Kostas Aristopoulos live from Agrinio (Drymos Ksiromerou)

[tseligas]

Well bhanner, you definitely put a scientific spin to it! You are probably right. It definitely changes the properties of the air that gets blown into the clarinet.

Now that you got me thinking, we all know that the clarinet starts dripping after a few minutes of playing. For those who think that it is dripping saliva....well it doesn't unless you are drooling while you are playing! The dripping is caused by the condensation that occurs as the warm lung air hits the cold clarinet walls. Then you may also get some holes do gargling sounds.

Now again, if you would blow smoke into the clarinet or some at least then here is what I think would happen:
1) The smoke has a drying effect -- That's why we cough when we inhale it.
2) Due to (1) above the breath would be drier therefore less condensation - less dripping and less gargling..

Hmmm interesting..never thought about it like that. What do you think ?