Klarinet Archive - Posting 000315.txt from 2003/05

From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] More reeds...
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 18:16:12 -0400

When your band director yells to "check your reed!" he probably wants you to
make sure it's straight, set in the right place in relation to the tip, and
isn't damaged. I'm amazed at how many of my students begin a lesson with
squeaks, airy, fuzzy tones and unmusical response only to sound 1,000%
better after I reset the reed properly on the mouthpiece. They know better
than to leave enough space at the tip to drive a small car through, and they
know that the reed shouldn't be at a 15 degree angle to the table, but they
don't always pay attention to what they're doing and I haven't yet been able
to convince them it's important.

As far as reed life is concerned, you should discard a reed that doesn't
sound good. That means when it's new, when it's a week old, when it's a
month old, or whenever the sound and response are not what you want them to
be. If you can learn to do some adjusting and balancing with a knife, rush
or sandpaper, some of those reeds can be revived with some judicious removal
of wood from the right place. But the general rule always should be that you
play on a reed because it sounds good and responds well.

Just this morning I had a very young player (probably 10 or so, in his
second year of playing clarinet) come to me in a tuning line of mostly
equally young string players. He played a tuning note on his clarinet, which
he couldn't produce without squeaks, and repositioning the reed on the
mouthpiece table didn't help. The reed was obviously brand new or nearly so,
but I asked him to get another reed to try. He came back, new reed on the
mouthpiece (yes, I could tell - the bark was different) and lo and behold -
no squeaks, just a nice, easy second-year long B. He'd, I'm certain, have
simply put up with the squeaks because it was a new reed and "looked"
perfectly fine.

Use your ear to judge a reed - if you can't make it sound the way you want
it to, it's the easiest and cheapest thing to change.

My $.02, for what it's worth.

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: melzerb46@-----.net]
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 5:10 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] More reeds...
>
>
> Hey y'all!!
> My name's Melinda, and I'm new to this on-line
> group/organization. I think it's awesome.
> Anyways, my student-director always yells at the various
> clarinetists in my section to "check your reed!!". How can I tell
> when I should get a new reed? I live in Northern Ohio, in case
> the temperature, humidity, etc matter.
> I typically have used a reed till it cracked, or for about one to
> two months. Is that OK??
> Thanks for all,
> Melinda
>
>
> Try AOL and get 1045 hours FREE for 45 days!
> http://free.aol.com/tryaolfree/index.adp?375380
>
> Get AOL Instant Messenger 5.1 free of charge. Download Now!
> http://aim.aol.com/aimnew/Aim/register.adp?promo=380455
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Klarinet is supported by Woodwind.Org, http://www.woodwind.org/
>
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is supported by Woodwind.Org, http://www.woodwind.org/