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Re: Why crow?

Author: Bobo
Date: 2009-04-30 01:07

OK, so I'm a big believer in the crow too. I think a C crow does generally put you in the zone where you don't have to lip up or bite on a reed to play in tune and it allows you to focus on the music and helps with tongueing articulation (you don't have to coil your tongue as far back into the mouth).

And yet, I recently found a cryptic note on the cover of an old edition of Gekeler that I was using in the '70s. My teacher, a principal in a major symphony from whom I learned to make reeds, had penciled in the word "crow" next to a one inch staff with a high B quarter note in the middle. I use a Brannen N shaper which is relatively wide despite the N, and when I make a new reed they almost always end up crowing around a B despite attempting to use textbook dimensions on my philly style scrape. Usually what will happen is that as I break the reed in and the opening closes somewhat and the reed settles down, the reed will move up to a C crow. When I attempt to shortcut this process by taking cane out of the back to close the reed down and by shortening the reed so that it is instantly pliable and playable, the result is typically a shorter lived reed or just a short stumpy reed that loses other desirable characteristics. Squeezing the opening down is not enough to move up the crow significantly at this early stage but helps accelerate the settling process over the first few days of the new reed's life.

So I don't worry too much when I don't get the magic C right away, but I'm with others who focus on how much the reed vibrates (volume of the crow) and whether multiple octaves are present. The key for me is making reeds that will play in the sweet spot for the maximum amount of time.

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