 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mark P. Jasuta
Date: 2009-02-25 01:36
I was in a music store the other day and saw a set of parents buying one (1) clarinet reed. There they were trying to figure which one to buy (they obviously were not players) and, to make matters worse; their student player was not with them. (I was shocked that the store would actually sell one reed.)
They bought a Rico reed for $1.75 + tax. I suppose it could have been worse. They could have bought a Vandoren which would have had an 80% chance of being bad. lol
I guess this bugs me most because a lot of time and money was put into my daughter’s clarinet. It took quite a while to put together a setup that sounded great and that she absolutely loved.
Just blowing off steam
Mark
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2009-02-25 01:50
I like being able to buy singles. It's nice to be able to try a few variations and see which work well for you. Would have saved me a handful of full-box purchases that ended up too soft or too hard. Happens when I try a new brand, and by some luck I guessed right on my first boxes for bass and Eb.
The problem with this situation, though, would be that they were buying just one. I'd be shocked and dismayed that the shop didn't advise them otherwise, but I've been to enough questionable music shops and even half-decent shops with clueless staff to not be surprised by this any more. If I were there, I'd probably have stepped in and said something.
It reminds me of an eBay auction I saw once, in which the description said something like "The reed is pretty old, I think it may need changing."
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Jacob S
Date: 2009-02-25 02:06
I payed $5.30 + tax for a Vandoren V12 reed just the other week. Why the store charges twice as much for a box of 10 V12's as an online store blows my mind.
Hopefully the parents knew what KIND of reed they were purchasing. Asking for a Rico reed is completely different than asking for "a reed" and the staff just handing them one. And for Rico's, the student's presence wouldn't have mattered unless they knew to look at the single reeds before buying them.
My teacher believes part of why Vandoren uses flow packs is so you can't hold the reeds up to the light and "guess" the balance/quality of the individuals. Such a practice seems commonplace :P.
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Author: Neal Raskin
Date: 2009-02-25 02:39
I have seen similar situations. It seems to be a combination of things. There could be the parent who doesn't want to pay very much money, and doesn't understand the concept that not all reeds are playable and that you need a rotation etc.. Then, this situation could be remedied by having a woodwind specialist in the store who cares about music education. A lot of music stores that specialize in drums and guitars cary some band stuff, but nothing of real quality and/or no people who know much about the stuff. Finally, another problem could lie with the band teacher at the child's school. Sometimes all it takes is a little info packet for each kid explaining the ins and outs of each instrument, maintenance, upgrading etc.. If a teacher isn't very specific with what they expect students and parents to know and/or have, then things like this are bound to happen.
One big problem that I have with these situations is that students who love music end up with sub par equipment, which in turn causes them to not be successful and then drop music and potentially dislike art music later on in life. Then... they are the taxpayer... when the referendum comes around ... and music is on the chopping block, or their kid is going to be in music ... they decide that it is not important because they didn't have a good experience with it when they were in school...then programs are cut, jobs are lost, and music sinks one notch lower on our societies totem pole.
Obviously, this may be somewhat extreme, but you can see where improper equipment, instruction, and knowledge can lead to some devastating consequences... and all because of a reed...
Please teach and inform wisely...the very future of my career depends on it...
*gulp*
Neal Raskin
www.youtube.com/nmraskin
www.musicedforall.com
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Author: GBK
Date: 2009-02-25 03:06
Jacob S wrote:
> My teacher believes part of why Vandoren uses flow packs
> is so you can't hold the reeds up to the light and "guess"
> the balance/quality of the individuals.
> Such a practice seems commonplace :P
Despite what Vandoren says about sealing in the correct humidity for reeds before purchase, the 3 main reason the Flow Packs originated were:
1. to guarantee reeds were safe and free from tampering
2. encourage single reed sales by providing a hygenically sealed package for each reed
3. to combat the recent rise of counterfeit reeds
...GBK
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Author: Mark P. Jasuta
Date: 2009-02-25 03:27
When my daughter was experimenting with reeds, I always bought a box so if she didn't care for them she passed them out for her friends to try.
