 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: A_person13
Date: 2006-02-14 04:53
How long did it take you to lose your "dying duck sound" and to finally have a nice sound? Since I've only played for three months,I think I still have it a little bit. I want to see how long it will take me to finally have a sound that my family wants to listen to,and not them say it's loud and annoying..
By the way,I'm wondering,why does my B flat(middle one) seem to stick out of the rest of the band(it's not in tune?)Everything else sounds ok,but that B flat sticks out a lot.
And anybody know why my alternative e flat won't play?Sometimes it plays if I only play the regular e flat,but any other time it doesnt.If it helps anyhow,Im using a school owned Selmer Signet.
Thanks,
A_person13
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Author: sylvangale
Date: 2006-02-14 07:30
So long as you keep practicing you will eventually sound better. It would help immensely if you could find an oboe teacher, they would make sure you start off correctly at least.
The Bb could be the instrument or it could be you. Since you say you sound like a dying duck, perhaps in time that would improve as well.
Sometimes the left Eb will not sound because the 3rd finger on the left hand stops covering the hole when you reach for the left Eb. Make sure your fingers are secure.
If you don't already have any method books you may want pick up a copy of the Rubank methods (Beginning ->Intermediate -> Advanced -> Advanced II) and pick up a copy of Gekeler Book II (skip I) and/or get the Barret Method. The Gekeler Book is largely the etudes from the Barret Method (40 progressive melodies), it's much easier to read (better print), not quite so big, and cheaper. I have both and the Gekeler is nice to have in addition for convenience sake.
Regards,
Stephen
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-02-14 13:24
Stephen's advice is good!
I would just add a couple of observations of my own.
Be sure you have the right idea about oboe embouchure. The thing that works best for me is to put my lips on the reed as if I were sucking on a drinking straw. Then, I try to maintain that shape while I turn my lips inward, being careful to create pressure ONLY at the corners of the lips (not in the center -- that will make the grip too tight and the sound too harsh).
Here are a few other things to consider:
-- are you resting your mouth on the reed, as if it were a mouthpiece? The oboe reed should be able to move around in your mouth a little. Make sure your back teeth and the back of your mouth feel very open while you are blowing.
-- are you playing pretty much on the tip of the reed, or are you letting your lips go down and almost cover the threads? Try to stay out on the tip. That way, less of the reed is left free to vibrate inside your mouth, and the sound will be mellower.
-- when you look at yourself in a mirror while you are playing, what does your mouth look like? If your lips are drawn back into a tight "smile", your sound will tend to be harsh. They need to feel rounder, and feel "bunched up, with the pressure coming in from the side of the mouth.
-- how resistant is your reed? You want a reed that responds easily, but some soft or medium soft reeds (especially the kind that you typically find at music stores) are so soft they sound like kazoos no matter what you do.
-- how hard are you blowing? Too much air forced through a soft reed sounds very quacky. Try for a consistent, controlled air stream that is neither as loud as, nor as quiet as, you can blow.
-- feel the air inside your mouth as if it were going UP over the back of your (raised) soft palate to the bridge of your nose, not out into the oboe.
Keep trying! Get help from a real live oboe-playing teacher or advanced student whose tone you like. A lot of school music teachers unfortunately haven't had much experience with the oboe -- maybe only a few weeks (if that) during their woodwind pedagogy class in college. Make sure what you get is good information.
Keep trying!
Susan
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-02-14 16:47
Also -- a follow up to your question about the overly bright B flat, and the balky E flat.
The Bb problem is probably related to your general tone production issues, or possibly to the adjustment of the Bb relative to the B and C. A teacher or repair person should be able to help you with the adjustment there. It's a simple one, if you know how to do it!
The throat tones on the oboe tend to be brighter, or harsher, than the other oboe tones in the best of circumstances. Open your throat, give them a little more lip coverage (NOT pressure -- just more lip), and they should sound better.
The alternate Eb key may be a little bent. I have had this happen without my even knowing it was happening. The key can get bent just from how it lays in the case, making it difficult to close the key completely. If you're sure it's not a fingering problem, have a repair person check it out.
Susan
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-02-14 18:15
A lot of my early dying duck sound was due to having too much of the reed in my mouth, I discovered. The rule of thumb is you should have 1/16" or so in your mouth. Go and get a ruler and look at it--1/16 of a inch is really just a sliver of reed.
Part of the reason I was choking up on the reed was because my pitch was flat the further towards the tip I played, so I played further up the reed, and thus was in tune--but squawking. So I had to figure out how to correct pitch with embouchure.
