[Harp-L] Drinks and playing harmonica

[David Brown]

I'm 54 and have been playing since I was 16. Countless gigs.

Here's a ten dollar answer for a one dollar question:

My own rules:
1. I eat at least 2 hours before the gig. I don't like that heavy gut feel
during a set.
2.PLAIN BOTTLED WATER AT ROOM TEMPERATURE (better for the vocal chords) in
a plastic bottle (doesn't break when knocked over).
I drink nothing carbonated as it may make me burp while playing.
3. NO SALT Dries out my mouth.  Also, salt, in general, makes my tongue
feel, for lack of a better way to describe it, "thick".
4. NO SUGAR.Its probably just my imagination but I think the sugar in
typical soft drinks like Pepsi, etc. transfers to the reeds and
occasionally makes them stick.Is it carried in my breath? I don't know. I
don't have a lot of saliva in my mouth when I'm playing.
5. SPILLS Keep the water away from the harps. Some idiot (probably me)
bumps into the drink and guess where it spills ;-).
6. SCATTER Keep the harps away from the other band instruments and players
or the harps will, invariably,  get knocked all over the place. Whether its
my amp or some other player's on stage, I never put my harps on an amp or
speaker cab.

Other rules (while I'm on a roll....):
7, DRUNK DRIVING  I drink two of anything I want when I walk into the door
and chase them with plain bottled water at room temperature so that the
sugar or salt in the drinks don't get breathed into the harp (See Rule 1).
After the gig I can then drive home without worrying about a drunk driving
issue with the cops. If I want to drink more than I ought to, I arrange(
before hand) to have someone else (who isn't over the limit) drive me home.
8, TROUBLE It doesn't happen much anymore, but in my earlier days I played
in some very rough places... so.....I didn't drink to excess. I didn't want
to get into shit I couldn't see coming coming.
9. WOMEN (See Rule 72).


Yes, I know, all this is obvious, common sense butI have to learn things
the hard way.


On Sat, Jan 21, 2017 at 4:54 PM, ian osborn <davidianosborn at xxxxx>
wrote:

> Quick poll question for everyone..
>
> When out jamming or gigging and having a drink and then playing the harp,
> what do people feel?? In the sense of getting gunk and stuff into the reeds
> etc..
>
> A. Don't worry, just clean your harp later??
>
> B. Whatever you drink, make sure to have a glass of water nearby to for
> when you play to rinse out your mouth a bit
>
> C. I find drinking (fill in the blank) never seems to affect my
> harmonicas...
>
> Thoughts???
>
> Ian
>