Author: cjwright
Date: 2009-09-05 19:59
In my oboe lesson yesterday, my oboe professor and I were discussing instruments, and he stated, "There are three things that create the sound: the player, the reed, and the oboe, the player being the most important and the oboe being the least."
Mr. Weber used to tell me the same thing, and in one of my first lessons with him, he gave me some really tiny, bright, unpleasant reeds and said, "Go play on those this week." When I complained to him, stating that I could make much better reeds than them, he replied, "Everyone can play on good reeds. Few can play on bad. Go learn how to play on bad reeds so that you have an embouchure that can cover and brighten, play loud and soft, even on small reeds. Learn how to draw water out of a rock." It was one of the most poignant moments of my training with him.
I mention all of this just to state that while reeds are important, don't forget the most important aspect of playing is the player. A friend starting at Oberlin this year told me that Alex Klein is wary of freshmen who can make fantastic reeds, namely because he believes they become to dependent upon the reed rather than themselves.
Having said that, Drew's explanation of scraping a reed without windows but with a super refined tip so that it has the correct tone is a good one. In fact, when someone orders a reed on a RDG 2 (a very wide shape), I usually make a reed very similar to this. (I do have to make sure the sides are not too thick so that the opening is gigantic, and not to thin so that the upper register doesn't sag, but that's a different matter).
One last thing that most people don't think about: a reed that thinner but perfectly in balanced (and vibrates from the tip, through the heart, into the windows and onward), will sound much fuller, darker, and deeper than a reed that is thicker but is not in balance (i.e. the vibrations stop in the heart and don't make it to the windows or so). Often times if you take an old reed and scrape through the channels of the heart, the tone will fill in and sound darker, but the stability goes out the window. Reedmaking is a careful balancing act between taking too much off and not taking enough, and you never figure out the right point until you've gone too far a bunch of times.
Cooper
http://cooperwrightreeds.com/
Blog, An Oboe In Paradise
Solo Oboe, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra
Post Edited (2009-09-05 20:01)
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