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Author: hautbois francais
Date: 2010-06-17 23:28
You said:
"I live in France and my French teacher used to make all my reeds which ressemble the picture you have posted with a straight (as opposed to a rounded) base. I think French reeds are considerably harder than American reeds and require slightly different playing techniques. (My teacher dismissively likens American reeds to playing the recorder)."
(I remember when I first started oboe in UK, their U shaped reeds were also incredibly hard too. I blew till I was blue for the most part and my lips were almost always swollen. And yes, the American reeds are easy and you dont have to put too much work blowing or adjusting embrochures and taking huge amounts of air in your lungs for breath support, but then you can just concentrate of the playing and the music. Takes one BIG variable out from the equation. That is one of the reason I switched to American style reeds.)
You said:
"If the reed still remains too open, you can make it more closed by scraping the sides (this will also darken the tone a little). "
(Do you mean the sides of the entire reed or just the tip area ?)
You said:
"Lightly rescrape the whole reed."
(Can you rescrape the spine ?)
You said:
"The tip should have an inverted crescent on it and you can make the reed easier to play by thinning the tip and the "ears." This is useful if you are having trouble starting notes and playing detached notes. However, beware that if you thin them too much then the 3rd octave notes will no longer work."
(Inverted crescent is there, but what are the actual measurements from the tip ? Middle about 2mm, how about the tip corners and sides distance from the tip? I take it, this may mean the "ears" you are talking about ?)
You said:
"I'm not too sure what exactly you refer to with the terms "heart" and "back." The tip should blend into the next part (heart?) without a noticeable "hump." If there is a noticeable hump, then you can try making it less noticeable but proceed with a great deal of caution as this will alter the pitch of the reed."
(The "heart" is the region after the tip which is noticeably thicker. In American reeds, you generally try to stay away from the heart as soon as you get most of the bark off. And the spine, is definitely a "no scrape" zone. This may be different from the French cut. That is why I am asking so much detail. I will need to trim down the reed. I dont want to trim too much then it becomes irrecoverable. I will need to stay away from the no scrape zones, too and what are these areas ? The French reeds are not cheap, would be a waste if i didnt know what I was doing and completely ruined a perfectly good reed otherwise.)
You said:
"If only the lower octave is not responsive, scrape the base of the reed."
(For the most part, lower octave is unresponsive, down from G. Good tip, I will try this procedure.)
You said:
"If the higher notes won't come out, clip the end of the reed. (This will make the reed harder again so the risk is that you end up with no reed because you thin the tip to make it easier, clip it because the high notes won't come out, thin the tip because it's too hard etc.)"
(Higher notes will come out, as long as you take a big breath and play them. Yes, I hesitate cutting the tip and making the reed hard again especially if I had spent so much time getting reed to be playable only to get it hard again.)
You said:
"To play on a reed like this, you need a very firm embouchure (which doesn't alter for different pitches) - you will find that these reeds are very stable intonation-wise - and a lot of breath support."
(I dont deny, that the French reeds give a very nice sound. But, I need to get it playable so that I can at least enjoy them.)
(Thx for all your tips. Would appreciate if you could help me with some detailed anatomy of the French cut reed so that I can go ahead and proceed to scrape with extreme caution.)
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-16 10:50 |
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Chris P |
2010-06-16 11:50 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-17 07:47 |
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jhoyla |
2010-06-16 17:39 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-16 22:45 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-06-18 00:10 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-18 03:27 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-06-18 10:05 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-18 11:05 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-06-18 16:38 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-18 23:37 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-06-18 16:46 |
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Chris P |
2010-06-16 23:03 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-17 02:06 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-17 04:33 |
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jhoyla |
2010-06-17 05:50 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-17 06:22 |
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ceri |
2010-06-17 20:21 |
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Re: Making short scrape European style oboe reeds easy new |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-17 23:28 |
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ceri |
2010-06-18 20:32 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-19 00:26 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-06-19 01:38 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-06-19 18:28 |
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ceri |
2010-06-19 13:16 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-19 14:43 |
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HautboisJJ |
2010-06-19 17:34 |
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jhoyla |
2010-06-19 21:30 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-20 01:16 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-20 01:20 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-20 05:49 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-06-21 03:02 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-06-21 10:13 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-08-18 06:15 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-08-18 13:23 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-08-20 07:56 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-08-20 10:28 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-08-20 23:05 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-08-21 03:23 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-08-20 23:15 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-08-21 03:37 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-08-21 06:33 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-08-29 00:22 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-08-29 23:02 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-09-06 00:44 |
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ceri |
2010-09-06 14:48 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-09-07 09:57 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-09-07 09:38 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-09-07 10:21 |
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ceri |
2010-09-07 14:56 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-09-07 16:10 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-09-07 22:33 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-09-08 00:18 |
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ceri |
2010-09-08 11:22 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-09-08 12:47 |
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GoodWinds |
2010-09-09 03:49 |
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ceri |
2010-09-09 07:17 |
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JRC |
2010-09-10 15:41 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-09-10 16:56 |
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JRC |
2010-09-10 18:37 |
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wkleung |
2010-09-10 19:10 |
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JRC |
2010-09-10 19:54 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-09-11 15:30 |
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RobinDesHautbois |
2010-09-11 17:15 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-09-12 00:07 |
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mjfoboe |
2010-09-12 03:16 |
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hautbois francais |
2010-09-12 03:23 |
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mjfoboe |
2010-09-12 12:21 |
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ceri |
2010-09-14 12:42 |
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