The Clarinet BBoard

switching to harder reeds

Author: Brad  Date:   2001-11-29 23:45 Hi, Recently, I have been having some problems with reeds. About a month and a half ago, my teacher suggested that I try harder reeds (I had been playing on Vandoren 3's with a M14 mouthpiece) since I seemed to be overblowing already on the 3's. So he had me try the Zonda reeds with a strength of 3. I didn't really like these reeds at all, they had a really nice sound, but the upper part felt a lot thinner and more unforgiving than Vandorens. I found that I squeaked . . . a lot. I told my teacher this, and he suggested I try Vandoren 3.5 reeds. I've been playing them for this past week. At first, they seemed easy to blow, when I played them at home. However, I have not tried them at home since, and only played them in band and practiced before and after school in the band room. Now, they are a lot harder for me to play, and the sound is fuzzy and airy. Is this maybe because the band room is a lot bigger than my room at home, or because I'm not used to the reeds yet? If so, how can I become more comfortable playing with these harder reeds? Thanks

Reply To Message

Avail. Forums  |  Need a Login? Register Here

User Login  User Name:  Password:  Remember my login:

Forgot Your Password? Enter your email address or user name below and a new password will be sent to the email address associated with your profile.