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Author: A_person13
Date: 2006-02-15 03:04
Well I found out how to finally make the alternative E-flat to play.I have to put less pressure than I usually put with the regular E-flat fingering.This,I have no clue why.
For my mouth to be at tip,this is kind of a problem because my mouth puts in a lot of saliva,and my mouth slips.
And my friend did kind of cheer me up when they said that even proffesional oboist sound like ducks.
Also,there is no oboe teacher around a 10 mile radius,and I dont want to travel 30 minutes to the nearest one.
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-02-15 13:51
<<< For my mouth to be at tip,this is kind of a problem because my mouth puts in a lot of saliva,and my mouth slips. >>>
Your lips, the part that is actually touching the reed, shouldn't be wet at all. They should be quite dry, or at the most, slightly moist. The wet "spit" part goes on INSIDE your mouth, at the end of the reed, with your tongue. But the outside part of your lips shouldn't be wet.
You should have the dry part, the outside red part that lipstick goes on, of your lips touching the reed, not the wet drool-y inside part that you chew on and get cold sores on. If your mouth is slipping on the reed, you've possibly got the reed in your mouth wrong-- are you're pooching your lips out in a "smooch" pucker-up kiss formation?
And if your embouchure is so wet that spit is dribbling out your mouth and down the sides of your reed, making you lose your grip on it, that's WAY too much. You're relying too much on spit to moisten your reed. It's possible to hold back on the spit--get yourself a tiny plastic container (I use a film canister, and if you want one, you'd better act quick before digital renders them completely obsolete and unobtainable) with about a half-inch of water in the bottom, and dip the reed into THAT when it starts feeling dry and won't sound. Spit is over-rated as a reed-moistener--water works a LOT better. All those orchestral oboists on PBS "Great Performances" who work their way through an entire concerto or symphony have little containers of water clipped to their music stand that the PBS cameras don't show you.
I actually find that if I use a lot of spit to wet my reed while I'm playing, sooner or later I get a keyhole or the octave key plugged up. So, use less spit.
Because you NEED to have your mouth at the tip. You're never going to get away from the dying duck sound if you've chronically got your mouth up on the un-scraped part of the reed. Imagine if a baseball player always had his hands choked up on the bat. He's never going to get his batting average up, is he?
And also, if you're holding the reed too high up at the unscraped "grass stem" part, you don't have as much traction to grip it. It's slippery there, whereas the scraped part has more texture and so is easier to grip with your lips.
Also, it's round up there, and your lip muscles have a lot more trouble gripping and flexing on a round slippery object than they do gripping and flexing on a flat textured object (the end of the reed).
And it's STIFF up there--that unscraped grass stem part just won't flex. The flat scraped part is the part that's designed to flex.
And the "flexing" part is actually the most important thing, because FLEXING your lips around the reed is the way you control all the important things like pitch, tone color, and dynamics. If you're just basically grabbing onto the reed with your lips and hanging on for dear life and blowing into it, then you've basically got yourself a $700 duck call there.
And, NO, whoever told you that "all oboists sound like dying ducks" needs to get out of the house more. An oboe should sound sweetly and wistfully pensive, a unique tone color that is as unlike a dying duck as I can imagine.
Here is what an oboe should sound like. WAV file.
http://www.audiosparx.com/sa/play/play.cfm/sound_iid.538
You go down to the library and you ask the Reference Librarian to help you find some recordings of oboe concertos and oboe sonatas. Then you come back and tell me that THOSE oboists sound like dying ducks, and I'll eat this keyboard.
<<< Well I found out how to finally make the alternative E-flat to play.I have to put less pressure than I usually put with the regular E-flat fingering.This,I have no clue why. >>>
By "less pressure", you mean less air pressure? Or less pressure on the key?
Either way, if you're finding that you have to do something drastically different for Alt-Eb than you do for Regular E-b, I'd say there's something mechanically wrong with your oboe's keys. If you hold the oboe in playing position (don't bash your reed with your teeth, now) and look down the barrel at how the keys work, you'll see that the mechanism that creates that Eb note when played by either pinky is actually the same--it's opening the exact same hole on the left-hand side of the barrel. The only difference between Alt-Eb and Regular Eb is that the oboe designers have made a longer key that you can work with your left pinky in order to reach down and close that exact same hole. So you shouldn't really have to do anything radically different in order to obtain that same note whether you're opening that hole with your right pinky or with your left pinky. And the fact that you're finding that you need to press more lightly on the left-hand key says to me that that that left-hand key mechanism is out of whack, that it's already opening that hole a bit, so in order to open the hole the rest of the way with your left pinky, you don't need to press as hard.
