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Re: How to Avoid "Outgrowing" Reed Strengths

Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-03-28 00:53

Hi Karl:

When I wrote

"Encouraging students to not bite is IMHO like restricting them in the gym to the lighter dumbbells', where muscle tone, more than size/strength improvements is apt to finding them not wanting to up reed strength as much"

I meant this: Resistance training with weights in a gym works the muscles of our body no differently than our forming an embouchure over hours of practice will strengthen the muscles of our mouth and face to have the endurance to maintain that position for longer periods. Restricting the athlete to lower weights and more repetition/form, like discouraging biting in the clarinet player, finds both subjects less likely, I think, to need/desire greater levels of resistance for the same number of repetitions in the gym, or by analogy, hours behind the music stand.

Hi Lydian

IMHO the strength numbers on (cane) reeds are not binary. They're not IMHO to be taken as gospel (although more so for synthetics like Legere where mother nature's variety can in large part be overcome through manufacturing and quality control) anymore than they are to be ignored. There is wide variation with a strength labeling, as the factory resistance methods are perhaps only slightly better than no test at all, flexing a reed under dry conditions that very well may not reflect their strength once wet. Then of course there's the even wider difference between brands.

With rare exception, cane reeds to me are something one buys slightly more resistant than comfortable (yes, using a somewhat unreliable strength number,) and then sands down slightly to strength and bilateral symmetry in how a reed plays, not in its physical measurements.

I completely get your thoughts on not being bogged down by a number like my mom was on her dress size, which, by analogy, varied not only among manufacturers (Vandoren, Brad Behn, etc.) but even among the same designer's fashion lines (V12, Rue Lepic, etc.) But once we find that "size 14 pants" tend to fit us with the least alternations from designer "X," we tend not to spend our precious time looking at their "size 17" line, right?

The "number" is more efficient IMHO than a wild guess as a starting point to spending the least amount of time making acceptable reeds, and the most amount getting more proficient while playing them.

Hi Tom

"Are you...implying that a relaxed embouchure is the key to sticking with lower strength reeds? I plan on going relaxed with both single and double lip."

I think you're getting "warm" but where your interpretation of my intentions may be lacking is a gap that may be worthy of attention.

Clearly, the following is nuance. But I would retort that an embouchure where there is no biting, and pressure on the mouthpiece from all directions, where pitch, color, and shape of sound can be maintained with a decent reed for some duration is the goal, and that clamping or relaxation may represent extremes that result in suboptimal playing. Take in mouthpiece until you squeak. Then back off a micron: that's your sweet spot IMHO.

This stuff is so nuanced and one of the reasons having a teacher visualize play so important IMHO. My wife's firm handshake is looser I suspect than Arnold Schwarzenegger's notion of a relaxed grip.