Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-06-11 14:48
<<How do you identify your reeds when they've arrived at playability and are good for this but not that or whatever, etc?>>
I don't make my own reeds, but over the course of the past three years, I have bought a lot of different reeds, looking for the Holy Grail. I don't know that I have a GOOD system for keeping track of them, but I do have a system of sorts -- multi cases. I have one case that I keep for reeds that are currently the best of the crop. It's a 10-reed case, and I just know each one of them individually (no, I do not give them names . . .). I rotate among these daily, depending on the demands of the occasion.
For example, I keep the very best -- sweet, dark, and responsive -- for occasions when I am going to be heard in a close setting, or for when it matters -- like lessons, church performances, indoor concerts, rehearsals when I know there is a big exposed oboe spot, etc.
The rest of that first box, I pretty much gauge by responsiveness and tone color, and use the ones I can stand to hear for practice and for outdoor band.
I keep another case for reeds that are, say, too soft but not bad, or too resistant but not bad, or used-to-be-great but are almost dead, for those all-too-frequent occasions when I've just gotta find something to play on, or for when the weather is muggy and the reeds seem sluggish. This is the biggest group.
I have another case for reeds that are basically OK but "need something" -- and I haven't figured out what, yet. This is the place for reeds that OUGHT to be good, but aren't. Sometimes, one of them just gets better, for no apparent reason (just like some of the good guys go bad, for no apparent reason).
On top of this, I have two small cardboard boxes that I keep in the drawer of my little oboe-equipment chest. One box contains the dearly departed which have no hope of resuscitation -- the ones with smashed tips, split backs, big chips out of the sides -- and one strange reed that arrived with a tiny pinhole right through one side of the heart. Theoretically, these are the reeds that I'm going to take apart for salvage when I start making my own.
The other box contains reeds that just never did work right, or have become obsolete (for example, my beginner reeds, or reeds from makers whose style I used to like, but don't anymore). These are playable, and I do go through them now and then, but it's a pretty low-yield exercise. Still, I don't throw anything away, because . . . well . . . you just never know.
On any given day, the top of my little equipment chest has got reeds in various stages of classification laying around on top of it. Periodically, I go through them all (or at least, through the three cases), and see who is having a good day and who isn't. I'm always being surprised by what I've got.
Susan
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
