Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-12-04 01:06
... mid upper range, do you mean F#, G and G# 1st 8ve followed by lovely sweet A on 2nd 8ve followed by ye awful flat Bb and not so awful flat B and variously flat to sharp High C ?
if so, welcome to normal variations upstairs on the oboe -- try this first before adjusting reeds -- boost air pressure on 2nd 8ve key rather than lip these notes, especially not on the High C which sharpens up very readily
Eb key helps give more resonance to 2nd 8ve notes, but if air pressure isn't enough, will worsen flat tendencies, so there's a Great Temptation To Be Avoided with lipping these notes into pitch if air isn't there
as for 'general protocol' bringing reeds up or down to pitch, the pitch you need to start with in a brand new reed is a triple C tone with your normal embouchure when the reed's out of oboe -- both blades the same pitch, not one sharper / flatter than the other
If it's a B tone, it might work up, if it's Bb or lower, less & less likely
(too much wood off already)
blow new reeds in - this will sharpen any reed a little bit
after that, dust tip / blend / heart if necessary to centre easily at A440 in normal embouchure, and dust the back windows so reed will do top 1st 8ve E in tune rather than sharp which is normal tendency in the instrument
If you're used to lipping hard on a flatter reed to bring it up to pitch, adjusting to lighter lip pressure for a C reed will seem strange to begin with, but it's a lot less lip work when playing long pieces :-)
very generally speaking ...
scraping more wood off = lowers the tones / semi-tones and also plays flatter
more wood on the tip tends to play sharp, and sharper with age, tone is dull overall, and the reed's more resistant (but some players like that)
taking off too much wood on the tip will play flat and coarsely, but a tip clip can salvage 1 or 2 semi-tones, but rarely as much as 3 semi-tones up before reed's too short, and that will make it sharp faster
clip tip back = up pitch (approx 0.5 mm per semitone)
if the heart wood is toning B in your neutral comfortable embouchure, the reed might sharpen up a semi-tone -- after blowing in, and clipping 0.5 off the tip -- to tone at C easily, but if the heart wood is toning Bb, whole reed will probably play flat and tend to collapse earlier rather than later
gotta go, band practice ...
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