Author: jcw
Date: 2011-03-21 21:34
I wonder if anyone can help. I think my English horn is possessed!
My instrument is mechanically sound and repairers can find nothing wrong with it.
Several times, during performances, suddenly my instrument stops playing. It's usually when I'm playing quietly around the 2nd line G area. It seems to right itself without me really doing anything.
One time when it happened in a performance last week, I was playing solo repeated G's, followed by a C. As the G's just squeaked, I thought very quickly, played a bit louder and up the octave. The phrase is repeated a few bars later, and by this time, everything was working again.
It occured on 3 separate occasions last week, yet I haven't ever managed to get it to misbehave during practice.
I've had a few thoughts as to what it might be, but unless it does it again, I can't know if I've solved the problem.
I wondered if it was anything to do with water - water getting trapped somewhere, or a small bit of dirt somewhere which becomes saturated after blowing down the instrument for sometime.
Tonight I have cleaned out my crook (bocal) with some soapy water and a pipe cleaner and then thoroughly rinsed and dried it. I have also oiled the bore of the instrument in the hope that the water will drain away rather than get stuck anywhere in the bore.
I wonder if anyone has any ideas............or if anyone knows what might happen if a bocal did have a small bit of dirt or food deposit in it.
Big solos and reeds are enough to worry about...........without the addition of temperamental instruments.
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