 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2024-07-07 00:05
First, do offer me some slack, this being somewhat academic.
And oddly enough its origins are in a lost cane reed case at a gig and, of all things, the vegetable aisle in the supermarket.
I know: what could these two things have in common aside from both being plants?
Well, as those who food shop know, in many stores a vegetable spraying system will periodically engage to hydrate such foliage on the shelves for sale. Which got me thinking.
Before I continue, anyone asking why one would need to expedite bringing reeds into playable service provided a periodic process of introducing new ones into a set of playables occurs no slower than the decommissioning from that set those reeds exceeding their useful playing life, I hear you loud and clear...
...until you lose your reed case.
And yes, there's synthetics to tide me over until I "recruit new cadets" into my reed army: much as I prefer synthetics for practice, but what If I sprayed with water and dried said reeds under controlled settings a few times to speed the break in process along?
Ok: there it is. Have at it.
"That's absurd."
"Don't loose your reed case moron."
"Don't put all your playable in one case."
I have donned my airport firefighter suit! That's the one with the full head gear and air tank.
Set the flames loose!
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2024-07-07 00:17
Don't break them in - just play them.
Has worked for me for decades...but I have a feeling reed rituals are either Voodoo-based, or that reeds respond differently given different geographical location and environment.
I suppose it is the latter, though I have witnessed the religiosity of the former. Hahaha!
Fuzzy
;^)>>>
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Author: Alexey
Date: 2024-07-07 00:53
I do believe we need to break in reeds. I noticed if I play a new reed for 20-30 minutes most likely (but not always and not necessary ) it will be a spoiled reed when I try it next time.
Another point is I tried to break in reed for a prolonged time (for about 30 days) for about 1-2 minutes for a session and I didn't find it did something special about reeds but it definitely was not bad for reed.
So my current protocol is approximately: 30sec - 1min - 2min - 4min - 8min - 15min -30min. After that period I treat a reed as broken in. However, the last leap from 15 to 30 seems to me too big lol. But I guess it's mostly a psychological issue.
Another interesting scheme is 10 times for no more than 10 minutes for breaking in reed. It works well usually but I know a lot would say that 10 minutes for the first playing is way too much.
Anyway, I do agree that there are a lot of myths and beliefs about how to properly break in a new reed. And we should do what we believe in.
My personal belief is that it's safer to gradually increase the time of playing. Usually, reeds have a tendency to change after we introduce them to saliva/water and mechanical vibration and pressure from lips/teeth. When we gradually increase playing time we most likely can get to the point where the reed is stabilized without hurting the reed. So with this approach, we can have a better selection.
But back to the business, wetting the reed several times without playing (and even rubbing/massaging the reed) didn't really help me to speed up the process. I still needed to play at least a bit.
"Wetting, massaging, sanding and limited playing are four important preliminary processes for breaking any new reed"(c) Keith Stein
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Author: David Eichler
Date: 2024-07-07 02:00
Most people break in reeds by playing them a little, once every day, for some period of time. In an emergency, I think it is perhaps possible to break in reeds more quickly by doing the wetting and drying process more than once a day, but you have to wait for the reeds to really dry out properly before wetting and playing them again.
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2024-07-07 02:37
I am extremely disappointed in the nice responses you three have made. 
Did I don this full airplane firefighting suit in this heat wave we are currently having in my locale for nothing!
You have all expressed opinions nicely. (Thank you.)
How dare you!
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Author: Julian ibiza
Date: 2024-07-07 21:41
I hope you haven't slipped out of your airplane firefighter suit just yet SecondTry .
It's just that leaving your reed case at a gig and THEN going to the supermarket makes no sense. Better to FIRST leave your reed case in the vegetable section and then just pop back for it before the gig.😁
Julian Griffiths
Tel. 34 696 798 853
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