Which is a Bad Thing.
You're using a school instrument? Gosh, it's been kicking around the band room for ages, since the last time they had an oboist in the school district, and goodness knows when was the last time someone cleaned and adjusted it. Tell your band director that you NEED a professional oboe adjuster to adjust your oboe, 'cause something ain't right here. And you HAVE to do this, because if you're learning on a bad instrument, you're learning bad habits to compensate for its poor quality that will come back and bite you on the butt later on, when you move up to a "real" oboe.
It's not a big issue to find a professional oboe adjuster--it's always the company that rents all the band instruments to everybody in town. Your band director can tell you in about 2 seconds who it is, or you can ask one of the flutists or clarinetists where they got theirs.
Post Edited (2006-02-15 13:59)
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Author: A_person13
Date: 2006-02-16 01:39
Well,,its not actually my mouth that has spit,it's the reed.It's either its way too soak,or spit comes to the reed and it makes my mouth slip.(By the way,I do have a film canister to soak my reed.)
And the "less pressure" thing,I mean less pressure on the reed(like squeezing the reed with my mouth).Speaking of pressure,I have a hard time playing my lower notes.I try to not put any pressure on the reed at all,but it likes to jump to the higher octave.Any help on this?
I officially hate D-flats,e-flats,and low notes,since I ended doing quite a horrible job on a playing test we did.Ah well,luckily,my friends were quite nice when saying I didnt play that well.
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-02-16 01:43
I suspect Dutchy has a good point, when she questions the status of your instrument's adjustment and repair.
An oboe is difficult enough to play smoothly when it is in good shape. When there's something wrong -- even "little" things -- it can drive you nuts, and impede your progress.
I vote for taking it on a visit to your (or the school's) repair person.
And, yeah. Less pressure on the reed. It's your air, not your lips, that need to do the heavy lifting.
Susan
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-02-16 02:03
<<< since I ended doing quite a horrible job on a playing test we did.Ah well,luckily,my friends were quite nice when saying I didnt play that well. >>>
Aw, geez, honey, you've only been playing for 3 months--anyone who would be testing you for competence at this early stage needs to have their head examined. [rolleyes] Was this the teacher? Not a very good teacher, IMO. Does he really not understand that the oboe is the most difficult instrument of all to play?
Question: were the "Gosh, I've only been playing this thing for 3 months" beginner flutes, clarinets, trumpets, and others also tested? Or was it just you?
At the end of MY first three months I was still stuck in Book 1 with the likes of "Go Tell Aunt Rhodie", and was only able to play for about 5 minutes altogether before my embouchure collapsed in exhaustion. The prospect of having someone TEST me for playing competence at that baby-beginner stage is frankly mind-boggling, and appalling.
Yeah, the lower octaves do tend to jump to the upper octave, and are harder to play. You have to learn how to finesse the reed so as to get each note out, because each and every note on an oboe is completely different, requires a completely different approach. No "push-button flutes" here.
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Author: d-oboe
Date: 2006-02-16 02:11
Once you finally get your instrument checked (and probably repadded) by an *oboe repair specialist* you can consider these few things...
Think of building your sound from the bottom up. Try this little test: play without using your mouth to control at all, use JUST your air. Seal your lips extremely loosely around the reed.
Now, breathe in very deeply so that you can feel expansion against your belt area. Let some of this air go; you want to feel pleasant and relaxed, not stuffed with air.
Still, without using your mouth for control - make a seal only - make a sound in the oboe. It will probably sound wild and really honky, but try to make it sound as best you can WITH YOUR AIR ONLY. Now, if you actually need to, use your mouth to fine-tune the sound. Do this every day and your sound will improve.
Try not to get too caught up in what parts of your lips are showing. You need to practice, but mostly experiment, to see what position produces the most resonant sound. Ideally, you want a low jaw. This will allow your top lip to be more forward than your bottom lip. If it's reversed, you will have absolutely no control of the reed, and the air will be pinched off by the jaw.
Long tones.
They NEVER go away. Even 65 year old oboists still do them. But consider them as therapeutic. You get a chance to relax and just listen to yourself without having to fuss over moving fingers. Practice starting the note, holding the note, and ending the note. The pitch should stay the same, with no sagging or flying up.
