 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ramsa
Date: 2012-04-09 12:44
I've been trying to find the ideal amount of time to let my reeds absorb water before playing, and seems like 5-10 minutes works pretty good, but 15-20 minutes later it's not sounding so great. Am I not soaking these long enough? Too long? Maybe my mouth muscles are just getting tired out?
Could a synthetic reed give more stability, and do you need to soak them also?
Lots of questions, and it would be nice to settle on a standard practice, but I keep getting such a wide variety of results, even with the same reed brand and strength...
Frustrating, for sure.
Any sugestions?
Thanks.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2012-04-09 13:04
I think 5 min is even too long.......
Bob Draznik
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-04-09 13:09
I soak about 2-3 minutes before a five minute play, then put it down for a full day. Then I do this two more times before I will play on a reed for extended periods of time. Once this break-in period is over, I find that soaking the reed for longer periods of time has no greater affect than just a few minutes of soaking. It neither improves nor diminishes a broken-in reed.
................Paul Aviles
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Author: TJTG
Date: 2012-04-09 14:08
I dunk the reed in the water, remove it, turn it around, drunk again. Then I let lay on a flat surface while it absorbs the water on the exterior of the reed.
My teacher used to fight me for soaking my reeds too long. This helped a great deal.
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Author: luca1
Date: 2012-04-09 14:16
Watch the videos of both Ridenour and Nuccio. Neither "soaks" the reed for even a minute....perhaps several seconds at most. Also Ridenour makes a point of NOT letting the end of the reed get wet at all.
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Author: kilo
Date: 2012-04-09 14:23
I'm a big fan of synthetic reeds and no, you don't have to soak them.
In the thirty-plus years that I used cane my practice was to put the reed tip in my mouth as I assembled the instrument then stick it on and start playing; within ten minutes the moisture content of the reed was stabilized. I've experimented with soaking reeds for different lengths of time in water (as well as mineral oil and H202) and I never seen anything gained by long soaking to the point of saturation.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2012-04-09 14:36
The easy answer first: synthetic reeds don't need to be soaked and will provide as stable a reed response as it is possible to get with today's technology. But you have to like the sound and responsive feel of them.
Now for the wishy-washy part: every player has his own witchcraft about wetting reeds - both to break them in and to prepare them for a normal playing session. So you're most likely to get a variety of answers here, many will be contradictory, and you will have ultimately to find the way you find most useful.
That said, my experience is that it takes longer to wet a well-used older reed than a brand new fresh one. In my opinion 5 minutes is too long even for the most well-used of my reeds, but it will ruin a new reed that hasn't yet been broken in. A new reed fresh out of the box can be wet enough to test after about 10 seconds in water (or in my mouth). My own break-in process is to quickly wet the new reed, play test it for a few seconds and then either throw it in the trash (or a reject pile) or put it on a glass *flat side up* to dry for at least 24 hours. I repeat the process a day or two later (I do this with several reeds at a time - usually starting with a whole box of 10), again culling out the ones I consider too difficult to play to be worth the effort of trying to adjust them. I may do a little balancing on any reed that seems to need it, then again dry them flat side up (I never dry a reed with its flat side against anything) for another day. After another couple of sessions like this, each with a little more extended playing time on each reed, I start playing on them, each reed for a complete practice session, unless it seems to be waterlogging. They have now become part of my rotation.
With older reeds that I've been using in a regular rotation, my main criterion for wetting them is that the crinkling - the waviness that appears in the tip edge of the reed - has straightened out. An old reed may need a couple of minutes of wetting, although I usually don't leave it soaking in the water, but dip it and let it lie flat-side-up for a couple of minutes until the water has soaked into the pores. When the tip is straight, the reed is usually ready.
I use a small 35 mm film canister (from before digital cameras) with water in it to do all of this, but it works to put the reeds in your mouth. I have vague fantasies about minerals in my saliva building up in the reed fibers, so I avoid really soaking them with saliva, but I've never read anything that conclusively shows this to be a real problem, so I suspect it's just part of *my* witchcraft. Yours and others' may differ.
