Author: jhoyla
Date: 2012-05-03 19:24
One of the first techniques I would teach a beginner is how to squeeze down a reed safely. Once they master that, even hard reeds become playable.
Making the reeds more slowly, in stages, may help. That way you get a soft and stable reed that remains soft and stable for a long time.
I find that I can quickly scrape a new reed into playing shape, and put it to one side. When I go back to it after a day it is too hard so I scrape it more, play it for a while, and put it to one side.
The next day it is stuffy again. I scrape it some more, and this time it stays playable. Mostly at this point I am making minute changes to the sides of the tip, the blend, the back. dust, really - but with huge impact on playability.
If I do it this way, the resulting reed lasts a real long time. If I try and scrape it to this level of play in one session it dies. In my mind, I explain this to myself as the reed "growing in", because it really is like that - almost as if the reed grows into its final configuration.
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The Oboe BBoard
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