True it may have been a waste of money, however they all got to test a bunch of reeds for free. I was suprised to find out that a few of them found "their" reed this way.
Regards
Mark
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Author: MartyMagnini
Date: 2009-02-25 11:47
This will probably be an unpopular idea on this board, BUT........
I encourage as many of my students as possible to buy Legere reeds. When a student gets to be an intermediate to advanced level player, they can choose their own reeds and they will be sufficiently picky (in most cases). But for the beginner or developing player - the kind that would buy one reed at a time and play it for as month or so no matter what, the Legere is a better reed than what they are playing 95% of the time. I teach high school, and for most of my clarinet players, the Legere is a better way to go than letting them pick their own reeds. I also run a summer band for middle school and junior high age students, and switching many of them to Legere reeds over the summer has been quite an improvement.
I have a bunch of Legere reeds that I keep as "samplers", so I let the kids try them first (with sufficient disinfecting of course). I never force anyone to buy one, I just explain the benefits. I would say about 50% of the students who (in my opinion) should be on Legeres end up getting them. They're almost always 100% happy, and I can honestly say that in the last year or two of switching kids over, almost none of them switch back to cane reeds (at least until they are ready to adjust their own).
Of course, for my better students, I encourage them to experiment with cane reeds, learn how to adjust them, etc. Some of these students (like me) use Legeres most of the time, but always have cane reeds working, ready to go. I do prefer a great cane reed to a Legere, but I prefer my Legeres to 90% of the reeds I play. I think the Legeres are a no-brainer solution for those kids not savvy enough to select and adjust their own reeds, and quite frankly, I'm baffled that they aren't more popular in that market.
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Author: Ryder
Date: 2009-02-25 12:11
Here's what you do...
Buy the 10 pack and take the ones that work best. What do you do with the others that are either to stiff, soft, or just plain terrible? Why, you sell them so some unsuspecting victim.
____________________
Ryder Naymik
San Antonio, Texas
"We pracice the way we want to perform, that way when we perform it's just like we practiced"
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2009-02-25 12:40
As for holding a reed up to the light and trying to guess how it will play --- forget it! It just doesn't work. I did that for years and years until I realized there was no statistical correlation between how I GUESSED a reed would play based on the light pattern shining through it, and how it actually played. Some of the worst-looking reeds played well, and some that appeared perfect externally played like garbage. That said, I think (this may be controversial) that Vandorens are actually fairly consistent and made from good cane, so I would just buy one (or a box), break the reeds in properly (a topic of discussion in its own right), and play without worries.
The reeds that don't work? Set them aside and save them. With aging, or more significantly a different mouthpiece, they might work great in the future.
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2009-02-25 15:03
When I was a kid I'd go and buy two (2) reeds at a time. One of them would be OK - or, at least, better than the other :-). A box seemed a lot of money at that age.
These days I buy boxes, cos it's the only way to get the more interesting brands. And if I find myself getting only a few good reeds in a box, then I just stop using that brand and go find something else.
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Author: blazian
Date: 2009-02-25 23:20
I remember one of my past band directors had a talk with the clarinet section about what a reed should look like. It had to be perfect, no jagged edges anywhere, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Well that day I was playing the ugliest reed on earth. Go figure. And guess what the director plays? Np, not trumpet. Percussion.
- Martin
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Author: Old Geezer
Date: 2009-02-25 23:31
When I was in high school in a time far, far, away; we used to buy My Masterpiece reeds by the box, find what we thought were 2 or 3 good ones and swap the rest. I think at times there were probably more than a 100 homeless reeds floating around the clarinet section. Kids wren't so fastidious in those days...sometimes we'd swap'em right off the moutpiece still wet!
At that time Vandoren reeds came 10 to a small box, loose without any packing! They were too expensive (25 cents each) to swap.
Clarinet Redux
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