 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-04-25 16:25
Usually, we swab our instrument out at the end of a playing session. I have found that swabbing it out several times in the hour and a half that I practice makes it play better: the instrument sounds better when the Volga river isn't running through it. Why don't we all do this? The answer is mere and sheer laziness.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2020-04-25 16:39
I do, always have. Keeps the pads dry and helps prevent getting "water" in tone hole. I've always done it during concerts as well for the same reason. What's the problem?
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-04-25 17:01
Ed: only one "problem": it doesn't look so good for the audience when you're on the stage doing this. They think its spit, which it isn't.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: kdk
Date: 2020-04-25 17:13
I don't like to play any longer than necessary with water gurgling in a tone hole every time I play the note it produces.
In a performance, of course, I have to put up with just blowing the hole clear until a long enough rest or between movement pause lets me pull a swab through.
When I'm just practicing, I often end up having to swab several times in the first 15 or 20 minutes or side Eb/Bb and LH Db/Ab become unusable. If I only clear the hole by blowing into it and blotting it out with cigarette paper, the water is back almost immediately.
I agree with you that the clarinet plays better when water isn't running out of tone holes. I suppose the water under the pad allows air to bubble through as well, so it acts like a leaky pad.
Karl
Post Edited (2020-04-25 17:13)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2020-04-25 17:16
ruben wrote:
> Ed: only one "problem": it doesn't look so good for the
> audience when you're on the stage doing this. They think its
> spit, which it isn't.
>
Better to leave the "spit" on a swab than in a puddle on the floor. Besides, I don't think audience members really care about swabbing. No one has ever complained to me.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-04-25 17:28
Every five minutes, practice, concert, doesn't matter.
Nobody cares unless you miss an entrance.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2020-04-25 17:49
Agree that the audience doesn't seem to care. It wouldn't bother me too much if they did.
Why do some players seem to have more water flowing than others?
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-04-25 18:13
Philip; In Europe, we play a lot in cold, damp churches. The difference in temperature between the bore and the the surface of the clarinet makes for a lot of condensation.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2020-04-25 18:57
I've never thought twice about swabbing out a clarinet whenever it needs it.
As far as what the audience sees: I also play the tuba, and it's a two minute job to silently empty out all the tuning slides where water collects. There is no visually discreet way to do it.
Swabbing out a clarinet creates but a small fraction of visual distraction in comparison. Just do it!
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Author: r small
Date: 2020-04-25 19:53
Maybe I have dry breath but I don't have a problem with water collecting in my clarinet. I can practice or play for two or more hours at a time without feeling a need to remove the mpc or barrel to run a swab through the tube. When I finish playing I swab out the tube and dry the sockets with a paper towel. That's it.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2020-04-25 19:56
It seems to be a very personal thing, dependant on the humidity and temperature where you're playing and also on the characteristics of your body Where I play the humidity is quite low for most of the year and temperatures rarely get low enough to allow the condensation to become a nuisance. Maybe only a handful of days in the depths of winter.
Tony F.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-04-25 20:09
It is definitely related to air temperature and relative humidity. I recall many a time outdoors in the summer (particularly in the sun) where the clarinet remained bone dry throughout no matter how much I played.
In Florida.......forget about it.
As far as visuals go, have any of you ever looked at your french horn players? They never stop spinning condensation out of their horns. In fact I sat next to one that spun so fast it provided a nice breeze.
............Paul Aviles
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-04-25 20:32
Paul: I would stay away from horn players these troubled days!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2020-04-25 20:35
Players sharing the same environment can have markedly different amounts on water to deal with. It's common for me and one or two others to be blowing out holes and swabbing, while people next to us don't have to.
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Author: marcia
Date: 2020-04-25 20:37
In my orchestra I sit in front of the horn section. I can frequently hear them removing and replacing their slides to get rid of condensation. (With four of them there is almost always at least one of them doing it) And yes, also in concert. I manage to play concerts without swabbing on stage, as it is usually warm enough to not have the need. When I practise at home in the cooler weather I need to swab frequently. During the recent winter months I had been getting lots of condensation in my register tube. I'd be playing along just fine, then play a long B, and gurgles galore! ![[frown]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie2.gif) Now that it is getting warmer it's less of a problem.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-04-25 21:06
You ALWAYS want to stay away from horn players!
:-)
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: Slowoldman
Date: 2020-04-25 21:11
I swab after nearly every piece onstage, and despite being in a quite "visible" seat, no one seems to notice. I don't think this is on the audience's "radar screen".
Perhaps it's preferable not to use a bright red swab, but otherwise...
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2020-04-25 21:45
I'm going to say something taboo here.
At concerts and rehearsals I keep a brush by my chair. If a solo or long piece is upcoming, I take the clarinet apart at the barrel. I blow into the barrel and whatever (water/spit?) comes out through the mouthpiece (I guess it comes out). Then I stick the brush down the top of the upper joint to clean that out (since I imagine that's the area highest in moisture concentration). I know no one uses a brush anymore for fear of somehow enlarging the bore. I'm too old to worry about that.
