Klarinet Archive - Posting 000060.txt from 1998/07

From: "MARY A. VINQUIST" <kenshaw@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Reeds for Beginners
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 11:39:52 -0400

I have to say I disagree with the advice to just give out-of-the-box Rico=
s
to beginners, at least if you have the time to do anything more. A coupl=
e
of years ago, I visited my 11 year old nephew, who had started clarinet
only a couple of months before. He of course made the usual strangled
beginner's sound.

When I tried his setup, I couldn't get much more sound out of it than he
did. When I took the reed off, I found the typical dead Rico, warped
bottom, frazzled tip and all, and the mouthpiece full of crud.

I cleaned out the mouthpiece and then took a standard Vandoren and make
minimal adjustments -- only a couple of minutes. I flattened the bottom =
on
an old file, narrowed the reed slightly, also on the file, and evened up
the balance with my reed knife.

The result was like magic. Suddenly the kid played with a real clarinet
sound and could actually make dynamic changes. I think he was more
surprised than I was at what he could do.

I found I could do almost as well even with slightly used Ricos. There a=
re
3 essential things to do:

1. Flatten the bottom of the reed, particularly if there is an impression=

on the bottom made by the window of the mouthpiece.

2. Narrow the reed to be about .5 mm. narrower than the outside of the
rails. This keeps the reed from overlapping the rails, even if it's put =
on
a bit crooked, and also gives the tip a little protection.

3. Clip off any raggedness on the tip and rebalance in the usual way, bei=
ng
careful to make the tip thin enough.

It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to set up a couple of perfectly
usable reeds. If you're teaching privately, I think you should do this a=
t
the beginning of each lesson, to make it possible for the student to play=

decently for the rest of the time. Beginning with reeds lets students kn=
ow
how important the subject is and encourages them to learn to do it
themselves. At least for the talented kids, the first two steps, and eve=
n
a bit of the third, can be learned easily, as long as you emphasize that
they must be done gently, and this gives them a sense of control.

We do not live in an ideal world, where there is time to do everything. =

Still, a little attention to reeds pays big dividends.

Any comments or war stories?

Ken Shaw

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