Klarinet Archive - Posting 000832.txt from 1997/03

From: "Lisa K. Clayton" <clayton@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: What's so special about cane?
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 12:30:36 -0500

>In a message, Barry wrote:
>
> but why, out of all the materials on earth, do we rely on a cheap piece of
> bamboo?

I must say, I'm enjoying this thread. For grins I once borrowed a Bari
plastic tenor sax reed for my bass clarinet. It gave the bottom notes
a kind of "buzzy" sound, and made the top notes a bit more muddy.
However, the biggest problem I had was not walking around with a reed
in my mouth-- a usual occurence for the single-reeds in our group. That
felt very strange.

I can't imagine you could get a brass or other metallic reeds thin enough
to play without slicing the tip of your tongue off. Perhaps that's the
best argument for bamboo there is-- it isn't razor-sharp.

What I'd be curious about is using other plants that are related to
bamboo. Other large monocots include corn and palm trees. Just think,
a palm tree reed. Very South Beach.

------ Lisa K. Canjura-Clayton * clayton@-----.edu
/ http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~clayton * http://www.jonsimsctr.org/~master
/ "Sex education causes pregnancy the way driver's education
/ causes accidents" -- Mike Peters