Karl
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Author: ramsa
Date: 2012-04-09 15:55
Wow. I'm going way too long. I'll shorten up the wet treatment and see how it goes. You folks have a wealth of information that I sure appreciate. Sure seems odd that out of a box only a percentage of reeds are good enough to follow up with using. Nature has a way of not being too consistant though. I just have a rough time paying a couple bucks for bum reeds in a box. Learning to cultivate the good ones out of a box might take some learning for me. One day a reed sounds good, and another day the same reed squeeks and squalks or has a dead dull sound.
Go figure.
Thanks guys.
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Author: William
Date: 2012-04-09 16:04
For many years I've used a combination of Forestone & Legere synthetic reeds. Neither requires soaking before play. I do prefer the Forestones on all of my clarinets and highly recommend the alto and tenor sax reeds. They sound great and last indefinately.
As for my experiance with cane reeds (over 30 yrs), I discovered that soaking in water was not as good as moistening them in your mouth. I would say, never water, always saliva that's best. Then, storage on a flat surface to prevent the wavy tip after drying. Break them in slowly over many days of playing only short periods of time--3 minuets or less--so that the cane xylem cures properly. Reeds properly prepared will retain their resilience much longer.
But for me, using Forestone reeds eliminates the need for any special prep and care. Just put them on your mouthpiece (mine is a vintage Chicago Kaspar) and play all you want right away. Saves a lot of cane prep time and the resulting sound and response is "top drawer". I like to tell everyone that Forestones let you play the music without having to worry about playing the reed. Think about THAT!!!!
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Author: Randall
Date: 2012-04-09 16:14
Since I haven't played on a synthetic reed that I could live with, it's cane all the way. Like other posts, I put my reeds through a similar break in process with a slightly longer soak time in water than when after the reed has been broken in. When it comes to preparing the reed for a playing session, I soak them for 15 - 30 seconds. Water at home, in my mouth when playing elsewhere. I always wash my reeds in clean water after playing to avoid the grunge. RC
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-04-09 19:53
I usually find that most of my reeds need a longer soaking period during the first week of so of breaking in .... 1-2 mins typically ... and they often need a short re-soak after some minutes of playing (their response, or lack of, will tell you if this is needed.)
Once broken in 30-60 sec seems to suffice for me.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2012-04-10 05:57
Sometimes, I don't soak reeds at all if they will play in humid Southern California. I recall Mitchell Lurie saying that if he liked the way a reed sounded, he would leave it in that place on the mouthpiece when he put the instrument away. Thus, he probably picked it up and played later without wetting it.
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Author: oca
Date: 2012-04-11 06:14
There is no definite answer due to a lack of explanation in each case. Hell, I've seen people who store their reeds in a jar of water completely submerged overnight! Their reason being "it is what works best" for them.
And yes, synthetic reeds are the best choice. Unless you know how to skillfully adjust reeds, I don't see the instability the instability of cane making up for its "better sound" if it even does have a "better sound".
Also, why can't reeds be played dry? And please don't say wet reeds work best for you
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-04-11 16:06
If it works best for them then it it is best for them.
A wet reed responds quite differently from a dry one (just try it).
As you start to play on a dry reed it is inevitably going to get wet and hence change it's response.
Some makers have tried to make plastic covered cane reeds but with limited success at least on the clarinet. I believe some sax players do use them but a sax is much less fussy about it's reed than the clarinet.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2012-04-11 16:50
Or is it that sax players are less fussy about their sound than clarinet players?
:)
Karl
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Author: ramsa
Date: 2012-04-12 14:44
Well, I took a chance and bought a synthetic reed last night. Legere #2 1/2 strength in a clear looking plastic. Very strange to me...
It plays very easily, but having some learning curve with higher notes to begin with. The sound is different from organic reeds. Almost like a chorus pedal on an electric guitar. Lots of overtones. I "think" I like it, but must be an aquired taste.
Only got about 45 minutes to mess with it last night, but sure got me thinking about how nice it would be to have a stable situation for reed choice.
$20 and tax. Not too bad, if it lasts for 6 months or so...
All part of the fun, I guess.
:)
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2012-04-12 16:47
Not desirable, in my experience- they get enough in use.
richard smith
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