Thread: Not safe for lunch...

Or always buy a plastic clarinet and put the whole thing in the dishwasher after use.

Effects of raw brass:

When I spent the summer at Busch Gardens in VA years ago, I played on a raw brass mouthpiece. About 2-3 weeks into the summer I developed a tightness in my chest and would have headaches almost every day. At first I thought I was playing too hard but when a friend suggested I get my mouthpiece plated, I did. The symptoms vanished after 2 days. Just be careful.

Brass is very soft, it is quite porous, compared to many metals, and is borderline toxic, in contact with skin and from swallowing saliva floating around in your mouth when u play.
Dirt remains on the soft surface and is absorbed.
The angles on the inside, high point and outside edge also penetrate the lip surface as your chops move when playing.
Don't play on brass.

Most mouthpieces are made using modern computer controlled machines and the lead content makes the brass more machinable and facilitates a better surface finish due to its lubricating properties.
The lead content is around 2% which is very significant.

I played on a raw brass mouthpiece for a while in 1970 and promptly developed a very irritated lip area where the mouthpiece was placed. To this day, I have scar tissue where that irritation was. I found out later that the brass used to make brass instrument mouthpieces has a considerable lead content which makes it easier to cut and form the mouthpiece. Some people can play with a raw brass rim. I, however, would not recommend it.

Lead in old raw brass is toxic. Docs say it affects your brain.

Is the Brain a necessary component of trumpet playing?

It was a long weekend of playing, as evidenced by a green-stained right hand in the picture below.

Have you ever wondered why this happens? Why, on un-laquered horns, do some people get the notorious “green hand?”

Explained in a nutshell, this stuff is a byproduct of prolonged human contact on untreated brass. It originates from a chemical reaction — between the brass, and your hand sweat and breath condensation.

Hand perspiration and breath condensation contain water, salt, and acids. This set of ingredients causes the zinc in the brass to oxidize, which produces the green stuff.

The level of oxidization can vary from person-to-person — running the gambit from little or no reaction, to coffee-drinkers like myself who are cursed by heavy green residue.
http://hornmatters.com/2012/10/why-d...nd-turn-green/

Previously I always noticed some dried sticky goo on the keys of my saxes and I thought that could be caused by my own drool. Besides being disgusting, the goo actually sticks the furry lining of the case onto the sax hinges causing the keys to lose responsiveness.

Ok, this is nasty. My tenor and alto have like mineral deposits in them now. We aren’t talking GOLD or anything, but like…….yuck stuff.

I have (oboe) students whose reeds look moldy. Whether what I’m seeing is actually mold I haven’t a clue. It could be something else … like bacteria and yeasts...
Um … YUCK.

I can definitely vouch for the disgusting-ness of reeds. In biology class a few years ago we were told to go swab things around school, label them, and test them in petri dishes for bacteria. I tested a reed about two months old that I no longer used (if I remember correctly it had a crack) but hadn’t taken out of my case yet. It had no outward signs of mold, but the bacteria that grew on the dish was as bad as any of the door-knobs or water fountains the other kids swabbed.

You wouldn’t believe the stuff I see coming out of reeds. Or … well … maybe you would! Sometimes I have to hand a reed back to a student and say, “I can’t even look at this, much less touch it.” It’s pretty frightening, what they are willing to put in their mouths! Ack!

I have had students come to me who have never cleaned their instruments and have things growing in their horns. Nasty!

Brass players have no problem just emptying their spit valves wherever they happen to be. But for maximum grossness: In marching band one year, we had to "play to the box" which means we had to point the horns up at a 45 degree angle, and all the spit ran back out the mouthpiece into my face. It was my spit, but it was still DISGUSTING.

My band director was big on trying different instruments. I'm sure that explained a lot of illnesses going around.

I recently had the urge to take out one of the clarinets that has been sitting in the closet for a while and play that for a change.
Well, it's basically covered with mold! Disgusting!!

I've just swallowed a clarinet reed...
Will I be OK? Or should I go to the ER?
I was changing it and had it in my mouth.......then I got spooked and bit it in half.

..........

Pictures too gross to post.

