In another thread it was mentioned that I should have a very good player play my whistle to make sure it’s performing properly on the high notes. If I want to do this, should I do anything special to ‘clean’ it first? Do players pass instruments back and forth to try, and what do they do in between? I’m not a real germ phobe or anything, but I want to make sure that I observe all conventions and practices.
Maybe here in the South, we’re a little more rough and tumble, but the whistlers around here generally toot each other’s hardware without much care…Of course, if I’ve got a cold, I warn folks first.
It’s probably not the most hygenic way of going about things, but hey, as a kid, I ate dirt… 
Greg
On 2002-06-24 11:54, FJohnSharp wrote:
In another thread it was mentioned that I should have a very good player play my whistle to make sure it’s performing properly on the high notes. If I want to do this, should I do anything special to ‘clean’ it first? Do players pass instruments back and forth to try, and what do they do in between? I’m not a real germ phobe or anything, but I want to make sure that I observe all conventions and practices.
I took four lessons when I first began whistling. I was leaking air as I tried to do a scale, so the teacher reached over, took my whistle and began playing without wiping it off. Then he handed it back to me the same way. When I said I really wanted to learn the low whistle, he went upstairs and came back with 5 different varieties and we passed them back and forth for an hour. So I guess that’s just the way it’s done.
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On 2002-06-24 12:00, Wandering_Whistler wrote:
…It’s probably not the most hygenic way of going about things, but hey, as a kid, I ate dirt…
[quote]
Obscure movie quote of the day. Guess which movie?
“When there was no meat, we ate fowl. When there was no fowl, we ate crawdad. When there was no crawdad, we ate sand”
“You ate sand?”
“We ate sand”
Mark V.
Isn’t that from Raising Arizona?
Anyway, bagpipe teachers are the same way. You’ll be trying to adjust the reed to play in tune and the teacher will take your practice chanter and mess with it until satisfied. Urg.
I think the thing that got me was finding out that it isn’t that you have to wipe the bore out or remove moisture or whatever. You’re just a “wet blower” and that’s one kind of blower in piping. Sadly, I’m that kind of blower. Gack. Kind of nasty to have to sling the spit out of my practice chanter at least once in every hour because it starts burbling at the “water trap.”
I always wipe off the outside of a whistle when I hand it to someone and again when I get it back. Even if the other person also wiped it off. And I don’t inhale through the mouthpiece to clear moisture if I have loaned it out at all that day. (My spit came from my mouth, so I am not really sicked out by clearing the windway this way.)
-Patrick
I can remember groups of friends I have been a member of in which we passed the cup of water 'round between us and didn’t think much about it. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that a circle of friends who routinely play together might do the same with whistles, BUT I would certainly expect that everyone else would do me the courtesy to ask before they played one of my instruments. My whistles and fifes are a very important and personal part of my life, and I prefer to have the chance to decline the request.
Sometimes I’m just not in the mood to have anyone else blowing my whistle.
On 2002-06-24 12:19, Patrick wrote:
Isn’t that from Raising Arizona?
You are correct!
I sell my carefully “hand whacked out of PVC and bamboo” whistles at the occasional craft show and always wipe the mouthpiece down with 100% ethanol between test drives(I work for a biotech company) comes in handy with some juice if the show is really slow but you do have to be carefull of the smokers, just kidding, about the drinking part, as an ex smoker I couldn’t care less if someones singes some nose hair 
Now in the bands I play in we swap whistlesquenas with the occasional wipe on the shirt.
Mark
Okay, thanks all.
I was at a teen celtic music camp last week and I was constantly stealing my friends low whistle cause it’s louder than mine. We try to wipe it off inbetween but sometimes that get’s forgotten. It seems to me people are pretty cool about sharing whistles.
Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it unless it’s in the middle of the flu season. My friends all share cokes and stuff all the time, and don’t really think much of it. I wouldn’t lend my whistle a complete stranger, but, hey, what’s a little spit between friends?
“And when we ran out of sand, we ate people.”
“You ate people?!?!”
“Sure, Soylent Green is people.”
ROFLMAO! “Wipe off the mouthpiece”… um, this is hardly a way to sanitize anything. But it makes us feel better, doesn’t it? I have alcohol swabs that I use on occassion, especially after I’ve bought or sold a whistle, but the fact is, I don’t worry about it much.
You’re probably more likely to catch someone’s cold from touching a surface (like the whistle itself) they’ve touched, then touching your eyes or nose. Mouths are pretty hardy places, and it isn’t likely that you’d catch much. Mono is one thing, possibly…I’m not sure about influenze.
I wonder if sloshing the mouthpiece around in a cup of listerine would do any good? You know, not even taking it off the body? Just stirring it around a bit like a those sticks used in alcoholic beverages.
I’ve thought about using the listerine before just to freshen up things a bit, but worry it might damage the whistle.
Kim
On 2002-06-24 16:18, Kim in Tulsa wrote:
I wonder if sloshing the mouthpiece around in a cup of listerine would do any good? You know, not even taking it off the body? Just stirring it around a bit like a those sticks used in alcoholic beverages.I’ve thought about using the listerine before just to freshen up things a bit, but worry it might damage the whistle.
Kim
Irish Whiskey would seem to be the best traditional remedy.
hepatitis
When offering, I clear the windway, and wipe the mouthpiece off with a napkin. Most germs aren’t going to survive a few seconds in regular air. Most of the time its going to be in a pub so alcohol on folks breath should also take care of a few germs. It’s a matter of reducing risk, not eliminating it.
You get more germs from direct contact than any other means of transport; so, the handshake, hug, or (if I’m lucky) a peck on the cheek has done me in if I’m going to be infected. I’m talking about sharing with someone I know and who looks to be in resonable health. For me there is more risk, in riding the subway/metro where I’d be in close contact with strangers. If I’m not feeling up to snuff, got a cold, or just feel out of sort, I’d say so out of consideration and then suggest that they ask again in a couple of weeks.
The inner rewards of connecting and sharing out weigh the very minor health risks.
On 2002-06-24 17:03, ysgwd wrote:
hepatitis
Ah yes, the disease you can pass on without even knowing you have it.
Kim
double posts suck.
[ This Message was edited by: TelegramSam on 2002-06-25 09:28 ]
There’s a vaccine for hepatitis c now. My mother made me get it last year.
[ This Message was edited by: TelegramSam on 2002-06-25 09:29 ]
Are you sure this was for Hep C? not A or B?
You need to be sure and not assume you have imunity to C because C will eventually kill you if something else doesn’t get you quicker. My daughter was lucky that her case a few years ago was one of the 20 percent that responded to Interferon ( chemotherapy drug, bad side effects). She was cured! Thanks be to God!