Klarinet Archive - Posting 000624.txt from 2004/11

From: orm1ondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] HOW TO handle new REEDS?
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 12:11:51 -0500

In any group of a few hundred people, there will always be differing
views. It doesn't matter what the topic is.

But I think it's accurate to say that the majority of clarinet players
who have accumulated some experience do at least some balancing /
finishing / adjusting of their reeds. This lends considerable support
to the idea that reeds can be improved (whatever your definition of
improved may be) by adjustment.

True, some reeds are unfixable. And true, some people blame their
mistakes on their equipment. But it's unreasonable to extrapolate from
this to the statement that most people with bad tone (or whatever)
behave this way, or that all reeds should not be adjusted.

The statement that reed vamps should not be rubbed would not bother me
if someone argued, "I've tried it both ways, and I like [whichever] way
better." What *does* bother me is the claim that a material harvested
from nature becomes somehow less useful simply because you've done some
work on it. You may as well say that the cane should not have been cut
into a certain shape in the first place. Just pull the cane out of the
ground, strap it to your mouthpiece, and start playing.....

Again, if you simply say, "I prefer it this way", I won't complain. I
begin to bristle only when you start down the path of "The way that
nature gives it to us is best by definition".

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