Never Never Never!

[Phil Hardy]

Never hold your whistle at the bottom and try to flick spit out of the mouthpiece.
This can result in all sorts of problem including:
The whistle flyingout of your hands.
The headjoint flying off.
On alloy whistles,the block flying out.
Catching the edge of a table and bashing your whistle out of shape.
This is a very stupid practice and should be discouraged.
If your whistle becomes clogged,just put you finger over the window and gently blow the spit clear.
You know it makes sense.
Phil
ps never suck the spit back into your mouth,this should go without saying but is a very common practice.

[amar]

Never hold your whistle at the bottom and try to flick spit out of the mouthpiece.
This can result in all sorts of problem including:
The whistle flyingout of your hands.
The headjoint flying off.
On alloy whistles,the block flying out.
Catching the edge of a table and bashing your whistle out of shape.
This is a very stupid practice and should be discouraged.
If your whistle becomes clogged,just put you finger over the window and gently blow the spit clear.
You know it makes sense.
Phil
ps never suck the spit back into your mouth,this should go without saying but is a very common practice.

you forgot one thing.
you might flick the spit into someone's face this way too..

[thirdfipple]

you forgot one thing.
you might flick the spit into someone's face this way too..

uhmm and your point is?

(duckin' and runnin')

[Congratulations]

Never hold your whistle at the bottom and try to flick spit out of the mouthpiece.
This can result in all sorts of problem including:
The whistle flyingout of your hands.
The headjoint flying off.
On alloy whistles,the block flying out.
Catching the edge of a table and bashing your whistle out of shape.
This is a very stupid practice and should be discouraged.
If your whistle becomes clogged,just put you finger over the window and gently blow the spit clear.
You know it makes sense.
Phil
ps never suck the spit back into your mouth,this should go without saying but is a very common practice.

you forgot one thing.
you might flick the spit into someone's face this way too..

I thought that was the point.

[Gabriel]

ps never suck the spit back into your mouth,this should go without saying but is a very common practice.

Why? That's a common practise among recorder players.

[amar]

ps never suck the spit back into your mouth,this should go without saying but is a very common practice.

Why? That's a common practise among recorder players.

Loren, true?

[Unseen122]

As most Whistles are made of metal and the metal may cause problem if ingested.

[Gabriel]

I see. So I don't have to bother taking the whistle from my lips, cover the window and blow through it. Wooden whistles rock.


@amar: True. Recorders clog VERY fast when the headpiece isn't warmed properly because of the very narrow windway, so you have to suck the spit back to get the high notes clearly (remember, recorders play 2.5 or even 3+ octaves - a bit more complicated than whistles...), and you haven't the time to take it and blow through it when playing long high passages in solo works.

[brewerpaul]

Spit sucking is fine. One could argue that blowing into the windway can actually increase clogging since you're blowing more moisture laden air into the windway, albeit at a high velocity. Another danger of the blowing method is that with a wooden whistle which has a rather delicate blade, you could potentially damage the blade with your finger. Sucking works well and as has been pointed out, you can even do it in the middle of a fast tune without having to remove your fingers from the whistle. Try it.

[WhistlinBob]

I have a friend who invented a special machine to remove whistle spit.
the machine is rather large and complicated.almost cartoon like.
my friends name you say.Its Goldberg,Rube Goldberg
Just a little spit humor. As a trained Slide trombone player I have dealt with much wayward spit mine and my fellow brass players over the years
I think that a whistle if cleared with care by shaking,blowing through or whatever is reasonable but sucking back is rather Neanderthal like. I will leave that to the R#C*RD*R Crowd

[Adrian]

My wife is a committed recorder player and says that recorders are best and most quickly cleared by sucking. She thought whistlers would naturally be flicking spit around pubs in wild abandon!

[Chiffed]

Sax and clarinet players suck spit (er.. condensation) all the time. Even on metal sax mouthpieces. There just aren't that many options with a single-reed setup, and the 'spit-fling' is a truly poor idea on a bari sax.

I really don't worry about metal ingestion, unless the metal is lead, tin, mercury, depleted uranium, or the other nasties. I don't know about you, but I've been cooking with metal pans for quite a while.

Then again, some people's bodies are much more sesitive to metals. One could just do what is often done to trumpet mouthpieces: take your whistle to a good goldsmith and have the head portion electroplated with gold. Gold mouthpieces feel divine. I'm not sure which metals this will work on, but copper will work for sure. Talk to the whistle's maker before taking the barely-informed advice of a musician who barely passed Chemistry 12.

[peeplj]

I have been "sucking back" on both recorders and whistles for many years.

Then again, maybe that's a good argument not to.

--James

[Tia]

wow the things that I learn... this opens a whole new way to get rid of spit

[IDAwHOa]

The person I got my Overton Bass A from treated the windway with some sort of mint soap or other. Everytime I suck back I get a little bit of the flavor in my mouth. Hey, maybe it helps me when I have bad breath?

Hey, it could!