I was literally about to go and get my trombone out the folks loft where it has been neglected for a very long while... This was not the right time to read this thread! I'm terrified as to what I may find

Do it and let us know!

I have a sad trombone story to relate. We bought a new trombone with F-attachment for my older son when he was in band because he was demonstrating motivation and improvement (it seems to be an arms race among trombone players to move up to the F-attach). He gave up music after his first year of college and the trombone went in the closet. Then my younger son wanted to play it for jazz band. Opened the case and the finish was all pitted. Our repair person, whom I trust, said that it was a bad finish job from the factory and would be too expensive to make pretty. The trombone sounds fine, just looks like *@$#.

After reading some of the above and looking at the pictures too gross to post, I did clean up my clarinet mouthpiece with hydrogen peroxide.

We have a old single F horn which we leave laying around on the sofa in the living room like a pillow. It came with a case that is covered in fine mold. I cleaned it but the mold came back. I have the case isolated in the basement. The horn is just fine.

Can we have more worm, bug and bacteria anecdotes, please, Lunasong - they've been really entertaining in a gruesome sort of way.

It was actually ok...although like you, the lacquer work is pretty goosed. I'm not that bothered, it was just a cheap one for when I was younger and learning to play, I ordered a new one this morning - one that I am adamant I will take care of as this one wasn't that cheap!

After reading this I'm making sure that I clean it properly regularly too

Originally Posted by Lunasong

Effects of raw brass:













It was a long weekend of playing, as evidenced by a green-stained right hand in the picture below.

Have you ever wondered why this happens? Why, on un-laquered horns, do some people get the notorious “green hand?”

Explained in a nutshell, this stuff is a byproduct of prolonged human contact on untreated brass. It originates from a chemical reaction — between the brass, and your hand sweat and breath condensation.

Hand perspiration and breath condensation contain water, salt, and acids. This set of ingredients causes the zinc in the brass to oxidize, which produces the green stuff.

The level of oxidization can vary from person-to-person — running the gambit from little or no reaction, to coffee-drinkers like myself who are cursed by heavy green residue.
http://hornmatters.com/2012/10/why-d...nd-turn-green/

Professional horn players often have the bells of their horns patched.

Heard a story recently about a bagpipe player who colour codes the reeds. (This has nothing to do with the colour of the bindings and much more to do with length of use/ time in the reed box.)

Originally Posted by elgars ghost

Can we have more worm, bug and bacteria anecdotes, please, Lunasong - they've been really entertaining in a gruesome sort of way.

Oh, if you insist...

BUGS, BUGS, BUGS!

Woodwind and string instruments are very susceptible to BUGS!

Flutes and clarinets are particularly prone to harbor these little creatures, and when they inhabit the pads of your instrument, you are almost certain to need a complete re-pad and a new case. What causes these little hellions, and where in the world do they come from?

The little bug found in most clarinet and flute pads is the same little larvae that eat holes in your favorite wool sweaters and fine wool carpet. Most of the time, they infest your case while it is being stored. When you start a beginner on a clarinet or flute that has been stored in the closet or attic for a bit, you can expect to find bugs. You can tell he has paid you a visit, by many signs.

First of all, your instrument will begin giving you problems. Some notes will become difficult to sound, or the entire range will seem stuffy. If you look at the pads, you may see a perfectly shaped little hole or tunnel in the wool pad under the skin. It really does look like someone took a bite out of it!

Most of the time, this damage will be very evident from the edge of the pad. Here is a picture, though, of a pad that was eaten from the center. This was a particularly troublesome leak to find. This is a bassoon pad.



Sometimes the skin will be gone, other times, it will still be still intact. Usually there is at least one entry hole of some kind.

One of the other ways you can tell if bugs have paid you a visit, is if they left you a little dried skin shell in the fuzzy lining of your case. Look very closely, perhaps with a magnifying glass. At first glance, the shell will just look like a bit of dirt or beige fuzz.

Also, if bugs have been eating your pads, they leave a little white powdery residue on the case lining. Usually this is only if the bugs are pretty bad.

If you find this powdery residue in your case, the culprit is probably a type of carpet beetle.

