Eew...

[Róisín Dubh]

Everyone's favorite topic. Saliva.

I'm a neophyte; I've only been playing since early last summer. I recently did my first public solo performance on a Burke DASBT. My low notes squawked because I was nervous and breathing too hard into them, but, other than that, it went well...until the bright, bold Session tone turned into something more like a plastic nose-flute underwater. I knew it was because the tone was underwater. Is there a technique to reduce condensation? As a vocalist, I drink tons of water, which probably doesn't help...

[Congratulations]

Check this out: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/moist.htm

Also, some people use a product called Duponol.

Also also, I'd suggest you do a search of the forums: there's all kinds of nifty tips hidden away in here.

[Cynth]

1. Reducing how much saliva goes into whistle
a. I have heard that if you put the mouthpiece into your mouth only as far as necessary to seal off the place you blow, about 1/4 inch, that you don't stimulate salivation as much as if you put it in further. I don't know if this is really the case or not.
b. I have heard that you should not play right after eating because your salivary glands are still pretty active. I don't know about this either.
c. I myself sort of suck the extra saliva to the back of my mouth and swallow before I start playing. I guess I sort of do this whenever I can.

2. Clogging from saliva not flowing through whistle
Saliva is always going to go into the whistle---there is no shame there . If you need to drink liquid, you need to drink liquid. Ideally it runs through it and drips out and doesn't affect the sound. When it stays in the mouthpiece and doesn't run down, then it does affect the sound.

You can blow hard, covering the fipple hole, and get the saliva out. But this is sort of inconvenient.

Following the recommendation of the person who made my whistle, I have a dropper bottle of water mixed with dishwashing detergent---pretty concentrated, the liquid is lightly colored. When I finish playing I drip about 10 drops into the mouthpiece and let it run out the fipple hole and bottom, where ever. I blow out the mouthpiece to get excess solution out. I wipe the whistle off with a wet cloth and a dry one---this is just me, it just keeps it clean and gets rid of soap residue on the outside. I let the whistle dry before I play it next. The soap solution is supposed to act as an anti-surfactant which causes the saliva to run through the whistle instead of clogging up the mouthpiece. People use other solutions for this purpose, but I can't remember what they are. I don't know if it helps or not, but a lot of people do this. The soapy solution also helps to keep the mouthpiece clean on the inside I think, so I do it for that reason also.

[brewerpaul]

Keep the whistle warm. Cold metal will condense the moisture in your breath into little droplets which eventually clog things up. Put the whistle in your pocket between tunes, since it will cool down pretty quickly, especially in a cold room.

[Dale]

When we've had rounds of debate about the drool vs. ambient moisture condensate before, I've come down firmly on the ambient moisture side. Ultimately, I came to realize that I was partly wrong. Some people evidently do drool into their whistle. I do not. That was the source of my confusion.


Dale

[scheky]

I don't really drool much into my whistles, unless I've REALLY been drinking a lot (and at that point, it's better I quit playing). Condensation, however is still an occasional problem.

Warm your whistle before playing. Wrap your hand around the mouthpiece area for a few minutes. Put it in your underarm (over the shirt preferred). Cup it between your arm and body....whatever works for you. The closer to room temp the whistle is when you start playing, the less problem you will have with moisture.

[Cynth]

When we've had rounds of debate about the drool vs. ambient moisture condensate before, I've come down firmly on the ambient moisture side. Ultimately, I came to realize that I was partly wrong. Some people evidently do drool into their whistle. I do not. That was the source of my confusion.


Dale

You know how people swallow from time to time all throughout the day? Sort of like they blink their eyes? Well, if they didn't swallow then they would be drooling. Like dogs. So when you are playing the whistle you can't swallow during a tune. Where do you think that saliva goes, dude?

[ten or more]

One thing that helps me is to swish strong tea (real tea, not herbal tea) around my mouth about 10 minutes or so before playing. The tea can be spit out or swallowed but something in the tea helps prevent saliva formation. I've thought about carrying a tea bag around with me and sucking on that if no tea is available but as much as I like tea, it doesn't sound appetizing.

[Dale]

When we've had rounds of debate about the drool vs. ambient moisture condensate before, I've come down firmly on the ambient moisture side. Ultimately, I came to realize that I was partly wrong. Some people evidently do drool into their whistle. I do not. That was the source of my confusion.


Dale

You know how people swallow from time to time all throughout the day? Sort of like they blink their eyes? Well, if they didn't swallow then they would be drooling. Like dogs. So when you are playing the whistle you can't swallow during a tune. Where do you think that saliva goes, dude?

No one can stand to hear me play more than 30 seconds. Gives me plenty of swallowing time.

Dale

[fearfaoin]

You know how people swallow from time to time all throughout the day? Sort of like they blink their eyes? Well, if they didn't swallow then they would be drooling. Like dogs. So when you are playing the whistle you can't swallow during a tune. Where do you think that saliva goes, dude?

I've said it before, Brass players don't mind calling it a "spit valve".
Reed players are intimately aware of what they wet their reeds with.
I don't know why so many people are afraid of saliva. Embrace your
salivary nature, folks!

[Kansas]

Keep the whistle warm. >>> Put the whistle in your pocket between tunes,

Paul - you forgot to add "Don't forget to take it out of your pocket before you sit down. Yeow! Yes -I did it.
Luckily it was not a Busman (Highly treasured), but an O'Brien (Still treasured) C bottom that I had taken out of the 5 pack bag to switch to the D. Pretty dumb huh? Luckily the only thing broken was me.

O'Brien's are not only safe from cracking when playing in various outdoor venues like city parks - but make a really good protector if that pesky pit bull gets loose - you just let him bite the O'Brien. Here doggy - here doggy...... O'Brien would win every time!

[shadeclan]

Keep the whistle warm. Cold metal will condense the moisture in your breath into little droplets which eventually clog things up. Put the whistle in your pocket between tunes, since it will cool down pretty quickly, especially in a cold room.

Fipple first! (put the fipple end in the pocket). The mouthpiece may be a little linty, but it will be warm!

Paul - you forgot to add "Don't forget to take it out of your pocket before you sit down. Yeow! Yes -I did it. . .

Using the side pocket instead of the back pocket would help prevent such a tragedy . . .
(Is that a whistle in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? )

[dfernandez77]

One thing that helps me is to swish strong tea (real tea, not herbal tea) around my mouth about 10 minutes or so...

No one can stand to hear me play more than 30 seconds. Gives me plenty of swallowing time.
Dale

I've taken both of you'ses advice to heart. Now my teeth are brown and nobody is annoyed with my playing for long.

Thank you so much for the suggestions.