Water condensation inside my alto recorder

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  • #1404
    Danny Pelled
    Participant

    Hello everyone
    How do I prevent water condensation inside my alto recorder? It happens about once a minute !!!
    I tried to warm it up before, with my hands, but it didn’t help.

    Thanks in advance for the reply

    #1406
    Dick Mattson
    Participant

    It sounds like you’re not warming the head joint up enough. I stick the recorder down the front of my shirt, upside down with the top surface of the beak resting against my chest, for at least 10 minutes before I begin to play. That warms it up much better than my hands can do. I might get some condensation in the windway after a while anyway, but definitely not once every minute, and certainly not very much.

    #1407
    Richard Hureau
    Participant

    Yes, I agree. Me, I warm the head of my alto recorder by putting it up into my armpit for at least 15 minutes before I play.

    #1408
    Danny Pelled
    Participant

    Thank you very much for the important information

    #1409
    Rex Kerr
    Participant

    This was something that really caught me by surprise when I started playing very recently. I’ve struggled with the same thing with my Yamaha Ecodear, which leads me to having to practice clearing it. So far my favorite method of clearing it is to put a finger over the top of the fipple, but still leaving the bottom open, which prevents it from making any noise, but lets me blow really hard. I don’t know how the more experienced players here feel about that, but it seems to work, and I prefer it over sucking the spit back in. 🙂

    I’ve been considering putting my recorder under an electric heating pad for a bit before playing it, though I’d want some kind of temp control so that I don’t over-heat it.

    #1410
    Katia J
    Participant

    If it’s a plastic recorder, you can also either rinse through the head some water with a bit of dish soap, or take a piece of waxed dental floss and see-saw it through the windway to get some wax in there. (Tricks that come from the pennywhistle world, but it works for my recorder, too.)

    #1411
    Richard Hureau
    Participant

    You could take a look at Sarah Jeffery’s video on this subject:

    The only thing about it I don’t like is that she doesn’t point out that the only way to temporarily get rid of the clogging WHILE PLAYING is by sucking. She makes it sound as though they are equivalent methods and use the one you like best. I find that blowing is more effective when it gets very clogged, but, as I said, sucking is the only practical way to do it while playing. You can see players doing it when there’s a moment where they aren’t playing.

    #1412
    Danny Pelled
    Participant

    Many thanks for all the answers. You really helped me.

    #1440
    Michael Pendred
    Participant

    If you still getting the problem and it is a wooden recorder, there is one other possibility. If the recorder is secondhand, it is possible that the previous owner was not careful enough when oiling it and got oil on the parts of the block that are supposed to absorb moisture. They could have also handled it incorrectly and got greasy fingers over it.

    If this is the case it may be necessary to remove the block and treat it a couple of times with isopropyl alcohol. This will leach the oil out and the block will go back to doing its job of absorbing moisture.

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