String instruments rarely get bugs in the wood, but frequently get them in the bow hair. If you open your case, and your bow has that “bad hair day” look, with bow hair loose everywhere, you probably have bugs. You will have to get the bow rehaired to be rid of them, and you will want to replace your case.

These little creatures are more than likely a type of lice. Suspect them if you frequently open the case to find a few loose hairs. They love old cases, and also eat bookbinding.

What can you do to prevent these pesky creatures? Well, there are several precautions you can take.

1. Always keep your instrument in the house where you are more likely to have sprayed and cleaned. NOT out in a storage room or in the attic.
2. Vacuum your case regularly.
3. Get some of the little cedar balls, sold as products to put in your dresser drawers to prevent bugs. DON'T GET THE MOTHBALLS UNLESS YOU NEVER WANT TO USE YOUR CASE AGAIN, BECAUSE THEY REALLY STINK. Always get the wood products, not the white chemical mothballs, even if they say “cedar-scented.” Just drop a couple of the fresh cedar balls in your case every 6 months or so.
4. If you have a cedar-lined closet or drawer, keep your instrument there.
5. Play your instrument regularly.

Source: http://www.johnnypaulsmusicshop.com/...s/ww_bugs.html

Yesterday morning at church, in the middle of our Flute/Oboe/Clarinet offertory, an extremely large, buzzy, and very determined fly decided that my bare right arm would be the perfect place for an extended Sunday morning stroll. I withstood the feeling of tiny feet walking on my arm as long as I could (eek eek eek EEEEK), and then tried to shake him off, but twitching my arm did not serve to discourage him. I had to intermittently stop playing for quite a few measures before I was able to convince him to go away.

So, I wondered what the pros do, when an insect decides to join the party. Channel the Spartan boy with the fox chewing at his vitals, and continue playing? Or frankly down tools and deal with the invader?

And I bet there are some much better war stories out there...

Playing Bach's Magnificat some years ago, during the soprano/d'Amore duet I managed to suck in a fly during a breath. Luckily I didn't inhale him, but during the next phrase he was struggling around, wet, inside my mouth. My major concern for the next few moments was keeping him out of my reed. At the next phrase break I did a WHOOOF and blew him onto the page but still managed to get enough air to continue. My nearby colleagues noticed but I heard no comments from anyone else.

The sublime beauty of that aria was missing for me that night, though...

Your problem must be common to many oboe performers. It certainly has hit me.

A large green cicada or preying mantis swooped down from the rafters during a church performance in Va. years ago and landed on my right cheek. Right in the middle of an oboe solo with organ piece.

Then the little green monster started crawling slowly up my face. It was all I could do to hold it together and certainly added some shakiness to my vibrato and phrasing.

The antiphonal choir across the room could see it and had looks of horror on their faces as I struggled to complete the piece. A break sweat happened, the only one I can remember, and I was soaking wet, through and through within 30 seconds.

It is an amazing memory.

Afterwards, the church organist/conductor asked why I did not simply stop and swipe the bug away. We could have easily restarted he said, and also it was only a piece of music, not life and death.

I have never forgotten how that felt and not yet had the chance to test his theory.

..........

THE CLARINET MONSTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuLpwGNTUoo

This is what lives in your clarinet pads if you don't have them regularly serviced/repadded. My partner is an instrument repairer and has maintained for years that some sort of bug gets into the pads and eats away at them, he had seen little white things that he thought were eggs before but this is the first time that he found the actual bug - it is HUGE! (and now is living somewhere in our house as it has disappeared)

As i've posted a couple of times before, I'm in India for the year. Today when I went to practice, I went to my room, opened my case, and was horrified to find MILLIONS OF ANTS COVERING MY BEAUTIFUL BUFFET FESTIVAL!
After I had a heart attack I immediately dashed outside and proceeded to do anything possible to get them off. I've gotten the actual clarinet completely bug-free, and there's no evidence of eggs or tunneling or holes or anything horrible like that. They were teeny little red ants, I think, but I'm not any sort of bug expert. The case ( it's an Attache with the combination lock, I'm not completely sure what it is called) however, is infested. They're inside the fabric, in the creases of the leather, EVERYTHING.

I had a phone call tonight from a student in a panic because her clarinet case and clarinet seems to be infested with some sort of bug. They look like tiny white dots-but they move!

