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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000015.txt from 2008/01

From: David Lurie <klingsor@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] musing about breath/bite
Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:38:06 -0500

At 11:09 AM 1/5/2008, you wrote:
>I've played on (oboe) reeds like that rarely & try to avoid that
>situation. I find that embouchure adjustments that severe tire my
>lips out quickly and would avoid having to do so, especially for a
>concert. Of course, some reeds will require a bit of squeezing or
>rolling in to allow the high notes to be in tune.

Yes, that is certainly so, although I would comment that they must
have several other virtues to compensate for this. The worst of
course is that when biting is the only way to bring up the pitch,
then that cost is too high - at lest for me to pay.

>If anyone knows a really reliable way to produce effortless high
>notes, please send me the formula!

Well, it;s not a magic formula but AFAIK the most reliable way to do
this is make the tip as short and as thin as possible, have the
opening reasonably small so no biting is necessary, and enough cane
removed from the back. Of course you always have to deal with the
question of how thin is thin? I used to think that it had to be
absolutely white when trans illuminated but I found this is not
necessarily so. Some reeds I have seen have a much thicker tip. But
the key here is balance. How long must the tip be? Depends on so many
other things that I could go crazy with Dr Pangloss's remarks about
everything being related to everything else plus of course all's for
the best in this best of all possible worlds. That's gotta be Bishop
Berkeley's dictum that Voltaire ridiculed so rightly.

>I gave a reedmaking lesson yesterday & got around to talking about
>windows (in the back). I had saved one of my best reeds from yrs ago
>to observe the structure. I soaked it up to see if it would still
>play. It did! Then I remembered what I really liked about that reed
>- effortless high notes. The other ranges were good, too, and it had
>a nice tone. (Sigh)

Yeah, as you say "effortless high notes", a consummation devoutly to
be wished!

>Yes, theoretically, I suppose your proposed method would work, Phil,
>but practically, it sounds rather dangerous, at least in my oboing experience.

Same here. Sounds like much too much trouble to go through for such
small rewards.

David

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