Klarinet Archive - Posting 000123.txt from 2006/06
From: "Ronald V. Vazquez" <rvazquez@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] There were once a few good reeds
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 09:10:29 -0400
Ed Lacy wrote:
> Well, this is confusing to me. I am a woodwind doubler, and I use the
reeds for all my instruments for a considerably longer time than most of
the players I have encountered. My main instrument is the bassoon, and
I also play and teach the oboe, and you simply HAVE to make reeds for
these instruments. Almost every bassoonist and oboists wishes that it
were possible to buy reeds that would work, but we almost invariably
despair of finding commercial reeds that work.
>
> However, given my experience with double reeds, I have never had a
desire to make reeds for the clarinet or saxophone. Since it is
possible to buy single reeds that will work, with a certain rather
minimal amount of adjustment, it is amazing to me that some clarinetists
want to spend the time, effort and trouble to make their reeds. That
seems to me to be time that could be better spent in practicing, or
other productive pursuits.
>
> I remember well about 1970 when I was a graduate student at Indiana
University, and Kalmen Opperman was hired to teach clarinet in the
summer sessions for a few years. As those of my vintage and older will
remember, he was the guru of clarinet reed making during that period.
When he was at Indiana, all the clarinet players spent all their time in
the practice rooms cutting, scraping, sanding, and otherwise agonizing
over their cane and reeds. And, the level of clarinet playing went
steadily down in all the ensembles during the same time.
>
> I have never seen any convincing evidence that a player of a single reed
instrument can make reeds that work better for them than the ones that
can be purchased.
>
> I welcome all efforts to change my mind about this.
>
> Ed Lacy
> University of Evansville
>
Hello Ed:
Clarinetists get into reed-making for all kinds of reasons. The reason
why I started making my own reeds was the fact that back in 1982, I
switched mouthpieces. You see, my first mouthpiece was a Bundy which I
played through high school and as I started college I was in need of a
good mouthpiece. As I started college and for a brief time, switched to a
Portnoy while I waited for delivery of my first Hammerschmidt mouthpiece
(the mouthpiece I sill play today). Isn't that weird? I have been
playing my Hammerschmidt mouthpiece (the closest facing made by any
mouthpiece manufacturer) for almost as long as I have been playing the
clarinet, 19 years and counting.
Ed, you say you don't understand why a clarinetist would get into
reed-making but what I don't understand why some of us would become
mouthpiece collectors. We keep buying the newest mouthpiece, the one
endorsed by "XYZ", we call it "The one", when we should really stick with
a good mouthpiece and find better reeds. Well, have my own little
mouthpiece collection, I own four Hammerschmidt #0 mouthpieces...
Oh yes, why make my own reeds when there are so many great
commercially-made reeds in the market? Ed, my mouthpiece facing is so
closed that a Vandoren would have to be much harder than #5 to be
playable. I remember that my friend Pepe (he played a Wurlitzer M3), our
teacher Genesio Riboldi (Hammerschmidt #0), and I used to buy Oliviery #5
strength and clip them 3 or 4 times until they played. Then we would have
to re-adjust the entire vamp with sandpaper. We were using the reed as a
blank to make our own. There wasn't a reed that strong on this side of
the world. We knew there were shops in Austria and Germany that made
reeds for our mouthpieces but we were never lucky enough to find them
(until much later). You see? the only choice we had was to adjust a
commercial reed and out a box of 25 we would get very few playable reeds.
I can almost hear people thinking now, "But Ron, have you ever heard of
Vandoren's Black and White Masters?" Oh Lord, those reeds..., I will only
say that I prefer clipping a hard V12 than playing a Black Master. Ed, I
also happen to think that working on the skill of reed-making is also a
"productive pursuit", don't you all think?
Ed, your statement "all the clarinet players spent all their time in the
practice rooms cutting, scraping, sanding, and otherwise agonizing over
their cane and reeds. And, the level of clarinet playing went steadily
down in all the ensembles during the same time." sounds like it was their
personal choice to spend any available time working on reeds. You could
make the same case using part-time jobs and/or drinking beer as the reason
for not spending enough time practicing.
You might call me crazy but though making one good reed could be more
difficult than finding one good reed in ten boxes of Vandoren, the more
aged cane used to make your own reed will give you a better sounding reed
most of the time.
Thank you for your time,
Ronald Vazquez
PS. Last night I sat down with my 1/2-inch thick glass, five blanks,
sandpaper, and a six-pack of Samuel Adams, and this morning I have a
headache but I played my scales on my new reed. Yes, one out of five...
The reed has a very nice sound, it speaks in all registers but it is still
plays a little heavy. We'll see how much it changes as I play it more.
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