My daughter has a school clarinet and it is infested with extremely tiny white insects which are inside the instrument and throughout her case. She had this problem a couple of months ago and we took apart her clarinet and thoroughly cleaned it. We also sprayed inside the case with pesticide. These are very tiny bugs. Where do they come from and how do we keep from getting re-infested? She got the instrument last September and there weren't any bugs at that time. Thanks

I noticed the bugs on my clarinet mouthpiece earlier on this year (not quite sure when) and immediately put the mouthpiece in boiling water which seemed to do the trick for a while. Now some months down the line, we've got a major problem with them. Most of our clarinets (and we have a fair few!) seem to be infected - we've used milton sterilising tablets and sterilised mouthpieces, plastic barrels, metal ligatures and even a plastic bell. We're not quite sure how to tackle the cases though! Any ideas would be gratefully received!!

We had a huge box of reeds, both old and new, which I went through yesterday and put the majority into the milton solution, including the reed cases. What I did notice was those reeds that seemed to be more infected were those in the fold up cases rather than the reed cases where you slide the reed out. These reeds and cases are now bagged up and ready to be thrown away. Not all of the infected instruments were stored close together and even more random - a box of bassoon reeds which were on our bookcase seem to be infected too. Nothing else infected was stored on the bookcase.

I recently found many of my reeds with tiny white insects crawling all over them. Not even exclusively on old reeds but sometimes appear on new/barely used reeds. Urrrrgghhh
Please help! What are they? Why are they there? How can I get rid of them? Helllllppp!

Q: I am a student clarinetist and I have noticed a couple months ago these white bugs first on my reeds. These white bugs are like little spots of dust, but when observed carefully they move! These bugs have spread to the rest of my clarinet. I have tried every possible solution, but there has not been one that has worked so far. I have done quite some extensive research to find out what these bugs are, but I have found nothing. I know for sure that they are not carpet beetles, woodlice, mites, and such. Help would be much appreciated.

A: Many thanks for your interesting note concerning these tiny bugs ambling about on your reeds.
I am afraid that while I commiserate with you because I too have had them, I could not find out what they are called.
They are so tiny, you almost don’t believe that they are moving, but in fact as we both have determined, they do indeed move.
(etc.)

I had seen a slight fraying of one of the pads, thought, "oh ****, pad bugs," but tried to ease my mind that I had probably just grazed the edge with an overly untrimmed fingernail. Then more recently I heard some slight alterations in tone. When I looked, I saw even more of the pad appears eaten at (also explains those larval beetles I keep finding crawling in my bed - one time I got up to use the restroom and when I finished, turning and about to flush, one of these dead, curled up (looks almost like a small millipede, kinda like it has a shell - look up carpet beetles in their larval stage, you'll see what I mean), and as I pulled my shirt down, it flicked into the toilet bowl as I flushed. One I saw crawling by the computer downstairs. I don't want to wait any longer to tell my parents about the problem because apart from the tonal difficulties, frankly it disturbs me to play an instrument I know houses bugs.

A new trend? Playing the clarinet whilst covered in bees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddp8_5tXOhU
“Sometimes I’ve actually inhaled a bee as I was playing my clarinet.”

Originally Posted by Lunasong

THE CLARINET MONSTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuLpwGNTUoo















A new trend? Playing the clarinet whilst covered in bees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddp8_5tXOhU
“Sometimes I’ve actually inhaled a bee as I was playing my clarinet.”

To the person who thought string instruments were better, someone once gave me a violin that had been in their attic. It had been partially eaten by woodworm. There were a lot of holes. Bows get mites that eat the bow hair.

NOT SAFE FOR LUNCH...

The American public school system's idea of food!

Originally Posted by Jaws

To the person who thought string instruments were better, someone once gave me a violin that had been in their attic. It had been partially eaten by woodworm. There were a lot of holes. Bows get mites that eat the bow hair.

Yah, that was Kopachris. There's actually a lot of information about bow bugs/mites on the internet, but I wasn't able to find any gruesome stories.

It makes me wonder after reading all this where the absent creature from Lunasong's avatar might be presently lurking...