Help, another problem, Saliva! How do i stop it? Is there anything to eat/drink/suck/chew to get rid of it before I play, as opposed to finding out half way through a tune when the whistle gets too clogged up?
I do clean the airway before I play each tune, and even then i think that probably overdoing it.
Any help would be appreciated.
See ya
Andy
Hey,
Try not sticking so much of the mouthpiece into your mouth.
One thing not mentioned much here on the board is how hard to blow. If you blow hard into the whistle, you’ll get a different tone, or timbre than if you blow softly into it. But blowing hard will sharpen the pitch. So pull the mouthpiece out a little until you’re in tune, and use your finger vibrato to impove on the sound and you’re set. The extra air will blow the water out. You will be heard over the louder instruments, will be in tune (unless you decide to play softly),and you won’t get clogged up. If that doesn’t work, wipe the inside of the windway with a dryer sheet. If that doesn’t work, use a whistle that doesn’t clog as easily. Some never clog. Washing it out with Dawn will also help. And sometimes, while playing, suck back in through the mouthpiece to unclog it. It’s called “fipple soup” . Try it, it’s yummy!
JP
I don’t know why but personally I’ve found that red wine is pretty good for moderating saliva. Might be the tanin in it or something? Or maybe its one of those reverse Parlov responses.
Tea seems to work for me, don’t ask me why because I have no idea, but it seems to work. Just ordinary tea, the stronger the better.
I’ve never found a way of stopping saliva. I just swallow hard and avoid drinking lemonade before I play.
Acidic drinks really make my mouth water.
What I did was to visit my dentist and ask him to do a root canal on me. He pointed out that I didn’t need a root canal and tried to refuse. I told him he would never work in this town again if he refused and so I got my root canal. This gave me an opportunity to ask him about that device dentists use that suck the saliva out of your mouth. You know, the plastic tube, the disgusting vacuum noise. He didn’t want to give me much information about it. You know how paranoid and closed-mouth, so to speak, dentists are. “Open a little wider” they say to us, but try to get these guys to talk to you about the tools of their trade and they clam up like a five-year-old with a cavity. Anyway, I finally got him to give me the address of Acme Saliva Suckers, Ltd. and I order their SlobberVac 500 model. It’s a beauty. So, when I play, the SlobberVac is right there next to me, pulling the secretions out of mouth with an efficiency that will make you weep. There you go.
Dale
[ This Message was edited by: DaleWisely on 2001-10-04 08:27 ]
On 2001-10-04 03:21, Llhorian wrote:
Tea seems to work for me, don’t ask me why because I have no idea, but it seems to work. Just ordinary tea, the stronger the better.
Tea also has tannin in it, I believe.
Dale,
I saw a video of Boys of the Lough in performance. Their Uillean piper never performs without this steamer machine beside him to keep the air moist for the pipe reeds to play properly. ( This performance was in the summer in the American mid-west in a non-airconditioned hall. The sweat was just dripping off everyone and the steamer just kept pumping away!)So, I figure that by using your saliva machine while playing - you are in the best of company - in fact you have graduated to professional levels of performance! Think of the money you could make selling this thing (just don’t send it to Canada UPS…see previous post!
Sue
I don’t know about you guys, but I likes slingin’ spit!
Dale,
ROTFL!!
So what’s so funny about spit?
Thanks,
Vinny
So tell me Dale, can you still hear yourself playing with your slobbervac going - or does it make a nice sounding drone!
That’s not spit, it’s those darn liquid Crystal people trying to get into your whistle.
Seriously, though… As the earlier post mentioned, you don’t have to stick the mouthpiece in very far - this helps quite a bit.
[ This Message was edited by: Daniel_Bingamon on 2001-10-06 17:29 ]