My dd started playing the flute in 5th grade band this year. The last few weeks she has developed a rash under her lip that is really bothering her when she plays. Her band director thinks that she may be allergic to her flute. (When she was younger she would have marks on her skin from the snaps on her sleepers, so I guess it's possible.) Have you had any students with this problem? Any ideas about what we can do?
Thanks in advance for your help! Lindy
90 day goal: 4 days of cardio, 3 days of strength training each week.
Originally posted by Bee: Count me in as starting on the flute as well.
Me three. I didn't last more than a year. Tried the piano, but my teacher quit, telling my parents that I insisted on playing by ear and she couldn't teach me if I wouldn't read the music. I'm trying to learn guitar now--by ear, on my own terms.
DD has a nickel allergy, and often can't even wear sterling silver. We've been told to coat the metal with clear nail polish where it contacts her skin, though I haven't tried it yet. You could try applying a thin coat of it to the flute. It would wear off quickly, though, and need to be reapplied often. Silver and gold plating will also wear off, though not as quickly (learned that from a jeweler who told me not to waste my money buying gold-plate for my daughter's allergy).
alli
Fall goals: 1. Bike 40-50 miles a week 2. Prepare new garden bed for next season 3. Heal my back
Posts: 738 | Location: Jersey Shore, USA | Registered: March 11, 2004
Originally posted by p7eggyc: I could leave my student violin at school. AHHHHH.....
Eventually that happened with me too although it was the school that gave me a concert horn for school. It was SO nice not to have to lug that case on the bus every day!
PS And yes, I was a total band geek - concert band, marching band, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, pit band : )
Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.
<sculking back to my seat in the 1st violins>.....
hehehehe
Just teasing...I'm just jealous because I could barely get a PEEP outta my flute when they made me try it in college. Seems I have a pointy lip. Geesssh...what next?! LOL The only thing more comic than watching me try to play the flute was watching me try to play the tuba. Now that was a comedy! I'm sticking with my violin hickie!
Peg
PS) I spent my entire Jr. High years trying to talk my friend into carrying my violin back and forth to school. Finally my parents bought me my "nice" violin so I could leave my student violin at school. AHHHHH.....
This talk about carrying heavy instruments reminds me of something I saw before the Rose Bowl Parade. It was a show on the making of the parade and they were showing high school kids auditioning for the band. (Some kind of honors band, I think.) This one guy auditioned on flute and made it in, but then at practice he was playing the piccolo. He said (on t.v. - for everyone to hear!)that he figured the piccolo would be a lot easier for him to carry in the parade. I'm sorry, but how difficult is it to carry a flute in a parade. Maybe he could have used one of those crutch things on wheels!
90 day goal: 4 days of cardio, 3 days of strength training each week.
I still don't like schlepping my tenor sax back and forth to rehearsal but it really sucked when I was a kid and had to bring it back and forth on the bus every day with my book bag in tow.
I remember absolutely hating the long parades we marched in because by the end, my neck and arms were killing me.
Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.
I wasn't in band at school. However, I do have allergies to metals. I can't wear anything with nickel or gold (even the 14k stuff). If I do, I have to be very careful and not wear it for long. I seem to fair okay with silver.
Hope you can find a solution.
Summer Se7en Challenge Goals
1. Binge control: no more than 2 times per week 2. Think positive and give credit for all the little successes 3. Go swimming
Originally posted by Lori4squaremom: I honestly don't know how you hold a trombone or a baritone.....they are SO heavy for me
I usually play baritone sitting down and it just sits in my lap and isn't heavy at all. Or when I stand up, it is a lot like holding a baby and I don’t mind it.
But playing trombone killed me. I've got an F attachment so it is even heavier than a regular trombone. I know a couple people (guys) with carpel tunnel-like problems in their left hands from playing and have to wear braces and needed physical therapy and stuff from holding the trombone next to their heads. I didn’t start playing trombone until I was 42 and some people said that I’d just get stronger and get used to it, but I was really worried that I’d get injured first.
I guess the guy next to me in Jazz band got tired of hearing me whine, and sent me this Ergobone website as a joke…
But it looked so cool… I was, I WANT that!! I asked Nelson to make me one... but he said to just buy it.
It was outrageously expensive (being shipped from Finland and all)… but it makes playing sooooo much more comfortable.
Somebody said, “Isn't it sort of like a crutch?” and I’m like, “Well YEAH…!!!!! It is the ULTIMATE crutch… but who cares… my left hand isn’t killing me and stuck in a claw-like position after playing for two hours".
Denise
Posts: 9221 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
Denise, I love your observations of flute players. What's funny is that every bit of it is true! I played flute from 4th grade through college with the exception of one year on oboe (in Jr. High....it was a brand new instrument, and I was the only person in the section....talk about ego!!!), and in college I started playing around a little with the sax, but it was too heavy for me. I honestly don't know how you hold a trombone or a baritone.....they are SO heavy for me, esp. for any extended period of time (like a song )...... I had originally wanted to play the clarinet, but my band teacher said that she wanted me on flute because there were too many clarinets already....well, later, I was really glad because the flute gave me LOTS of versatility on instruments. I was able to move straight over to piccolo (obviously), oboe, and saxophone because the fingering is all the same on all of them.
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3159 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
Originally posted by GoingSkiing: Maybe there was some of that, too. Sometimes you just need to leave the chair empty or the part uncovered and mourn and that is ok.
That's an excellent point! And yes, I'm sure there WAS some of that involved. Not only in mourning Jeff (on a personal level as well as as a bandmate) but in feeling like I couldn't ever live up to his memory because he was so incredibly talented.
