 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: DIn
Date: 2006-02-05 21:13
I was just curious as to what everyones view are on smoking if you play a wind instrument? I see alot of people at school and at concerts for bands and orchestras who are wind players that smoke. Does it have a bad affect on your breathing? I am hearing two things from different people 1) it makes you breath better (dont think its true but i dont know) 2) It's not only bad for your health but ruins your ability to play as good as someone who doesnt smoke.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2006-02-05 21:18
Bad for your health - for sure.
Over a long period - a decidedly adverse effect on breathing.
It also leaves a very unpleasant aroma in your instrument, which is practically impossible to get rid of ...GBK
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-02-05 21:18
DIn wrote:
> 1) it makes you breath
> better (dont think its true but i dont know)
100% false. Emphysema.
2) It's not only
> bad for your health but ruins your ability to play as good as
> someone who doesnt smoke.
That I'm not sure of. Before any damage is permanently done to the lungs it may or may not. In later years it will most definitely affect breathing.
Mark C. (former heavy smoker, kicked habit about 15 or 20 years ago)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-02-05 21:28
You ought to sit next to a sax player that was a heavy smoker and suffered with emphysema - that'll nip the idea in the bud - not only did he have the worst cough you could imagine, he didn't have enough breath for long phrases.
I tried smoking at school (as most of us have done), which is probably why I never took it up, and I'm glad I didn't.
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Author: Daniel
Date: 2006-02-05 21:33
Emphysema is something that happens overtime the more you smoke the more likely you are to get it right? I know i tried smoking and hated it.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-02-05 21:37
Emphysema is when the alveoli are damaged beyond repair, and the internal surface area of the lungs is drastically reduced so breathing is less efficient as less oxygen and CO2 can be exchanged with each breath.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2006-02-05 22:54
And if you're a non-smoker dating a smoker, it's like kissing an ash tray.
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: ron b
Date: 2006-02-05 23:24
I'm also a former (moderate?) smoker who quit several years ago, DIn. Returning to playing after years of non-playing (and smoking), I've been able to regain instrument-playing breathing abilitiy without too much difficulty, though it will never be up to where it once was. I'm totally convinced it would be much better/easier had I never smoked.
Also, as a repair tech, part-time [retired], I can tell you that, as GBK has already stated above, tobacco smoke will kill your instrument(s) too.
- r![[cool]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/cool.gif) n b -
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-02-06 02:57
Smoking is obviously bad for your health but I don't know if it is bad for playing a wind instrument. One of the most impressive classical clarinet and saxophone players I know (he was a major player in Russia decades ago) has been smoking a lot for the past 40 years. I'm not cray about his playing, but his breath and sound are better than almost anyone.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2006-02-06 03:05
DIn wrote:
> I am hearing two things from different people
> 1) it makes you breath better
Do you want to increase your breathing / lung capacity / endurance?
Exercise
...GBK (who runs 2-3 miles a day)
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Author: donald
Date: 2006-02-06 03:16
"it makes you breath better"
hey, i know that YOU didn't fall for that one.... but who on earth would be bone headedly stupid enough to think that?- i think one of your friends must have been "having you on" (a joke at your expense).
or... hang on
"it makes youR breath better" ??????
vrs
"it makes you breathE better"?????
which did your friend say?
donald
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Author: marcia
Date: 2006-02-06 03:50
And what about all the reeds one could buy with cigarette money!!
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Author: BobD
Date: 2006-02-06 11:05
Smoking is a stupid addictive habit that will not do anything good for you or your clarinet......BobD, former smoker.
Bob Draznik
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Author: John O'Janpa
Date: 2006-02-06 12:44
Smoking is bad for many reasons, one of which is reducing your ability to play wind instruments.
It is also bad for causing cancer, causing emphysema, causing heart attacks, reducing cash on hand, etc., etc.
Here is an old poem :
"Tobacco is a dirty weed,
and from the Devil doth proceed.
It stains your fingers,
burns your clothes,
and makes a smokestack of your nose. "
It is also very addictive.
In spite of all the ill effects, there have been many smoking woodwind players in past decades who managed to play very well, although they undoubtedly would have been able to play even better if they hadn't smoked.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2006-02-06 12:52
Smokers for the most part are pawns of the evil tobacco companies - that's my opinion.
Smoking makes you look 10 years older and die 10 years younger - if you're lucky.
So if you have friends trying to get you into smoking, then they are either really stupid, or not really your friends.......
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2006-02-06 13:10
No disclaimer here. I am a surgeon and operate on lungs. This IS my day job.
Do not smoke.
Simple.
Nicotine is more addictive than any drug. Patients in rehab from drugs or alcohol smoke. They have a tougher time with cigarettes than with their other addictions.
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
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Author: Avie
Date: 2006-02-06 14:10
I think playing any wind instrument is a good exercise and helps to clear the lungs whether you smoke or not. Alseq says it all.
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Author: bawa
Date: 2006-02-06 14:14
I always really sad when i see the high school teenagers come out of music class during break and so many of them smoke.
How can you be learning a wind instrument and the smoke?
Nowadays when everyone has all the info about how bad it is it seems especially destructuve. My daughters clarinet teacher smokes although all his students are on a collective effort to make him give it up...lets see if they succeed.
