Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-06-15 06:02
hey, that's interesing about popular reeds in the Far East, but the annual cost must be a staggering overhead expense?
... i started with oboe teacher in private lessons at 15 in UK and of course couldn't play much on oboe right away, limited blow power, lips jello, dizzy spells, etc. so lots of free time to fill up hour lessons, reed making instructions began fairly soon after teacher drilled me thoroughly with umpteen run-throughs of proper oboe and reed handling do's and dont's
... teacher provided very first reed, after that, parents had to make sure i had a playable reed for every lesson, if necessary purchased from ... Howarths in London (dad worked in London, wasn't a waiting game for the post) ... while i had to attempt to make my own and bring a new one next week until we had a set of three that actually played, including any store bought reeds. Thereafter, i had to replace reeds in the trio as they died, make my own if i could. Dear old dad always seemed to have one available in my many bad weeks
... aah, memories, linen thread, beeswax, goldbeater's skin and a permanent set of red and sore grooves in fingers from working with the thread
... beginner's reed, basic 'thumbnail size' U scrape tip on a long reed (about 72 mm) which got trimmed back and scraped further down the back as the tip frayed with use and was clipped off, until about 65mm, too short, break the reed now, teacher said. Salvage the tube, tie another one and scrape it down for next week, teacher said. Cutting back a reed seemed like such a sensible and economical method ... until i realised i couldn't play in tune, then teacher smiled and said the reed has to be made in such a way to help you play in tune! Next fine detail stage of reed-making began, student's eyes glazed over (:(
... second year's reed, first term, sculpted the bridge (hump) to stiffen up the reed for my stronger embouchure and when i could finally play that pretty well, second term, we did the spine with upper and lower windows. End result, tri-zone U-scrape reed, tip, bridge, knob on top of the spine (centre of the heart) and two zones in the windows all played depending on octave or desired tonal colour, nibbling (rollover and rollout) exercises began in earnest then. End of school years, end of lessons.
... rich in theory and instructions, but knife and me didn't turn out many reasonable successes, teacher salvaged some i thought were hopeless, but more often identified my errors, made me take notes to do something differently next time, then ... broke the reed i'd laboured on for hours that last week, boo-hoo! Salvage the tube, tie another, scrape it RIGHT for next week!
That was then, long-long ago. Now i'm relearning reed-making over here using american scrape with current oboe teacher. Haven't bought a store reed for about 6 months, and i've got 9 that can be played, none wonderful but two are definitely better than the others and a third comes close enough.
Somedays i ask myself what the heck am i doing?! That's when i play recorder for a while, but oboe wins me back every time ... all those extra tone-hole caps and glittering silver keys are so much easier to play
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