Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-07-14 21:31
Hi Clayton --
I hope someone will be able to point you to a site that has pics of the various reed types. I've got a couple of good schematics, but don't know where they came from (definitely online, so keep looking).
EDIT: http://www.public.asu.edu/~schuring/Oboe/diagram.html
From what I know, there are short scrapes (German?) and long scrapes (French, American), and U-shaped, and W-shaped, and probably as many hybrids of these as there are possible combinations.
The American scrape is a long, W-shaped scrape, meaning that at the lower part of the reed above the thread, you will find two "scallops" that give the overall appearance of a W. Each side of the W is scraped or carved, removing more or less of the bark of the cane, but leaving an unscraped center spine and side rails. The scraped parts are the parts of the reed commonly referred to as the "windows".
Above the windows, there is an unscraped, or very lightly scraped, thicker section (about half the height of the windows, in my experience) called the heart. Too heavy a heart, and the reed won't vibrate. Too thin, and it is raucous.
Above the heart, where the reed starts to slope down to the tip, is called the "blend". This is where you adjust if the reed seems too resistant to the breath. Less slope = easier blowing. You might notice that the blend is more or less an upside down V, with the sides and edges of the tip noticeably thinner than the center. According to my teacher (who, with her husband, makes the darn best reeds I have ever played), it is the gradation between these sides (I call the them "ears") and the center of the tip that makes a reed sound dark and mellow.
I also believe that the depth of the windows influences the color of the reed tone. As one reedmaker I know put it, you have to have "light" (windows) in order to get dark (tone). I've taken a reed that was good except for being too bright, scraped out the windows more, and ended up with a really nice-sounding reed. Scraping out the windows of a finished reed that is playing at pitch risks making the reed flat, so you have to learn the trade-offs.
There are also American Scrape reeds that have TWO sets of windows -- the second, somewhat shallower, set carved out of the heart.
I like what Martin Schuring says on his ASU site -- reed-making is always a compromise. When you remove cane from the windows, you make it flatter and darker. When you remove cane from the heart, you make it sharper and brighter. You could probably whittle away at a reed forever, trying to get a perfect balance -- and by then, there would be nothing left to blow into.
Susan
Post Edited (2006-07-14 21:34)
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