Musicians that blow... beware of 'Bagpipe Lung'

[MIDI Life Crisis]

How do you clean the bag on bagpipes?

You take them to a urologist.

[Phil O]

But seriously, there must be some standard practice for cleaning those things. I would imagine they get pretty gross inside.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

But seriously, there must be some standard practice for cleaning those things. I would imagine they get pretty gross inside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfj6DqHXSCk

[Phil O]

cool

[James Steele]

However, one day a particularly lousy student sounded even lousier than usual. This time I didn't play on his setup. I took the reed off to look at it. It was thick in green, furry mold, and had live maggots on it. From that day on, I never played on someone else's mouthpiece without scrubbing it with soap and water, and I NEVER played their reeds.

I think that is the grossest thing ever posted on MOTUnation! LOL

[Phil O]

And maggots means that flies or at least 1 fly got in the horn and gave birth. I didn't know this until I found out the hard way (another disgusting story that I'll leave untold), but some flies lay eggs and others give birth to live maggots. Either way, it's not what I want in my horn.

[wylie1]

However, one day a particularly lousy student sounded even lousier than usual. This time I didn't play on his setup. I took the reed off to look at it. It was thick in green, furry mold, and had live maggots on it. From that day on, I never played on someone else's mouthpiece without scrubbing it with soap and water, and I NEVER played their reeds.

I think that is the grossest thing ever posted on MOTUnation! LOL

vomit is right.
I had to record one a couple of years back I couldn't believe how bloody loud they are.

[Phil O]

I had to record one a couple of years back I couldn't believe how bloody loud they are.

A saxophone or a maggot?

[wylie1]

Bagpipe.
Never though about recording a maggot I guess they must make some kind of noise.
Some sort of squishy sound I would imagine.

[cuttime]

Bagpipe.
Never though about recording a maggot I guess they must make some kind of noise.
Some sort of squishy sound I would imagine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZpy9ofJzWY

[MIDI Life Crisis]

And maggots means that flies or at least 1 fly got in the horn and gave birth. I didn't know this until I found out the hard way (another disgusting story that I'll leave untold), but some flies lay eggs and others give birth to live maggots. Either way, it's not what I want in my horn.

Bagpipes are as romantic as it gets for larve.

[Shooshie]

However, one day a particularly lousy student sounded even lousier than usual. This time I didn't play on his setup. I took the reed off to look at it. It was thick in green, furry mold, and had live maggots on it. From that day on, I never played on someone else's mouthpiece without scrubbing it with soap and water, and I NEVER played their reeds.

I think that is the grossest thing ever posted on MOTUnation! LOL

Funny thing; I could count on one hand the times I've told that story, and it happened over 30 years ago. It's not something I normally dredge up. I remember thinking about whether I was in the wrong profession. My brother was a doctor, though, and he had far worse stories, so i decided to stay with the saxophone and music in general, but just not to teach kids anymore, just to play professionally. After quitting, that former teaching time left me large blocks of time for arranging and writing music. After reams of score paper done with ink, I wished there were some kind of musical typewriter that I could use to transpose things and not have to rewrite them. In 1984, my wishes were answered: a store was selling Macs, and there was a huge ad from Mark of the Unicorn for Professional Composer, which wasn't even out yet. I bought a Mac on the spot, and about 8 months later I had Composer. It was hell to use, but still was an order of magnitude easier than copying scores just to transpose a part. I did my own dynamics, articulations and slurs, still in ink. Next, Performer came out, and I quickly adopted that. Soon I was doing it for others, in addition to performing with my own ensembles. I had become a MIDI and score engraving pro, and the rest is history.

I never really thought about it this way before, but what if that incident with the student's mouthpiece, reed, and its live occupants had never happened? Might I have stayed with teaching high school students? Might I not have been so focused on performing, and necessarily arranging and writing? Is it possible that that incident was the turning point that eventually put me on the path to be here in this forum today?

The maggot that roared! The teacher who gagged and quit. The performer who found... Performer.

Shoosh

[mhschmieder]

Being that you can't see all the way through a saxophone from either end due to its curvature, I try not to think about what might be lurking inside, in spite of religious swabbing after each play.

[Shooshie]

Being that you can't see all the way through a saxophone from either end due to its curvature, I try not to think about what might be lurking inside, in spite of religious swabbing after each play.

They remain remarkably clean. In fact, mouthpieces and reeds are normally clean. The case I described above was that of a lazy, lousy student who apparently never took his mouthpiece or reed off the neck of his horn, and left it unattended for long periods. (never practiced) In all my years of playing the sax and helping students, that's the only time I ever saw that happen.

Also, most of the "spit" that comes out of brass and woodwind instruments is not spit at all, but moisture condensation inside the bore of the instrument. But if left in the instrument, it can encourage the growth of things that like warm, moist surfaces. But few things actually like brass. It's usually clean and clear. [at least... that's what we like to tell ourselves!]


My horns are clean. I'd be too freaked out to play on them if they weren't!

Shoosh

[monkey man]

A few months ago I arrived at a midnight show. The piano keys were covered in blood! The player before me is apparently know for his brutal methods. I hope he eventually bleeds to death, just not before me gig. Twenty minutes of scrubbing cleaned it up, but what a jerk.

Amazing, Magilla!

<sigh>

Was that you sighing, or your bagpipes?

I'm betting it was the sound of the bag deflating after an innocent bystander attacked the thing with a knife in a knee-jerk reaction to his feeling assaulted.

Just a wild guess, of course.