Klarinet Archive - Posting 000641.txt from 2004/11

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Sandpaper vs. Reed knife
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:04:08 -0500

David Dow says:
<<I simply balance the reed in the areas where I feel the reed is to
thick..removing cane from below the tip or the balancing of the rails with
a Herder knife...I never use sandpaper either....>>

Tony Pays says:

<<Wow. Does that mean we shouldn't?.....I sometimes do.>>

Walter says:

Although I am very proficient with a reed knife (I have successfully made
oboe and bassoon reeds in my lifetime), I find I have much more precise control
using sandpaper.

I work my reeds, moistened, and placed on a small plaque of plate glass. I
cut approx. 1 inch squares from waterproof sandpaper of 320 and 600 strength.
Using the corner of the moistened sandpaper over my fingertip, I can exercise
fairly precise control over where I want to remove a hard "spot" on the
reed. Using the glass to support the cane, I can also get a very nice thin tip
evenly over the entire top of the reed. This is very hard to do with a knife
without tearing the fibers of the cane.

I used to use the reed knife for quick adjustments. I do not anymore since I
found it too easy to dig "little holes" in the surface of the reed. I found
-- for myself -- that I got a much more even and smooth adjustment of the reed
using the sandpaper.

Should everybody do it this way? Of course not. We're all different and have
different size hands, different levels of manual dexterity, different levels
of sensitivity.

If there is one thing I have learned in my "advanced years" in clarinet
playing...is to ignore authority and do "it," whatever "it" is, in a way that
works for me....not the way some authority, or even a treasured teacher said
"it" had to be done.

By cutting myself loose from the burden of authority, I have achieved levels
of playing which I never was able to before. I also enjoy music and playing
the clarinet much more than I ever did in the past.

I think this is what Tony is trying, over and over, to encourage us to do.
Find our OWN ways and techniques to achieve what we need to achieve. Not rely
on what some long-dead, and possibly misquoted, authority might have said,
done, or practiced.

Walter
_www.clarinetXpress.com/music.html_
(http://www.clarinetXpress.com/music.html)
Music by Donald Draganski

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org