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Re: Reeds

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2016-12-14 06:19

I think you're doing a lot of stuff without having any real idea why you're doing it except that someone said to do it in a book.

We don't know (because you don't tell us) what kind of embouchure changes you've made, and we don't know who your current teacher is or what he's trying to get you to do. But if an embouchure change has caused you to have significantly less endurance for any longer than a few days, I'd say (my opinion) either it wasn't a good change or you're not executing it well. How long were you able to play without tiring before the change?

Asking you to "address the reed" puts the responsibility on your teacher to show you what he thinks you should do. Does he go through all the process that you're using? How does he adjust his reeds? If he thinks it's important for you to be learning to work with reeds, he should be teaching you.

The tone can be spreading because you're tired or because the reed is becoming waterlogged and is losing some of its resilience. It can also happen if the reed is too old or too soft. Again, these are judgments your teacher should be making when he hears you play. We're all guessing.

You shouldn't need a stiffer reed for an M15 than a 3.5+. It may actually be too hard, which might explain your short endurance.

You almost certainly need to spend less time fussing with your reeds and more time playing them. I imagine Peter Hadcock could have explained exactly why he went through each one of those steps (or maybe not), but there are a lot of really good players who do far less and play beautifully.

If the goal is to make a reed play responsively, what's needed most is that it be balanced and the right strength. You can control the strength to a large extent by simply choosing wisely. You can improve balance with ATG, rush, a knife, sandpaper, a Reed Geek or any other tool that lets you remove small amounts of cane from one side or the other in a controlled way. All the rest needs to have a reason or it may well be wasted time and energy.

Karl

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Agomongo

2016-12-14 00:46