Smoking And Playing The Concertina!

[Perry Werner]

Howdy:

Just received this from a friend of mine........

Enjoy.

Bye,

Perry Werner

 

From the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL

 

Smoking ban has improved both air and music quality in Irish pubs

 

Letter: Confessions of an accordion cleaner BMJ Volume 335, p 630

 

The smoking ban has not only improved air quality in Irish pubs but also appears to have improved the quality of the music, according to doctors in a letter to this week's BMJ

The pub session (or seisiún in Gaelic), where musicians gather to play traditional music together, is commonplace throughout bars in Ireland, write John Garvey and colleagues. Instruments include the accordion, concertina, melodeon and Uilleann (or Irish) bagpipes, all of which are bellows-driven instruments.

 

There is, they say, anecdotal evidence that the interiors of accordions played regularly in smoke-filled environments are dirtied as a result of the trapping of contaminant particles circulating in the air as it filters through the instrument.

 

So they conducted a telephone survey of all workers involved in the cleaning, repair, maintenance, and renovation of accordions in the Republic of Ireland. They managed to contact six out of seven such workers.

 

All participants pointed out that a strong smell of cigarette smoke emanated from accordions played in a smoke-filled environment when they are opened. Soot-like dirt is also deposited throughout the instrument but particularly where air enters the bellows through the air inlet valve and on the reeds.

 

One repairer commented that the deposition of dirt could be substantial enough to affect the pitch of the reed. Two others claimed that if a musician tended to play in a particular key, that this could be determined from the distribution of dirt around particular reeds.

[spindizzy]

They had a short interview on BBC Radio 4 (UK) Today program this morning.

You can get it with "Listen Again" at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/ra...dio4/today_fri#

 

Unfortunately the program is 3 hours long, the item is near the end, and the fast forward is a bit flakey on my computer.

However, I finally found it with the elapsed time reading 03:44 -ish (strangely the time started at 01:00 rather than 00:00)

Edited September 28, 2007 by spindizzy

[Peter Brook]

They had a short interview on BBC Radio 4 (UK) Today program this morning.

You can get it with "Listen Again" at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/ra...dio4/today_fri#

 

Unfortunately the program is 3 hours long, the item is near the end, and the fast forward is a bit flakey on my computer.

However, I finally found it with the elapsed time reading 03:44 -ish (strangely the time started at 01:00 rather than 00:00)

 

I heard the piece "live" on the radio. Dr Garvey spoke very well even though John Humphries started off to poke fun, Dr.Garvey kept bringing it back to the science - which was nice ;-)

[Robert Booth]

I once went to an estate sale in a small house in which the owners had been heavy smokers for at least forty years. The walls, light fixtures and furniture-everything was so heavily covered with tobacco resins that hardly anything was sold; folks were too disgusted with the appearance and smell of the place.

 

If this is what happens with just passive build-up, imagine what happens to reeds when that fug is forced across them, in and out for hours at a time night after night.

 

Maybe that's why most bars and taverns are darker than God's inside vest pocket- ain't no light getting in through the windows.

 

Cheers

Robert

[Greg Jowaisas]

I bought a concertina at a backyard auction. Supposedly it was used by a professional who played the bar and night club circuit. If I closed my eyes during the first few minutes of playing the instrument I'd swear I was playing a "smoked ham".

 

I still remember my younger days as a band member. I never have smoked. At our bar gigs I would go outside during our breaks and try and resuccitate the cilia in my lungs.

 

Bellows are so lung like. Urge your friends not to smoke. Save the reeds!!

 

Greg

[Perry Werner]

Howdy (again) :

 

In the world or "rare" and used books in which I am involved, it is becoming more and more common to find descriptions of books listed on the online book "mall" sites as being described as "NOT FROM A SMOKER'S HOME" or something similar, indicating that the copy being described would have obvious signs of having come from a smokers home. Those volumes having yellowed pages and dusjackets covered in tar or some other horrible chemical and also many times reeking from old smoke stink.

 

I've had many of these volumes over the years and the signs are obvious. One of the first large collections I purchased had these indicators. At the time I did not know what caused the yellowing of the dustjackets, though there was something very unappealing about them. Later I figured out what it was. Scarry to think of a lung or two having the same appearance.

 

Bye,

Perry Werner

Edited September 29, 2007 by Perry Werner

[Hooves]

Howdy:

Just received this from a friend of mine........

Enjoy.

Bye,

Perry Werner

 

From the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL

 

Smoking ban has improved both air and music quality in Irish pubs

 

Letter: Confessions of an accordion cleaner BMJ Volume 335, p 630

 

The smoking ban has not only improved air quality in Irish pubs but also appears to have improved the quality of the music, according to doctors in a letter to this week's BMJ

The pub session (or seisiún in Gaelic), where musicians gather to play traditional music together, is commonplace throughout bars in Ireland, write John Garvey and colleagues. Instruments include the accordion, concertina, melodeon and Uilleann (or Irish) bagpipes, all of which are bellows-driven instruments.

 

There is, they say, anecdotal evidence that the interiors of accordions played regularly in smoke-filled environments are dirtied as a result of the trapping of contaminant particles circulating in the air as it filters through the instrument.

 

So they conducted a telephone survey of all workers involved in the cleaning, repair, maintenance, and renovation of accordions in the Republic of Ireland. They managed to contact six out of seven such workers.

 

All participants pointed out that a strong smell of cigarette smoke emanated from accordions played in a smoke-filled environment when they are opened. Soot-like dirt is also deposited throughout the instrument but particularly where air enters the bellows through the air inlet valve and on the reeds.

 

One repairer commented that the deposition of dirt could be substantial enough to affect the pitch of the reed. Two others claimed that if a musician tended to play in a particular key, that this could be determined from the distribution of dirt around particular reeds.

 

 

This does not surprise me at all: I once lent my octave mandolin to a smoking cello player, big mistake: my octave mandolin reaked of cigerette smoke for weeks, the nice wood smell from the sound hole was replaced by putrid cruddy smoker stink.

 

Having had the oppurtunity to work on a sound crew many years ago when I was young and crazy, I remeber coming home at night, lying in bed and smelling the smoke come off my face.

 

Smoking is such a nasty horrible habit, glad I never picked it up.

[Mikefule]

So, if you do smoke, playing a bellows instrument will help to filter the air, making your habit marginally less fatal for you and marginally less unpleasant for everyone else?

 

Thinks: Militant pipe smoking Morris men march into a pub, armed with Hohner Ericas... "So, what is it to be, suckers? 3 hours of speed the plough in G, or a slow and painful death from passive smoking?" Landlord offers free beer all round to keep them occupied.