Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-01-03 12:22
Howard,
It is definitely my experience that new reeds change a great deal over the first several days of playing them. I have developed a rule of thumb, that I DON'T do anything to a new reed for at least three days -- perhaps longer. My teacher is the one who got me started on this. She says she has ruined too many good reeds by being impatient and scraping too much, only to find that the reed changes in ways that she could not have predicted.
I don't know that I've ever had any that started off terribly flat, for example, that came all the way up. (And by terribly flat, I mean a reed which registers as a G# on the tuner, when I am blowing an A. Unfortunately, I have run into some like that.)
More typical is a reed with a big opening, which at first sounds hooty and registers flat. Quite often, these will "play in" well -- the opening closes down and as a consequence, the pitch comes up and the tone quality moderates.
I've also had the experience (more than once) of putting an unadjusted reed in the "reject" box after a few days, then going back to it in desperation weeks or months later to find that the reed fairies have apparently been there, and it has become pretty good. Go figure.
I don't throw a reed away, ever, unless it is split up the middle. And even then, I save the tubes.
Susan
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