Klarinet Archive - Posting 000956.txt from 1997/12

From: Antoine T Clark <s2atclar@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Reeds
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 16:44:22 -0500

Robin. No my time is not valueless. It is called balancing time. If you
are a dedicated clarinetist, then you can understand the frustration
behind reeds. This skill is very beneficial, because you can apply it to
store bought reeds. Do you know what to do when your reed is not balanced
or if it sounds to bright? If not, that is sad, I don't think I would like
to hear your playing. Even high school kids should know what to do when their
reed sucks because a reed can be saved and that brings us back to working
on the reed whether homemade or store bought. My initial message about
reeds was not tell everybody that homemade reeds were any better than
store ones. I was just commenting that money wise it seemed the cheaper
way to go. We have 24 hours in a day, I don't think that making reeds
takes up that much of our time.

*********************
ANTOINE CLARK
s2atclar@-----.edu
Virginia Commonwealth
Univ.

On Tue, 23 Dec 1997, Robin Fairbairns wrote:

> > I consider it a hassle to buy reeds because you don't know what you are
> > getting in the box. Some have written about pre-selecting the reeds and
> > buying what they like the most. I like to make my own reeds and I find
> > better results in making them. I know you can work on store bought reeds,
> > but it makes more since to me for someone just to buy reed blanks and
> > start from scratch. Besides a box Vandoren cost about $20 from a local
> > music store and from a catalog about 12 to 15 dollars. I find it much
> > cheaper to buy about 60 reeds for about $40. In a store $40 only can get
> > you about 20 reeds and half of them don't work.
>
> As an economic argument, this makes sense if your time is totally
> valueless. I would doubt that this is in fact the case.
>
> As an argument about what's good for you, what you like doing, it's
> interesting but I fear of no relevance to many of us. I for one
> wouldn't know what to do with a reed blank (and probably couldn't make
> a decent fist of it if I did, with my various disabilities).
>
> I'ld love to be able to take a decent reed out of the box every time,
> but I'm not about to invest time in learning craft techniques for
> avoiding the problem in the first place.
>
> Robin
>