Sounds like I was that girl!! When I was young, I just loved to bite stuff and my school's recorder was no different. I left tooth marks on all of them that I got each week and new ones became worn. Remember a class mate (which I didn't like anyway) asking why I was biting it and I think I ignored /snubbed her!! Reading these comments are so funny! My kids are not yet recorder players but looking at these comments, I think I will buy them their own now. Just in case they got a chewer like their mom! Shhh!

I wouldn't "suck in" a recorder? I had my own recorder but it didn't take long for me to master and I had to move to the alto recorder (bigger) I also had the same problem and had to blow out or shake the recorder hard. But I couldn't wash it!

I was also paired with this girl that used it one class before me and would always fill the recorder with spit and not wipe it down with the clean stick. She would also chew the mouth piece big time! From a brand new recorder, Week after week, the recorder smelt worse and worse and her deep teethmarks just keep getting more! I asked the teacher if we could wash it and she did it once but she didn't let it dry and it was even more awful for a month! By the end of the term, it was really bad and the recorder looked like it was used for 10 years by 100 hungry kids. But it was just both of us! The tooth marks really got to me and you can see like a constant wearing of the mouthpiece where her teeth bit from the top and then slid across the mouthpiece to the bottom. It is still vivid in my head and there were these 4 "deep tracks" running on the mouthpiece. I went to her class once to tell her but she just shrugged and said she would try. No difference! And like your bully, her spit was still there and seemed like even more than before! Just an overall awful experience.

I then went to band and it was the same thing. Smelly clarinet and I was first provided a mouthpiece in the same horrific condition. But at least I could then buy my own mouthpiece. But it still stank.

So if possible get your own recorder. Especially the soprano ones. And teach your kids not to bite them!!!

Anonymous wrote:haha. funny what happened. I have to chip in. Vagina was a term I beard too.

There was this girl in my class that had the habit of putting recorder the other way round in her mouth and putting her tongue into the little hold at the end...... don't know why she did it but she often held her recorder with her teeth this way. the boys laughed at her and for a couple of weeks a few of them were copying her doing it..

mimicing tonguing one and then purposely leaving it all wet with saliva...

We had assigned Recorder buddies in School which basically meant I played a Recorder that had just been played by a boy from the previous class, and he was my 'buddy' meaning I always played a Recorder that he had just put down - he was in the year below and their class finished as ours started.

Trouble was that he was a smelly kid who was also a bully, and without fail the Recorder always stank and he would spit inside it so I ended up with a mouthful of his spit. So gross and the first time it happened I thought I would be sick but I got used to it. We had no way of cleaning the Recorders and looking back I am so mad with the school about this!!!

We let our kids use the schools. The school has nice transparent yamahas. Sure they chewed it a little but I think all kids do and no one seemed to mind. Plus being transparent, you can see if it's dirty and needs a wash.

Oh I sure was one of the girls who chewed on the recorder nervously. Unsure who would really want to use my recorder after I had used it. My parents couldn't afford to buy me one so now with my daughter I thought she shouldn't have to go through with using an old one. any $5 or so is not so much to pay. The school loaned us one but we didn't use it and just kept it away and returned it at the end of the year

Anonymous wrote:Every kid was required to buy one at our Arlington elementary for $5. PTA funded those who didn't pay. Also had the option to buy a second for home.

When I was kid in NY, we had to buy ours as well. (I still have mine somewhere hidden after DD discovered it when she was 4 and we had to listen to her play it.)

I'm not a germaphobe, but sharing a recorder is just gross to me. I played flute all through elementary, high, and college, and my parents rented my flute at first, then bought it after I was sticking with it. All of my friends did the same.

We use the schools and like pp, our school also has a policy of loaning it to you for the year and you cross out the previous child's name. We took it home for a clean scrub. I don't see what is the difference between a recorder and why that is gross but using a rental flute isn't. Both have been used by someone else. My DD is now in band and also uses the school's clarinet with a used mouthpiece but her own reed. Sure there are teeth marks but we scrubbed it clean and I am sure she left some of her own on it too for the next child..... she didn't seem to mind.

Every kid was required to buy one at our Arlington elementary for $5. PTA funded those who didn't pay. Also had the option to buy a second for home.

When I was kid in NY, we had to buy ours as well. (I still have mine somewhere hidden after DD discovered it when she was 4 and we had to listen to her play it.)

I'm not a germaphobe, but sharing a recorder is just gross to me. I played flute all through elementary, high, and college, and my parents rented my flute at first, then bought it after I was sticking with it. All of my friends did the same.

Our school district gets one every three years or so. So my daughter had one from the school to use for the whole year that has been used by two other kids and then she can get to keep it too. Since we had it for the year, we could scrub it when we first got it and so it was clean and not really "shared". You would still have to live with the teeth marks of course as nearly every kid will chew those things and other kids name scribbled across the bag and crossed out.

She will also be getting a new one for school next year September from the school as the first user.

my parents bought me my recorders twice and I lost them in school. So had to use the chewed smelly ones too at school. Like pp, never did me any harm. So I bought my dd one this year too and when she lost it, guess she too has to use the chewed smelly ones at school. She is fine with it and did bring it home a couple of times. Will help her wash it when she brings it home.

$5 at our N.Arlington school. Yes-we bought one.

I always played a chewed, smelly recorders at school and it never did me any harm!

haha. funny what happened. I have to chip in. Vagina was a term I beard too.

There was this girl in my class that had the habit of putting recorder the other way round in her mouth and putting her tongue into the little hold at the end...... don't know why she did it but she often held her recorder with her teeth this way. the boys laughed at her and for a couple of weeks a few of them were copying her doing it..

mimicing tonguing one and then purposely leaving it all wet with saliva...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a germaphobe but just replacing the mouthpiece wouldn't cut it for me. Unless they clean the recorders between use, the kids are going to suck in (no, they aren't suppose to but you know they will) all the germs growing in the warm, moist recorder.

You do, in fact, sound like a germaphobe. It's a recorder, not a vagina.

Just spit red wine all over my keyboard.

same here. our school also distributed recorders at beginning of school year and we returned them at the end of the year. but they were not new and used by some other kids before. It wasn't stinky but did have quite a few chew marks.

We kept it away and i bought my dd a new one because we didn't want her to use one that has been blown into by someone else and had teeth marks. But she lost it a few weeks after we got it and didn't admit her loss until only a few weeks later and had used the school chewed up one for those few weeks!

I think kids do not care about chew marks and hygiene. Its more the parents nerves!

Our MCPS distributed recorders at the beginning of the year and the students returned them at the end. When DS forgot his at home, he had to use the extra ones at school.

I hate the recorder, the holes are too large for little fingers and children get discouraged. I had to tape the thumb hole shut for my son. Such a depressing way of starting one's musical education.

Now they're much happier with piano, violin and choir.