Klarinet Archive - Posting 000603.txt from 1995/05

From: John Roman <JohnARoman@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Church gigs
Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 23:26:38 -0400

On Saturday, May 20, Ed Browning wrote:

<<I find church performances most difficult. One has to sit there while the
reed gets progressively dryer. No opportunity to keep it performing properly.
Then you are expected to to make a delicate entrance with hundreds of friends
and relative watching. I'm so surprised the horn speaks at all that I lose my
composure. At my other gigs I can fuss and fiddle to my hearts content. Any
suggestions??>>

Ed, have you given any consideration to plastic reeds? :-)

Actually, maintaining a reed so that it's ready to speak shouldn't be a
problem if you can periodically moisten the assembled mouthpiece and reed in
your mouth so the reed doesn't dry out and then keep the mouthpiece capped in
between.

I have also had concerns about reeds drying out during long rests and not
being ready to play on demand. That probably comes from the occasional
instances when reeds have let me down.

Most of the time, however, I've found that dependable reeds play perfectly
well even if they become somewhat dry (that's an observation, not a
recommendation). Its been my experience that if a reed won't respond after a
long rest, its probably not very dependable even under good circumstances.
I've come to the conclusion that if I expect a reed to respond, it will,
unless of course it doesn't, in which case I should have taken more care in
my reed selection.

John Roman