 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bill
Date: 2012-10-18 20:17
An alternate title for this post might be “Old dog, new tricks.” I am an amateur (self-taught, if such a thing can be said to exist) and have been playing since the early 1990s. Developing slowly over the last few years, I have recently been enjoying a renaissance in my playing by heavily adjusting my reeds to make them very responsive. It began a few years back when I decided I wanted to teach myself to play “jazzy.” That casual experiment worked its way into the heart of my “serious” playing, and now I (carefully) scrape my reeds quite a bit with rush. I play double-lip.
A problem has crept into paradise, however, in that with some of my reed projects, I encounter a “whistle” playing from fundamental upwards into full-tube clarion notes. This can sometimes be corrected by sanding the reed longitudinally (i.e., drawing the blade, tip to heel, across sandpaper a few times, thinning the entire width of the reed). It think this is different than what is called the “chirp” that signifies an unbalanced reed. I work very hard to assure y reeds are balanced, using every technique I’ve ever read about. Chirp, whistle … maybe it’s all the same thing.
Anyone have any thoughts about this? I do scrape pretty far down (from the tip) to a point *just before* a tone becomes too unstable. I use a variety of mouthpieces; my reed strengths are from #3 to #4.
Thanks!
Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)
Post Edited (2012-10-18 21:11)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2012-10-18 22:15
Most of the time, in my experience, unwanted high harmonics (which is what it sounds like you're describing) come from spots that are harder than their surroundings - spikes of denser grain, spikes of wood left by scraping aggressively along a narrow track up the side(s) of the vamp (especially if you scrape all the way into the tip), some natural flaw that causes a hard spot in the tip area, etc... When you succeed in getting rid of the whistle by thinning the whole reed (it sounds like you sand the vamp side, not the flat side?), you probably just take some of the high spots down that are causing the trouble.
Karl
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Author: Bill
Date: 2012-10-18 22:18
Interesting. Thanks Karl. When I sand the reed, I hold it up on its side, so only the edges of the reed are sanded. It narrows the tip (and the entire reed). It's an alternative to using a reed clipper, because the same effect is achieved.
Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-10-18 23:23
For me, chirps usually mean that the corners of the tip are too thin. In your adjustments, make sure the vamp doesn't have a scooped-out area along the edges at the tip. Kal Opperman taught me that the taper along the sides of the vamp should be completely even from shoulder to tip, carrying at least some strength all the way down.
You can see the problem by holding the tip up to a lamp or window. If the tip is nearly transparent, it's too thin. Hold the reed between your right thumb and index finger with the vamp facing up and gently press the corners against your left thumb nail. If the tip corners roll back in a rubbery way and have less resistance than at the center, then the corners are too thin.
Also, mouthpieces often have the intersection of the rail and the tip made very narrow. This means you have to be particularly careful to shape the reed tip to match the mouthpiece tip. As a quick test, move the reed a tiny bit higher (0.5mm.) to make sure there's no leak at the corners.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Bill
Date: 2012-10-19 02:55
Fantastic, Ken! Thank you!
Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-10-19 04:03
In the New Yorker, back on August 1, 2011, Oliver Sacks wrote (p. 20) that rush grows in New York City on the High Line just north of 14th Street. The pedestrian walkway divides, and a stream runs in the median, filled with rush.
Has anyone seen or collected any of it?
Also, if you go to Interlochen, you'll find it all over the place.
Ken Shaw
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Author: BobD
Date: 2012-10-23 16:07
I bought some reed rush but find that it's more of a pain to use than a single edge razor blade or tool steel bit......
Bob Draznik
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Author: kdk
Date: 2012-10-23 16:44
It's all in getting used to it. I suspect that many if not most of us who use rush comfortably were taught to use it by our teachers. It isn't perhaps as intuitive as using a blade, and it helps to see it demonstrated repeatedly at lessons.
One thing in rush's disfavor is the relative difficulty of finding a supply of usable rush. The stuff they sell commercially is mostly useless. Fortunately, a friend lives in an area where the plants grow wild and he sent me a box of it years ago that I'm still reaching into. I also grew my own plants one summer and got another few years' supply from that before the plants failed to winter over.
Karl
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