Author: jhoyla
Date: 2012-05-28 06:22
Back to spittle in your instrument ..
Spittle in your reed:
o Keep your tongue raised - don't ever let the tip of your tongue dip down to the base of your teeth where spittle gathers
o Don't try and suck out the spittle - this almost never works, and always sounds awful. Blow it through and out.
o Emergency - remove reed, blow through the staple, wipe (on back of hand), replace and play.
o Breathe in through your mouth, with your tongue raised - every breath you take will dry the tip of your tongue
Instrument and tone holes:
o Never, ever turn your instrument so that the tone-holes face downwards. Never.
o In a "well trained" oboe, spittle will always flow down the bottom of the bore and out of the bell.
o Drastic fix, if the spittle always flows into tone holes; with a syringe, run some soapy water down the bore of the instrument so that it flows down the channel you want to encourage.
o The most problematic tone-hole is the forked F vent. Dab it dry with cigarette paper
Octave keys:
o Use the 45-second octave swab maneuver, then keep the instrument dry using the advice above. It goes like this:
remove reed. remove top joint. swab. seal keys and bottom and blow hard into the reed-well. Flick the octave keys until the hiss sounds clean. dry the vents with cigarette paper. this time, suck hard into the reed well and open the octave vents. Swab. reassemble.
45 seconds is all it takes, and your octaves are clean as a whistle.
Hope this helps,
J.
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