Author: Oboe Craig
Date: 2014-08-14 00:30
I had the great pleasure to meet Frank at IDRS in AZ a few years back, and we made the happy discovery that we'd both studied with Dick White in Wash. D.C.
When it comes to reeds, I have been a student of them since age 14, so 45 years and counting.
I think all the physical, mechanical and engineering knowledge we can decipher is well worth the effort.
Taken into the subjective world of reeds, it can only help.
I still puzzle about many things, such as why a reed soaked and held in the moth is subject to sudden variations when the relative humidity changes or the barometric pressure.
Here in CO, at altitude and mostly a dry place, reeds make some different demands from my east coast experiences.
I use lots of cane sources, some I've had for 30+ years. I develop an opinion about the hardness or softness, and certain expectations go along with that.
Softer cane usually = shorter finished reed, for instance.
Hard cane is sometimes easy to work with the knife and sometimes has a 'soapy' feel where taking off very small amounts to finish the reed is best left to silicone sand paper. The other hard cane, allows me to polish the extreme tip and corners off, when fairly dry and reed results are superior to the soapy ones.
Some cane seems to like more overlap, or more or less of an angled clip of the tip.
Some cane seems to work better at higher altitudes, or lower ones. I live at 6800 ft., and play from a mile high ( Denver) to 10,000+ feet up in the hills.
Canes characteristics play a big role in preparing for those different locations.
Figuring that out gives me more predictable control of cause and effect.
So, most of this subjective stuff still organizes into a practical process, where sampling, discovery, interpretation, etc. form a sort of (psych) profile for the cane's behavior.
At least, I find it helpful to think of things along these lines.
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