Author: Dutchy
Date: 2007-02-21 19:30
Everybody's mouth muscles are different, so while some people can start out on a "medium" reed, other people may need a "medium soft" or a "soft". I had trouble getting sound at all out of mediums at the start, but as soon as I switched to medium-soft I had no problems. Also, different makers have different standards of what constitutes "medium" and "soft". I find that Nielsen's black mediums are the same as their red and green medium-soft.
So there is no "yes" or "no" answer to your question, Elkwoman. You just have to get a selection of reeds and experiment, and see what works well for you. You just have to resign yourself to the fact that inevitably you're going to have a collection of reeds in the bottom of the "junk box" that for various reasons, you can't use. However, chances are excellent that those reeds will become usable in the future as your embouchure and your technique changes, so you don't discard them, you just tuck them away, and get back to them in six months or a year.
The most important thing is not what strength of reed you use; the important thing is that you use reeds from reputable makers. Nielsen is good for beginners, and they ship them with lightning speed. Seriously, I've ordered reeds in the morning and had them the next day (of course, I just live downstate from them, but still...) Fox reeds are good, too, but they take a lot longer to ship, as they have to be ordered from a middleman like WWBW (Fox doesn't sell direct to the public).
But really, mass-produced reeds from well-known makers will be decent.
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