Please Clean Your Instrument

In college, I had a friend that played a Bach 42B that smelled like death. It just about knocked me out when I got near the thing in wind ensemble rehearsals. We made fun of the guy for it, but it may not have been a laughing matter. According to a study released in Chest magazine and reported on ABC News, wind musicians, “may unknowingly inhale mold and bacteria from their instruments, which may lead to the development of hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP).”

Doctors say that even though these results aren’t shocking, they aren’t very common. Regardless, clean your horn before it starts breeding Sea Monkeys and Chia Forests. Need more incentive? Take a look at this…

UPDATE: NPR has posted an article that provides more information on Scott Bean, the unnamed trombonist in the ABC News article.