Klarinet Archive - Posting 000507.txt from 1997/03

From: Nathaniel F Johnson <clarinat@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: reed adjusting
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 04:04:11 -0500

On Fri, 14 Mar 1997 07:07:00 -0400 ROBERT SALTIEL
<robert.saltiel@-----.com> writes:

<snip>

>Indeed! I am thirsty for some knowledge/insight on the esoteric art
>of
>reed adjusting. In addition to checking Sneezy on this subject, I AM
>hoping some fellow Klarineters will share a little bit about how they
>approach this!!

Robert,

I believe that everyone you ask about this will give you a different
answer, and some will be vastly different. Neil discussed preparing a
reed. I agree with this completely (although I call it "training" the
reed). Have you ever pulled the "perfect" reed (or pretty close)
straight out of the box and played on it, only to find that it has
changed over the course of 20 minutes? Preparing the reed will help to
stop this from happening, as it gets the reed used to being wet and dry,
wet and dry. I do it slightly differently: I simply wet the reed up and
play on it for 10-15 seconds. Notes in the low register are best (that's
all I do) because they don't put as much of a strain on the new reed.
Then I allow the reed to dry and put it away. After I've done this every
day for a week, the reed is ready to be adjusted. The process can be
sped up, if you need to start adjusting in less than a week, by training
the reeds more than once per day. But I NEVER wet a reed with saliva,
certainly not a new reed, as there are enzymes in saliva that will break
the reed down. I carry a pill bottle of tap water in my case. All reeds
go into it before they go into my mouth. If what Neil does works for
him, then great--more power to him. But I was taught that this was not a
good thing to do, for the life of the reed.

Nathaniel Johnson
Conductor / Clarinettist
All-Around Good Guy
University of Northern Colorado
clarinat@-----.com