Klarinet Archive - Posting 000431.txt from 2003/05

From: "Resurgere Jones" <resurgereweb@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] More reeds...
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:25:08 -0400

>
> > -- my original comment was not addressed to you. It was addressed to
> > someone who was asking for advice. I gave it to them.
>
>As I recall, they were asking how they could tell when it was time to
>change their reed. Clearly this is a deeper problem than the problem of
>whether or not to rotate reeds, because it relates to the whole question
>of how you tell whether or not a reed is satisfactory. Your post
>indicated that you appreciate that this is a deeper question, but, in my
>view at least, confused that with the notion of rotating reeds.
>
>The burden of my post was: however the reed you're using gets on the
>mouthpiece -- whether it's as a result of rotation, as a result of
>pulling it out of a reedcase, or even if it comes direct from the box --
>you have to be capable of judging it to be satisfactory.

Which, I hope you will concede, is in line with my original advice to the
young person. Heck, my comment about rotating reeds was an aside. I do think
it's a Very Good Idea, for a variety of reasons, and encourage my students
to do so, but I feel that just for mentioning this simple, basic, idea, I
get lumped with the idealogues who feel that if you're not spending all your
time fussing over reeds, you're not much of a musician. Me, I'm actually of
the play-or-die school, I leave reeds on mouthpieces sometimes (in a hurry
leaving a gig, leaving a saxophone assembled between practice sessions), and
believe that if some miserable piece of cane needs to live in a humidor, it
was meant to warp anyway.
Then I mention Windex, and people take me seriously. BTW, thanks Bill -
someone actually got it!!!

Well, I have broken my own rule to never get dragged into a reed discussion
because I thought I could bring some small light of reason into a young
person's life, and I have paid dearly. Well, this crap's starting to die
down, anyone want to talk transposition for a bit?

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