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
Post Edited (2020-04-25 21:46)
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Author: marcia
Date: 2020-04-25 22:49
>You ALWAYS want to stay away from horn players!
I'd rather them than trumpets!! ![[happy]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley12.gif) In our rehearsal room I am in front of the horns, but the performance space requires a slight shift in alignment, so I end up in front of the trumpets. Earplugs to the rescue! I have often thought that every trumpet player should have to spend an entire rehearsal sitting in front of the rest of the trumpet section. I often wonder if they have any idea how loud they can be.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2020-04-25 23:15
marcia wrote:
> >You ALWAYS want to stay away from horn players!
>
> I'd rather them than trumpets!! In our rehearsal room
> I am in front of the horns, but the performance space requires
> a slight shift in alignment, so I end up in front of the
> trumpets. Earplugs to the rescue! I have often thought that
> every trumpet player should have to spend an entire rehearsal
> sitting in front of the rest of the trumpet section. I often
> wonder if they have any idea how loud they can be.
Good ones do. Often the trumpet players in the orchestras I play for apologize in advance if there aren't any sound baffles available. They know. But the composer says f-f-f-f and the conductor says "more, more, more."
Karl
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2020-04-25 23:16
Our band used to rehearse in a small band room and the trumpets liked to kill the fortes. After a monster piece my stand partner would say "Oh, God"!
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
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Author: hans
Date: 2020-04-26 00:07
Re: "Players sharing the same environment can have markedly different amounts on water to deal with." - one reason could be medication; e.g., "water pills" for blood pressure can cause a very dry mouth.
Hans
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-04-26 00:48
Well no, you are not pouring water into your horn. It is a function of hot air from a 100 degree Fahrenheit body going into a space that is cooler than that. Perhaps it is a function of just pumping MORE air into the space.......folks with open mouthpieces with the false perception that carrying power is a function of actual volume of air (NOT the case).
As we've discussed at an earlier time, you don't even need air in the horn to produce sound (some of us actually tried the experiment that was originally presented by a physicist/trumpet maker from England). The reed or buzzing one does into a brass mouthpiece only serves as an actuator to make the air column within the instrument vibrate).
Think about it. If any measurably significant amount of moisture was pouring into the clarinet, the reed would not even be able to vibrate (the space between the reed and mouthpiece would be filled with moisture instead of air).
..............Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2020-04-26 00:50)
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Author: donald
Date: 2020-04-26 04:38
It's quite common to do this- put the pull-through through several times during a session.
Yes, on stage it can look a little unprofessional (like the US clarinet player I won't name who drank out of a plastic sippy bottle during a performance, not classy!) but you can find ways to make it unobtrusive. In an orchestra if you sit up and look ahead while you're doing it during rests, the audience doesn't even notice.
I prefer to play in a tail-coat (what the US calls a "Tux"), but the one drawback is that my tail-coat doesn't have pockets for spare reeds/pull through, whereas if I'm wearing a dinner jacket I have lots of pockets to carry stuff if there's a "walk-on" (even just to carry things on stage to leave under the chair, but usually the swab stays in the pocket).
dn
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Author: kdk
Date: 2020-04-26 04:50
donald wrote:
> I prefer to play in a tail-coat (what the US calls a "Tux"),
Just a trivial point: we call a tail-coat "tails" here, too. What we call a "tux"" - tuxedo - is tailless - just straight across the back and down the front with buttons. My tux has plenty of pockets. But you're right, I do miss the pockets in the tails.
Tail coats do often have a watch pocket in the lapel area. Eugene Ormandy - and probably others - used to keep a supply of mints in there and you could watch him every so often take one out and pop it in his mouth. He tried to be unobtrusive. When I sang in Philadelphia Orchestra concerts in the Temple U choir I could see him working his mouth subtly as he sucked on the mints.
Karl
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Author: donald
Date: 2020-04-26 16:54
Oh sorry about that. I lived in the US for 5 years, and somehow this confusion/misapprehension persisted ???
So- what you describe as a Tux is what we call a Dinner jacket, I think.
Thanks for clearing up my confusion!
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2020-04-26 17:22
Ruben said. "Ed: only one "problem": it doesn't look so good for the audience when you're on the stage doing this. They think its spit, which it isn't."
I've played hundreds of recitals and chamber music concerts and thousands of orchestra concerts and have never received a single negative remark about swabing between movements if necessary or pieces. It sure beats having to blow the water out of a key because it's gargling and have to take the time to dry the pad with pad paper or worse, begin to squeak because it produces a temporary leak. I play "wet" so I swab often, descretly when possible or not when I have to.
I'm alwasy impressed when I watch a performer play a recital and never have to swab, some players play "dry" and some like me play "wet".
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2020-04-26 20:49
I mentioned my using the brush and blowing in the barrel to clear moisture. I also wipe the back of the reed on my pants (left leg since I sit 1st chair). I'd rather the audience hear me play well rather that look perfect.
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
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