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Re: English horn reeds

Author: Craig Matovich
Date: 2007-04-07 14:08

Instead of tubing, I put the ehron reed onto the bocal with a slight twisting motion (like inserting a screw) and remove it with the opposite motion.

This is something I picked up from a trumpet player... they twist the mouth piece slightly while putting it into the trumpet. My buddy called it 'keying' the mouthpiece and said small microgrooves develop and act to lock the metal together.

Its so effective, sometimes if they don't pull the mouthpiece off with the correct motion, the grooves lock together.

With ehorn reeds, I think I get a similar benefit which reduces the leaking the tube helps control and the reeds don't easily come off the bocal by accident.

This is not so abbrasive asto damage the bocals and I see very little wear after 20 years using the same 2 bocals, but the locking thing really does seem to help.

A friend noticed me doing it and had a funny reaction, thought it was nonsense... until I asked he to try to gently remove my reed from the horn.
She could not pull it straight off the bocal.

So, there may be something useful to this and it is fun to learn something useful from our musical counterparts now and then. Same trumpet players also taught me double and triple tongueing much more effectively than any of my several oboe teachers could.

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