continued through the barrel and down to the register vent. She had been putting it in the case without swabbing or even removing the reed.
I dropped the mouthpiece and barrel into warm soapy water, scrubbed out the top joint bore with a soapy bottle brush and then cleaned up the barrel and mouthpiece. I had to use my pocket knife and a screwdriver, followed with the screwdriver wrapped in cloth, to get it all off. (Fortunately, it was a plastic instrument and mouthpiece.) Once everything was dry, and I had replaced the encrusted reed, it played fine.
This happened around 1990, but you don't forget a sight like that.
Kitchen towels accumulate bacteria at a tremendous rate. Swabs undoubtedly do the same. Ideally, they should be run through the washing machine, or thoroughly hand-washed, but the easiest way is probably to take them into the shower with you once a week, soap them up thoroughly, rinse and hang them up to dry.
As a matter of behavior, I doubt that most people wash their swabs regularly. But so long as the bore gets thoroughly dry, the anti-bacterial properties of wood should take care of problems. I'd be particularly careful with plastic clarinets, though. I don't know about hard rubber mouthpieces, but I always make sure mine is thoroughly clean and dry before I put it away.
Bassoonists are probably worse.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040214170201/http://www.corkpad.com/dont.html
http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/lookup.php/Klarinet/1999/11/000892.txt
And bagpipes may be the worst of all. http://www.nbcnews.com/health/fungus-infested-bagpipes-sicken-lifelong-player-78-1C8845084?franchiseSlug=healthmain
Ken Shaw
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Author: kdk
Date: 2013-11-10 15:42
You can clean mouthpieces with an antiseptic spray or periodic vinegar soaks (don't soak the cork). Maybe one day soon someone - Omar Henderson, perhaps - will start marketing a swab impregnated with some kind of antimicrobial material. I don't imagine it could survive washing, so it would probably need to be something that could be renewed on the swab after it's laundered.
Reeds can be sprayed with commercial antibacterial products (the ones I've bought seem to be alcohol-based with a heavy mint scent).
Maybe some kind of ultraviolet light could be inserted in the bore and left for a period of time (I don't know what kind of heat the ones currently available for other purposes generate). They market ultraviolet antimicrobial lights to treat aquarium water for fish and amphibious reptiles.
Karl
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-11-10 16:07
The aquarium in my dentist's office has an algae-eater fish that keeps everything clean. It looks like a miniature shark but has a sucker mouth. Clarinetists need these like galactic hitchhikers need a babel-fish.
In California, there are spas where you can put your feet in water and have groomer-fish eat away calluses. With waterproof pads and a good drying fan for springs and keys, a clarinet could have the same benefit. I'm sure Lelia wants one. ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
Ken Shaw
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2013-11-10 16:41
FDF wrote:
> How do you sterilize a clarinet and/or a sax? Especially, a
> wooden clarinet. But, in some ways I'm more concerned about my
> vintage sax. Avoiding sax lung disease at an advanced age (76)
> seems like a good idea.
This would probably be a good question to ask a music store that handles rental instruments as I think they are generally required to sterilize returned rentals before sending them out again.
I know some techs will clean out vintage saxophones by removing all of the keys and then soaking the body and neck in an ultrasonic cleaning tank for a few minutes. The amount of gunk that will come out is quite shocking sometimes.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2013-11-10 18:51
Ken Shaw wrote,
>In California, there are spas where you can put your feet in water and have groomer-fish eat away calluses. With waterproof pads and a good drying fan for springs and keys, a clarinet could have the same benefit. I'm sure Lelia wants one. >
Jane Feline definitely wants me to get a groomer-fish. She says it sounds delicious!
But seriously ... I got a good lesson in cleanliness (Godliness, not so much ...) from my grammar school band director, who used to do mouthpiece checks now and then and throw a big scene over the ickiest examples. I don't even want to think about the stuff Mr. Curatillo pulled out of bassoon bocals. Eeeeew! Still, I don't try to sterilize clarinets or anything else in my house. It's a hopeless endeavor and anyhow, I expect my immune system to quit attacking my knees and do its damn job.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: personwithaclarinet
Date: 2013-11-14 03:43
Does anyone know whether this applies to reeds, too? I am a student and have been told by three pro clarinet players I know that it is safe (though a little gross) to play on a reed that has literally turned greenish blue from lack of rotation/cleaning -- a mistake I won't make again -- but I'm skeptical.
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