 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jez
Date: 2003-11-11 01:00
An old colleague of mine, now retired, had an unusual way of organising his reeds; when he found a reed particularly suitable for a piece of music he then stored it away till that piece cropped up again. Over the years he built up a store of many reeds, carefully filed, and whatever piece, from the standard repertoire, came up he would have the reed for it. He presumably only had to look for new ones when playing new music.
My approach is different. I don't assume that only a few of my new reeds will work. I hope that they're all good as long as I can find a mouthpiece to suit them. I've always had more than one mp on the go. At the moment I've got 5 I use regularly all basically similar but with slightly different tip-openings. When I start a new batch I don't try them all on one mp and choose the best, I take one reed and try it on all my current mouthpieces to see which one it goes best on then just use it. This way I tend to have very few total failures. I'm always amused watching other people throwing away most of each box, or frantically scraping clipping and sanding to try to adjust the reed to their mp.
Anyone got any different approaches to selecting reeds?
jez
Post Edited (2003-11-11 01:03)
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Author: Luke
Date: 2003-11-11 03:16
I pick reeds not based on pieces of music, or necessarily by playing situation, but on the bases of response and tone. For example (note: all references are on alto sax experience), I use a Pomarico crystal 3 with 2.5 Classiques for legit playing. I use the same mpc or my Meyer 5M with Vandoren Java 2.5's for a jazzier sound, but I'll use javas on the crystal sometimes just for the heck of it. For an absolutely piercing, cut-through tone I use Hemke 2.5's and a Vandoren V16 A7S. I use Vandoren Trads on occasion but I'm not too keen on them after getting spoiled on Alexanders, the only reed that Vandoren makes that really has my attention is the Java (an awesome sax reed: consider it equal to the V12). And of course marching band gets the plain-old Selmer S80 C* with Ricos... not gonna waste good reeds there.
That's a good strategy, jez, seeing as how companies like Vandoren put reeds of many different strengths in the same box. However, my openings are .067, .069, .075, and .080, so that principle won't really work for me, especially seeing as how my pieces have differing facing lengths. What the clipping/sanding/trimming fools don't realize is that it's not just the thickness of the cane at specific points that balances/unbalances a reed, or how it looks when held under a light, but the DENSITY of the cane all over, and thats when the importance of consistent-quality cane becomes noticable to the attentive single-reed player.
When picking them, i'll usually use my specific-point density theory and just squeeze the reed in different places with my fingers to measure this thickness AND density, then balance accordingly. If a reed's too hard I'll drill it, if it's way too hard (think Vandoren 5.0) then I'll sand it down.
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Author: William
Date: 2003-11-11 15:35
Jez, your story reminds me of a similar one told by Ben Armato (in his book, "Perfect a Reed, and Beyond") about a NYC Met clarinetist who labeled and organized his reeds for specific operas. Worked for him, Ben says.
For me, I'm just plain "traditional" in my reed selection routine. I usually have three or four "experianced" reeds, two or three in current "developement" and use, and three or four "recruites" that are in reed "boot camp" and are on trial. And I now keep a couple of Legere's in case of a complete experiance "reed meltdown"--also known as a "Cane Mutiny". However, by keeping a rotation of new, current and used reeds in my case, I am seldom caught without a good reed to perform on.
I also have three mouthpieces (Chicago Kaspar, Smith "Cicero Kaspar and Ithica Bay custom), each with a similar facing, but a slightly different tip opening, in case a reed just doesn't seem "right". I picked up this strategy from Charles Niedich who demonstrated this "switch mouthpiece" technique at a local university lecture/demo session. His reed did not seem to suite him, so he switched from his "blue dot" mpc to his "red dot". He said, "that's better"--but his sound did not change, he just seemed to play easier.
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Author: krawfish3x
Date: 2003-11-11 15:51
i just open a box, see if reeds play, if they do ill use them and if they dont i work on them. thats it.
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Author: graham
Date: 2003-11-11 16:38
I have four mouthpieces I can use with my most regular pair, and I tend to select them for different types of group (e.g. orchestra v. chamber) rather than just to accommodate reeds. That said, I am able to match the reeds better by allocating them to a mouthpiece that fits. I also find a reed that starts out well on one mouthpiece can graduate to usefulness on one of the others as its characteristics change when playing. But, awkwardly, one of my mouthpieces seems to go better with Glotins while the others (or at least two of them) are happier with Zondas, so that does reduce the above mentioned flexibility somewhat.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2003-11-11 20:11
The version of Cane Mutiny that seems to plague me from time to time is the reed that develops a little "flip" on one end of the tip. It is always a revelation to discover that the real reason for a poor sounding horn setup is a marginal reed. I recently restored an old Noblet metal clarinet and the tryout was going very badly. I had convinced myself that my restoration job was deficient and then on a whim decided to try a softer reed and "Lo" sweet sounds. A reed for each piece of music, however, sounds like your old friend was pulling your leg. Reminds me of the story of the young Navy officer watching his revered superior for every clue he could for improving his seamanship. After awhile he noticed the superior pull out a little black book every so often. After some months of study the young officer got up the nerve to ask his superior about this habit. The old seadog pulled out the black book and handed it to him. Opening it he read "Port left, Starboard right."
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