Klarinet Archive - Posting 000354.txt from 2003/05

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] More reeds...
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 03:33:41 -0400

On Mon, 19 May 2003 02:30:58 +0000, resurgereweb@-----.com said:

> > From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
> >
> > On Sat, 17 May 2003 11:38:11 +0000, resurgereweb@-----.com said:
> >
> > > ...you *do* rotate through at least 4 reeds, right?...
> >
> > No, I don't.
> >
> > Should I?
>
> 'zup to you.

Yeah, that's right.

> We don't morally censure... :-)

I'll assume that the 'we' here is, you and the mouse in your pocket.
The attitude can get pretty close to moral censure in some people.

My advice to clarinet players is to try the suggestions, including the
ones you make up for yourselves -- and let's face it, most of the ones
out there are pretty obvious -- but then, to decide which of them works
for you on a basis that is independent of the authority, or supposed
authority, of the person making the suggestion.

That it works nowadays for Yo-yo Meyer-Leister, or used to work in the
past for Giggly-Bonny Marcellus -- never mind about whether it'll work
in the future for resurgereweb or his mouse -- doesn't mean it'll work
for you.

Indeed, you could argue that what's important about the process of
trying different procedures doesn't really lie in the details of what
you do about reeds as an end result of that process. Despite what some
people may say, *no* simple procedure is guaranteed to produce excellent
results.

It's rather that undertaking the process forces you to assess what a
reed's 'working' really means to you. A lot of people fail just by not
knowing that, in detail. They're the sort of people who play on
'planks' in a resonant acoustic, for example.

On a lighter note, having said that most of the suggestions out there
are pretty obvious, I've tried, when I was younger:

Rubbing them with corn oil (resists those saliva deposits), and

Boiling them in milk (for that creamy sound)

...just as a small sample.

Anyone got anything *really* original?

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... "Bother", said Pooh, as the read/write heads flew across the room.

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