MATT RIGGEN
  • BIOGRAPHY
  • JOURNAL
  • PRESS MATERIALS
  • CONTACT
  • COMPOSER
  • PERFORMER
  • DIRECTOR

Don't swab out your tárogató

8/25/2018

1 Comment

 
I got a tárogató maybe 2 or 3 months ago. It's a good horn; a Hungarian folk instrument with a timbre somewhere between a soprano saxophone and a clarinet with a chest cold.

There's not a lot of english-language info on it, and I intend to write some more since it is desperately needed. I don't know that much about it yet, though. What I do know is this:

Don't swab it out, especially with a clarinet swab! It's conical bore and impossibly narrow in the top joint! You'll get it stuck!

It took me a sweaty 45 minutes to carefully work the packed swab back out the way it came with soft hammer taps on a cleaning rod I requisitioned from my valve trombone case placed up against the jammed cloth, then completing the job with needle-nose pliers to fully take it out. I could've really damaged a valuable antique. 

Clean the pads some other way, English-reading audience! Not worth it. Keep your swabs out of the tárogató's narrow body.
1 Comment

    RIGGENBLOG

    Writings, etc.
    Some of these are republished from other sites.
    Others are more recent. They're notated as such.

    Archives

    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    View my profile on LinkedIn
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • BIOGRAPHY
  • JOURNAL
  • PRESS MATERIALS
  • CONTACT
  • COMPOSER
  • PERFORMER
  • DIRECTOR