Author: SecondTry
Date: 2021-05-07 06:06
Eric:
I enjoyed your post and Youtube content. I must admit to having never made my own reeds and therefore cannot answer your questions.
I'm still though fascinating by, at least today, those people who make their own single reeds, what got them into it, was it worth it, and if successful, their secrets.
As far as I am concerned, cane reeds will always be somewhat of a mystery to me because despite all the controls we can place on the process, and the sense of control we think making reeds ourselves provides: IMHO this sense of control may not be nearly as much as we ascribe to it given the natural vagrancies of Arundo donax, and the player who makes it vibrate.
As you must know, even cane harvested from the same field, in the same season, and properly aged will have diversity, just as nature intended it to. The funny thing about such diversity (need I tell you) is it's nature ways of throwing enough "poop at the wall of life, and seeing what sticks." It's a slow, highly inefficient process (diversity and natural selection,) and can cause the same piece of cane to react differently despite a reed being cut with near perfect symmetry (less than a human hair difference in thickness) in factories.
We already know that, at least in the case of Vandoren, all reeds of a brand are cut the same, and strength comes from mother nature. Given this the case, I offer myself little hope that any home machinery I can buy will produce better results: although there's a skill component too.
Perhaps I appreciate why legendary pedagogues like Opperman made his own reeds. Manufacturing techniques weren't as precise in his day. But in today's world I really have to question whether, generally speaking, players making their own reeds from scratch is wise, given that the alternative need not be simply taking the manufactured reed out of the box and playing it with no adjustment.
To wit, there's "middle ground," the idea that the player can effect some basic maintenance on the factory produced reed to get up to speed faster. Still more, the control that those who make their own reeds seek is really just another way of desiring consistently good reeds. Along these lines, some players have chosen to play synthetics not because they exceed the best cane, but for the tradeoff in better consistency.
The same Opperman who made reeds may have felt differently about this today given the learning curve involved and how he felt that time is a player's most precious asset.
I could see how, as you described in your video, you could be attracted to making your own reeds given another player's belief that it was paradigm changing for them. But since this person was the exception, at least for me, I'd have to question whether I could reproduce such results myself.
That said, I hope you have cracked the code. The motivation to make one's own reeds can be quite temping given all the money we waste on them, but like you, I've found that using techniques like the ATG method finds me enough good reeds in a box that the tradeoff to make my own reeds just isn't worth it, assuming I even could.
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