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Re: Oh the humidity! Reeds warping...

Author: mnhnhyouh
Date: 2014-08-18 05:07

I hope what I am about to say does not offend anyone.

I was a scientist, a fairly well published one. I now teach, and part of that teaching is about the difference between anecdote and science and how the plural of anecdote is not data.

So far I have only seen one piece of science on clarinet reeds

Anatomical Characteristics Affecting the Musical Performance of Clarinet Reeds
Made from Arundo donax L. (Gramineae)
PETER KOLESIK, ALAN MILLS and MARGARET SEDGLEY
Annals of Botany 81: 151±155, 1998

http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/81/1/151.full.pdf

Why has no science been done on treatment of reeds? It seems to me that there are many contradictory methods described as the "right" way to treat reeds to make them play better and to make them last longer, and that these treatment methods are amenable to the scientific method.

Science would require the following at a minimum:

A number of reeds assigned to each treatment method (at least 5 for each one).
Reeds assigned randomly to each treatment (not one box each)
Treatment methods to be tightly described and closely followed
The people judging the reeds should not know which treatment was done on which of the reeds they are judging.

Maybe something like ClarinetFest might be a good place to do this?

h

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