Klarinet Archive - Posting 000689.txt from 1998/03

From: Andrea Ciona <aciona@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: humidity and reeds
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 17:26:22 -0500

Yes, humidity. as well as altitude, can drastically affect reeds. I am
from Edmonton (the praries) originally, where it's generally very dry,
but I am now studying in Vancouver (on the coast) where it's far more
humid, and I've noticed some definate changes. My reeds tend to feel
softer when it's extremely humid, and also wear out much faster than
usual. The only thing I can suggest, is having a few softer reeds on hand
for these types of changes in humidity. Also, soak reeds thouroughly
before playing them, as they do tend to dry out sooner in drier climates.

Andrea Ciona
University of British Columbia
major: clarinet performance

On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, david rothbaum wrote:

> can humidity or lack thereof cause drastic changes to normally well
> working reeds? i had just prepared a new reed and it was sounding
> fine. the following evening i tried to play the same reed and found it
> almost impossible to produce a good tone on. i then went through 3 of
> my other working reeds and they produced the same bad quality's i.e.
> very woody and breathy sounding. as well as being prone to
> squeaking/unwanted mulitphonics. the only thing that had changed in the
> 12 hours between sounding great and sounding awful was a drastic change
> in humidity from rainy to hot and dry. needless to say it is very
> frustrating. is this common? is it my imagination? and is there
> anything you can do to solve this, save playing only on rainy days?
>
> thanks in advance.
>
> david
>
> p.s. i wanted to thank all of you who responded to my other questions
> about reeds as well.
>
>