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Reedmaking - By George, I may have just got it!

Author: DrewSorensenMusic
Date: 2013-04-03 18:53
Attachment: 001.JPG (127k)

Well, I'm a bit proud of myself today. I have leaped into the realm of being able to make reeds. Finally, took about a year, probably more.

The attached pic shows two of my reeds I made today. They haven't settled quite yet, I've probably finished my tip/blend work and will adjust the back and heart in the next days (I assume, I really haven't made any of the previous play well).

The reed on the right is shape Brannon X. The reed on the left is Sansom +3. The main differences I feel so far are as follows:

The Brannon X the way I scrape, I can't hit a high D in the initial scraping phases. Not really a problem, but it's interesting. The low register comes out great, and as I continue to finish the tip and heart, the high register slowly begins to form itself playable. The shape has a lot of power, and I am working on finding how to make this shape easier to play pianissimo in the lower register. The place seems to be the edge of the tip, closest to the heart.

The Sansom +3 has a sweet tone, but a lot more of work out of the back must be done for me to achieve a full bodied tone (of course, it feels like I hardly do any work out of the back of the Brannon X). Even in the beginning stages of scraping, the Sansom +3 seems to be playable in all registers, and it much easier to control the reed in the softer dynamic range. I will track this for a few days, and I fear that this shape may produce significantly less volume than the Brannon X.

They're not perfect, and I won't be putting these up for sale just yet, but it is a huge leap for me in my oboe career.

Cheers,

Drew S.

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