 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Campana
Date: 2012-08-24 23:11
I’ve been playing for about 10 months now and I thought I understood reed strengths. Almost the first thing you read in any tuition book is that students get started on soft reeds, maybe 1.1/2 but more likely 2.0.
This conjures up a picture that you need experience and a strengthening embouchure to progress to harder reeds.
And of course, further reading shows that you need to match the mouthpiece to the reed, open tips need softer reeds, closer tips need harder reeds.
This seems to me that having once bought an open tipped MP you do indeed find that progressing to a harder reed is difficult but how much of this is because it really is difficult and how much is just due to the open tip being unsuitable.
I am now understanding, I think, that soft reeds/open tip offer more resistance that hard reeds/ closer tips i.e. the latter are in fact more easy blowing. Does easy blowing equate to easy playing…are hard reads just as easy to play as soft reeds provided that you have the correct tip space?
I have a Vandoren B40 and have Legere Signature 2.0, 2.1/4, & 2.1/2. Every time I try to move up from 2.0 I find it needs more puff and so I keep returning to the 2.0
Could I find an easier blowing combination at my level of experience?
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Author: SchlockRod
Date: 2012-08-24 23:26
Last things first: I'm sure you'll receive many tips on how to find "easier blowing" for you.
As for reed strength, resistance (and lack thereof), where it comes from and whether it makes better/easier playing, thick books could be made of all the talk just on the internet on these topics. Ask ten players, you'll get at least 8 answers to any question.
Most important thing to remember: you are different and so is everyone else. There is no magic formula but there are some good ground rules. Ultimately, as you develop (and LISTEN to great players you like), if you do so under good tutelage, YOU will get a feel for and an ear for what works best for YOU. Many variables: instrument, its setup, mouthpiece, reed, your changing approach over time and just one day to the next, the room you're in......
Finally, note that facing LENGTH is as important as tip opening for the resistance you'll feel from a given reed. Here, it is somewhat opposite of tip opening: The longer the facing, the harder the reed needed, in general.
For a given internal mouthpiece geometry, there will certainly be many facing curves for which the same reed will give the same resistance, e.g. a longer facing with more open tip, and a shorter facing with more closed tip could use same reed strength with similar resistance.
But cut of reed matters, too, and shorter/closer may lend itself more to, say, a French-cut reed such as Vandoren Blue Box.
Short/open is highest facing resistance. Long/close, lowest.
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2012-08-25 00:44
The B40 is a fairly open mouthpiece. The Vandoren web site has a great chart of their mouthpieces with recommended reed strengths, and if I'm not mistaken, reeds in the 2 - 3 range are suggested for the B40. If you like the mouthpiece, and if you're getting good results with the 2.0s, there's no reason to change.
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