Author: vboboe
Date: 2005-07-10 17:59
Hi Ashley
... it's usually a good idea to *** blow-in *** all new reeds before making any adjustments ... most commercial reeds are sold on the expectation they will play right away, so get the right hardness for you, and expect your new reed to play for you
It's better to have a new reed that's more open to begin with, because playing will flatten it down anyway ... also, you'll find harder (and more open) reeds much easier to play if they're well wetted through first ... a little bit extra time soaking (but not too much) can make quite a difference
*** Blowing-in *** means ... pre-soaking bone-dry brand new reed for about 20 minutes (that is, until it's nicely moist and pliable for playing, or up to 30 mins if it still seems too stiff) ... then play on it awhile.
Put it away in airy container, and tomorrow, soak only as long as needed for playability, then play it awhile again.
After a few days of this blowing-in process, your reed will be more conformed to your own embouchure ... it's easier to tell what it's doing for you or isn't doing for you
After this preliminary blowing-in period, then you adjust it ... remember, all reeds blow sharper with age, so if your reed is crowing about right, only a bit flat of C already, don't sharpen it up by tipping or scraping, it'll blow-in up to pitch by itself with more use
But, my experience is that commercial reeds blow several semi-tones below C in naturally comfortable embouchure ... the goal is to make your reed play C-harmonic overtones in the oboe, which is a C instrument, so you play most of the pipe in tune with itself (even so, oboes have some notes a bit out of tune, you have to lip these into shape)
If you're tight embouchure, like me (almost ready to transition to more flesh on lower lip, hoboy, these lip muscles need to be really fine-tuned to manage the buzz!) then you can probably lip up a reed crowing at very flat C just right.
On the other hand, if you're loose embouchure ... playing flat most of the time ... tone still honky ... medium reeds still seem too hard or too open ... then maybe your embouchure needs some extra firming up, strong enough to play for an hour, before using any knife or razor blade to adjust any of your reeds
... although, it's more rewarding to play in tune, so this would mean you'll have to choose to practice reed-fixing to suit embouchure as it is just now, and go through a lot more reeds while you're bringing your embouchure up to par (medium reed / play 1 hour) ... it's a money/learning trade-off decision
... to save money try *** drinking straw exercises *** to speed up the embouchure process ... while you're practicing knife skills on the garden canes mentioned to you in earlier post
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