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-02-06 14:34
If you don't smoke, don't start. I can't think of a single positive that can't be gotten from some other source. If you're wanting to improve your breath technique, do breathing exercises or get one of those breath exercisers from a music store.
Smoking is not only bad for you, but everyone around you. Your clothes will stink like cigarettes, your hair, your breath, etc. It is something you will wish you'd never started because it's so difficult for people to quit.
Personally, I've never smoked. I had Asthma as a kid and really didn't enjoy being rushed to the emergency room because I couldn't breathe. My aunt has Emphysema and still smokes, but it is awful to be around her because of her pain and her addiction.
Please, don't smoke. You'll be happier and healthier and richer!
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-02-06 14:44
A flautist I know gave up smoking, and not long afterwards she realised how much easier it was to sustain long notes and play long phrases in a single breath when before she had to break up long phrases during the time she was a smoker as she didn't have the endurance.
And it's always worthwhile to have a surgeon's point of view - after all, they're the ones that have to deal with the results of smoking when it all goes wrong for the smoker, and it's not a pretty sight.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2006-02-06 15:46
"My daughters clarinet teacher smokes although all his students are on a collective effort to make him give it up...lets see if they succeed."
------------------------------------------
That teacher doesn't smoke during the lessons does he/she??
In college, I actually had to ask Murray Panitz (Principal Flutist Phila. Orch) to put out his cig. in a quintet coaching.
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2006-02-06 17:08
The oboe professor at Oberlin, James Caldwell, smoked constantly during lessons while I studied there (not with him; I'm a clarinetist...) and his students said that when he changed studio spaces, the walls all were discolored around the pictures/photos/items he had on them.
I would not want that gunk in my lungs, but I do understand smoking's allure. If it didn't make me completely unable to play the clarinet (asthma), my addictive personality would have made sure I was hooked the second I tried it 18+ years ago...
Katrina
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-02-06 18:15
When I got my K&M Music stand, there was a leaflet in the box with all the available add-ons for it. Amongst all sorts of lamps and can holders etc they have also an ashtray...and this in times where even cars come without them.
FWIW I smoke, but far less since I've started playing. Therapeutical instrument? 
--
Ben
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Author: D
Date: 2006-02-06 19:10
I seem to remember that Roy Castle (the late) claimed that his lung cancer was caused from playing in smokey clubs, although he didn't smoke himself.
Still got him in the end though.
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Author: ron b
Date: 2006-02-06 19:12
Something already stated here can't be RE-stated often enough, in my opinion:
In direct proportion to the DE-crease in smoking will be the
[often astonishing]...
IN-CREASE in cash reserve.
- ron b -
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Author: Kel
Date: 2006-02-07 14:47
I smoked unfiltered Camels for almost 45 years, quit 11 months ago and already my playing has improved. I now get a much bigger sax sound thanks to improved breath support. But I haven't gotten the full economic benefit. Now I'm addicted to nicotine gum.
On the plus side, I suppose I smell better. The negative? I realize how unpleasant much of the world smells.
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Author: crnichols
Date: 2006-02-07 17:56
I remember tales of Pappoutsakis, one of the flute players from the BSO. In the end, he couldn't walk up the stairs without and great deal of trouble, and had to use a ventilator(he was a smoker). His students said he still had one of the most beautiful tones they'd ever heard. It's not healthy though, it smells, and it's a bitch to quit, I still haven't been successful, it's on my list of goals...
Christopher Nichols
1st Infantry Division Band
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Author: jacqui
Date: 2006-02-07 19:54
Wow-your post hit the nail right on the head for me. I started playing the clarinet 11 months ago and smoked my last cig. 5 months ago. I just told my husband yesterday how the only thing keeping me from having a smoke lately is my playing the clarinet and my belief that if I go back to smoking, i'll never become a good clarinetist. Even though i'm just a beginner, i love playing and practice an hour each night after work. I can tell you all from my present experience, i can play longer without sneaking breaths when i'm not smoking. Still, want one though!!! arrrg.
Jacqui
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-02-07 20:21
jacqui wrote:
> Still, want one though!!! arrrg.
After 15 or 20 years - I still want one.
I just decide not to have one. Today.
Now, if I could just do that with extra food & snacks ...
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Author: jezzo
Date: 2006-02-08 17:28
We all know why smoking is bad...
But when you smoke you practise your breathing.
A lot of Clarinet players i know smoke and no one has problems with his Clarinet or breathing.
However it is better not to smoke!
My hot clarinet blog
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Author: Kel
Date: 2006-02-08 17:50
Jezzo, the effect accumulates. How old are the smokers you know?
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-02-08 17:53
jezzo wrote:
> But when you smoke you practise your breathing.
You practice your breathing to stay alive. You practice breath control to play clarinet. You practice smoking to shorten your lifespan on an average.
> A lot of Clarinet players i know smoke and no one has problems
> with his Clarinet or breathing.
Besides stinking and dirty pads and scum on the inside of your clarinet you won't hurt your clarinet.
However, stinking up your lungs wioth scum will hurt them, perhaps permanently.
The effects of smoking aren't immediate, but they exist - so - all the clarinet players you know who are smoking have problems. It might not show up in their playing. Yet.
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