I saw my doctor a few months ago about difficulties I had with my puff-power. The first thing he asked was whether I was a smoker and it seems that as I am one this was the cause. I’m wondering if there are any out there who’ve had the same problem or who could quantify the damage smoking does in terms of a tendency towards breathlessness and lack of stamina. If I did give up how long would it take for the effects to wear off etc?
I am sure that smoking has a noticeable effect on breath power. I can get fewer notes per breathful than I hear on most audio clips. I recently quit smoking, not sure if I notice any difference though.
I heard some doctor on the radio recently saying that there are benefits for long term smokers in giving it up and that they accrue fairly quickly. I would have thought though that regular sessions of moderate aerobic exercise would also help - activities that make your heart and lungs work a little more than usual: brisk walking, walking uphill, jogging, swimming etc.
I guess if one is going to buy a used flute they ought to ask if previous owners had been smokers. No offense, but as a non-smoker I think the last thing I would want is a flute that had been played by a smoker.
If you can’t pack in smoking right away, you might want to try my cure 
Do 10 straight pulls in a row, without taking a breath of fresh air(don’t do this indoors!). Do this every time you like another fag. After a while those 10 pulls are just one too many, and you’re happy with nine. After a year or 2 you’re down to one, and you’ve stopped smoking. It worked for me, i never looked back!
What’s a pull?
I’ve been trying to give both things up for a while. I managed the flute for about 10 years but have relapsed. Maybe if a flute playing ban was brought in to go with the recently imposed smoking ban I would have a chance.
I had one flute in recently - a high pitch F jobby - that reeked of stale fags. Not nice. But it will go with time, especially after a good clean etc.
I love our newly smoke-free pub atmosphere in Britain - we’ve had it since Spring in Wales and it’s just started in England. My regular session pub is just on the English side of the border, but went smoke-free voluntarily about 18 months ago. Much nicer for everyone, but especially us deep breathers! I haven’t been up to the excellent session I visit periodically in Manchester since the ban, but that was horribly smoky before - I just wonder if there’ll be any players left inside as a lot of them smoke!
As for the breathing, I’ve never smoked. However, I do suspect that there are beneficial effects to be had from the disciplined breathing necessary to play any mouth-blown wind instrument. As a child I suffered regularly and badly from bronchitis every time I got a cold - it would settle on my chest and I’d be off school for 2-3 weeks, taking penicillin and coughing and choking probably half-a-dozen times a year. (I missed a lot of school - time spent profitably with my nose in a book!) When I was seventeen, I took up the flute. It may well be coincidence, to do with hormonal changes or some such, but although I continued to get regular bad, snotty colds, (latterly largely dealt with by other methods, totally off topic) the phlegm stopped settling on my lungs, and I haven’t had bronchitis properly ever again. I like to credit this to my flute.
Undoubtedly as I have become middle aged, sedentary in work and a tad overweight (I’m just NOT an exercise taker - if it comes in the way of work/life generally, great, but I’m not at all motivated to make a point of it - gym culture ain’t me!), my aerobic efficiency has decreased and my lung power is poorer than I’d like - insufficient self-discipline! I do notice it affecting my playing detrimentally. If I lost the spare tyre (trouser/belt constriction is very unhelpful!) and got fitter, I’d definitely have more puff for my flute!
Smoking to any significant extent just has to be detrimental, but that said, I’ve met a good few very fine fluters who puff away and yet have better breath discipline than I shall probably ever achieve, e.g. Harry, Mike McGoldrick…
I get a lot of exercise, much of it quite strenuous. I think that might explain why I have a hard time playing the whistle. I run out of breath with full lungs too easily.
I’d give you one in a minute, if you were around…
“Pulls” and “fags”, not sure I like where this is going. 
Do 10 straight pulls in a row?
Dude you’ll go blind… or at least be too tired to lift an arm to smoke.
I quit smoking after ten years.
I was a night smoker.
Never at work.
Never in the car.
I made up for it in the evening what I didn’t do during the day.
I finally just had enough of it.
The smell, the taste.
6mo. 17d. and counting.
Saving quite a bit of change and I just feel so much better.
Has my breathing improved so far?
I think so.
Sbhikes,
Smokers don’t have coodies you know. I’ve actually kissed girls that smoke… on the mouth!
Its not like you are blowing a cloud of smoke into your flute like a dragon or something.
Take an awful lot of smoke to build up any tar.
I’d be more concerned with bits of supper and stout feeding mushrooms in the cork.
You never really know where your old flute has been.
Best to not dwell on that too much you know.
Besides there is nothing a good cleaning couldn’t fix.
Gang, let’s put things in perspective. The other day I was visiting my friend, a life-long smoker, in the hospital. He’s dying of lung and brain cancer. He lost control of his bowel for the first time since childhood and fouled himself, his clothes, and his bed. Needless to say, there was nothing cool, artistic, or attractive about the moment and he was deeply ashamed of himself.
I smoked for 20 years. I literally thank God I don’t any more. Stopping was not easy, but has been more than worth the discomfort I went through and I’m grateful for the help I got. Singing and tooting flutes are merely two activities which I can enjoy more fully without that burden.
My friend isn’t a flute player although he did attempt it at one point. He is a gifted potter. Needless to say, he’s not making any pots these days.
Only in California…
Actually, I’ve no idea what is meant by a “pull” in this context! I’ve heard of “taking a pull” on a cigarette in much the same way as “taking a drag”. In Britain of late, " to pull" means to successfully hitch up at a pub or club etc. with a new acquaintance for intended subsequent mutual erotic pleasure. Is that the sense now being alluded to? I am sufficiently U.S. aware to know the transatlantic usage of “faggot” (not a rather livery meatball???), but over yur the abbreviation is still primarily slang for cigarette, as I’m sure you know! Boggle us no boggles!
Thank you, John. It’s funny how fuzzy thinking still seems to apply to this question of the effects of smoking. They’re pretty clear, aren’t they?
Aye, I am aware that British use “fag” as a term for a cigarette, I was just making a joke. I’ve just never heard the expression of “pull” in that context (I kind of make out it’s use now in the way I would use “puff”). Anyways, my joke about “pull” is related to it’s synonyms such as “tug” or “yank”.
i actually was gonna write draw but wasn’t sure this was understood.
Anyway, if this were a pub you wouldn’t be laughing.
I wouldn’t dream of tugging a Yank!
Okay, now I am even more confused. I would assume “pull” in your context means to inhale or take a puff. When I asked you what “pull” meant, you responded: “I’d give you one in a minute, if you were around…” to which I understood you meant “pull” in an alternate way hence my response. So I am not really clear about your last sentence; was it meant as a threat?
John Gribble…
I’m really sorry about your friend. I will pray for him. I have a friend who did stop smoking, but not soon enough because it damaged her lungs and she has emphazema.
You don’t have to see a person puff on a cigarette to know they smoke. You can smell it on their breath, hair, clothes, etc. I have a friend who used to smoke, and by the time I’d get out of her car, I reeked of cigarette smell. If you smoke and play the whistle or flute, you are blowing that smell into the instrument. If it’s metal, you can probably wash it away, but if it’s wooden, the smell is absorbed into the wood. I know because I have a beautiful wooden whistle that came smelling like stale cigarette. I hope the smell will dissipate over time with cleaning & oiling.
Does anyone know of a way to get cigarette smell out of a wooden whistle or flute?
Lyn