P.S. Some of you know that I prefer to date men younger than myself. That started way back, as I was a Junior and Jeff a Freshman when he asked me to the homecoming dance.
P.P.S. Lindy, sorry to hijack your thread with emotional band memories!!!
Posts: 7864 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
Originally posted by SheriaVa: My ego would not allow me to go from first chair flute to (in my mind) regress to 4th grade and starting a new instrument all over again. Mr. Corbi assured me that I'd pick it up quickly but I just couldn't deal with it. I feel bad about it to this day. I should have done it for Jeff.
Oh Sheri, I'm tearing up reading this.
I had this mentor named Bruce. He had played professionally in some Army bands in DC and was retired and played in our community band. He played ten times better than I, even at the end when he was 75 years old and on chemo and dying of cancer.
A few months after he died, our band director gave us the "Blue Bells of Scotland" and gave me the baritone solo part and I just couldn't/wouldn't play it. Bruce had played it a few years before and I thought of it as "Bruce's solo" and I just couldn't do it. I gave it to a friend to play on trombone. Somehow it seemed right to not have it played on baritone so soon after Bruce’s passing.
Maybe there was some of that, too. Sometimes you just need to leave the chair empty or the part uncovered and mourn and that is ok.
And I know Jeff understands about egos… we all have one. Sometimes the egomaniac thing works for our advantage and sometimes it is a liability. But, I’m sure Jeff understood.
Denise
Posts: 9221 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
Originally posted by GoingSkiing: I started on flute when I was in 4th grade and switched to low brass in HS. Was middle of the flute section and took a baritone home over the weekend and came back and was first chair in about 6 weeks or something.
When I was in high school, I was fortunate enough to get first chair flute very early as much because almost all the other flute players were just not that into practicing as because I had talent. In my senior year, Mr. Corbi, our band director, begged me to switch to oboe (our brilliant oboe player, Jeff--who was my date to the homecoming dance the year before--had been killed in a plane crash over summer vacation). My ego would not allow me to go from first chair flute to (in my mind) regress to 4th grade and starting a new instrument all over again. Mr. Corbi assured me that I'd pick it up quickly but I just couldn't deal with it. I feel bad about it to this day. I should have done it for Jeff.
Posts: 7864 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
I think that it is interesting that so many of us were flute players. I started on flute when I was in 4th grade and switched to low brass in HS. Was middle of the flute section and took a baritone home over the weekend and came back and was first chair in about 6 weeks or something.
I think Lori played flute. And if Laura plays oboe, she probably started on flute.
I think flute kind of requires a certain nit-picky perfectionist personality. More laid back personalities seem to be drawn to other instruments. Like the low brass section is way more laid back. Maybe it is from sitting in the part of the room with puddles of spit on the floor. Your music falls in it. You step on it. It is on your hands. You end up with valve oil on your hands and clothes. You kind of get over that flute perfection thing.
If there is some measure of music we (low brass) can’t play, we cross a couple of notes out and make the measure easier. It the music is too high, we play it down an octave. Our folders are all messed up and I end up with the 1st part on some pieces and 3rd trombone on others. You never see flutes doing that, taking white out to their music or playing the 2nd or 3rd part if they are a 1st flute.
Somehow, I think that it is funny that all of us flute players on a board where we talk about the down side of perfection a lot.
(I can turn any OT conversation around to weight loss/maint. )
Also, flute is so hard at the beginning, it requires a person that can just hang in there and is very stubborn. The clarinets can play 5 notes and are moving thru the book and the flutes are still blowing in their head joints and sitting with their heads between their knees, dizzy.
And later, those pages and pages of 16 and 32 notes… it requires this tenacity and stubbornness to just do it and buckle down and learn it (although you don‘t want to just learn it, you want to play it perfectly). That comes in handy for weight loss… and that might explain the large number of flute players on the board.
But then again, when I was in grammar schools girls played flute or clarinet. So statistically, if you have a board with a lot of women… many of them will be flute players.
Denise
Posts: 9221 | Location: Silicon Valley, CA | Registered: March 17, 2004
Nickel allergies are common, and I had constant rashes under my lip and on part of my right hand (the heel of my hand that touched the flute....but not on my fingertips) until I got my "concert flute" which was a silver flute with the open holes and the low b key. Never had any problems after that.
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3159 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
I was a flute player from 4th or 5th grade through my 30s. I still have my flute, but I haven't played it in a number of years now.
I have had metal allergies (increasingly worse) since at least my 20s. I seem to recall getting the rash under my lower lip when I first began playing, but I don't recall it being a continuing problem. Could be that there's something in the finish that is irritating her skin. Also, I recall that my problem tended to be worse when I was sweating (I sweat mostly on my face).
Hope you get it worked out!
Posts: 7864 | Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE | Registered: March 12, 2004
Yeah, I know about there being too many flutes - I played in junior high and high school.
I thought about having her switch to a different instrument, but I don't think that would go over well with her.
I have two flutes. A beginner model (which we had overhauled for dd) and a better open hole model. The open hole flute has a solid silver head joint - I tried that on dd's flute but it doesn't fit. I suppose I could plug the holes and have her switch flutes, but this other one would probably need a bit of work for her to be able to play it.
She plays the piano, too, but I really wanted her to have the experience of playing in a band and being in a group. She really likes it and is pretty consistent with her practicing.
90 day goal: 4 days of cardio, 3 days of strength training each week.
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