Practice this with an in-tune piano, or electronic keyboard with loudspeakers. I am really against using a tuner for practicing tuning, as it doesn't really teach anything except how to make the tuning needle go even. Practicing with a piano forces you to match, with your ear, your oboe to a piano. This is extremely helpful when playing in ensembles, and having to match to the given pitches.
Reed-ups.
To gain flexibility in the embouchure, thus making it easier to tune pitches, practice rolling the reed in and out on your lips. With one finger, hold your jaw down as far as it will *comfortably* go, and then put the reed in your mouth. Roll the reed up and down as many times as you can. Try doing 5 sets of 10. Your mouth will probably be a bit sore, but this ok. The most important thing, however, is to keep that jaw down. Never let it come up into a biting position. Also, make sure there is a continuous sound coming out of the reed, as if it were played in the oboe.
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Author: d-oboe
Date: 2006-02-16 02:17
"Yeah, the lower octaves do tend to jump to the upper octave, and are harder to play. You have to learn how to finesse the reed so as to get each note out, because each and every note on an oboe is completely different, requires a completely different approach. No "push-button flutes" here."
I would just like to comment on this one. I agree that every note on an instrument (not just oboe, any of them) has it's different tendencies...BUT we have to play them in such a way that those tendencies aren't obvious. The trick to that is having a really solid musical phrase. A nice continuous breath. That way, problem notes just fall into the woodwork, instead of sticking out because we gave them extra attention.
For example...."Oh that stupid top line F is sssooooo flat....here it comes....here it comes....!" What usually ends up happening is that the F comes out bad because we stress about it. It's better to just blow a nice full sound, and usually only make a teeny-tiny adjustment, if any.
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Author: HautboisJJ
Date: 2006-02-16 03:43
That was my biggest mistake years ago when i first started playing, i complaint about the intonation of the notes, i focussed on them indivually and what happened was it was over the top. Notes came out worst and i couldnt phrase well, and everything sounded separated. And no, professionals don't sound like ducks for God's sake...
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Author: A_person13
Date: 2006-02-16 04:52
Actually,it was me who thought I was bad,not the teacher.Yes,everybody else did get tested,but they werent beginners(besides the french horn and the baritones,but they've been playing with the band the whole time).Luckily,I caught up to their speed(sort of) in about 3 weeks(and they've been playing for three months!)Something that makes me proud is that accomplishment.By the way,they were testing us just to see if we practiced everyday,since if we sound bad,it's obvious we didnt.
"And, yeah. Less pressure on the reed. It's your air, not your lips, that need to do the heavy lifting."
Oh yeah,I forgot that that having slower air is how you blow on lower notes.Thanks for reminding me.
Yeah,you guys are right,I shouldn't anticapate a note,I should just play it.
Thanks,A_person13.
Just something weird I found on my LaVoz reed.It crows really weak,but it plays quite loudly on my oboe.And if I sound too much like a kid the whole time throughout the post,Im a middle school 7th grader,and maybe the only student in the two of our middle schools who play the oboe.
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-02-16 08:51
<<How long did it take you to lose your "dying duck sound" and to finally have a nice sound? >>
got first 'nice tone' comments 7 months after starting, but went through very sharp pitched & shrill 'drac bite' phase for about as long again, it's sounding sweeter more often now at 17-18 months
<<By the way,I'm wondering,why does my B flat(middle one) seem to stick out of the rest of the band(it's not in tune?)Everything else sounds ok,but that B flat sticks out a lot>>
stoopid question, you are playing B-flat with 3 fingers not 2? left top 1 & 2 with right 1? if so, good, other posts have better ideas
<<And anybody know why my alternative e flat won't play?Sometimes it plays if I only play the regular e flat,but any other time it doesnt.If it helps anyhow,Im using a school owned Selmer Signet >>
wonky left E-flat key, needs fixing
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Author: HautboisJJ
Date: 2006-02-16 09:08
I suffered on La Voz reeds for some time, ditch them. No vibration, bad opening, everything.
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-02-16 13:04
Thanks, d-oboe, for your most cogent discussion of the tone production issues we have raised here. This obviously is a subject that hits home for many of us!
I especially appreciate the point about being in tune with the tuner, versus being in tune with the ensemble.
I'm playing (oboe) with a handbell group this weekend. Now THERE is a challenge. Handbells have all these overtones that, in the best of circumstances, sound a little, uh, "tinny". And depending on the technique of the individual ringer, the sound of a bell can begin well on-pitch, or distorted. And once rung, there is no adjusting it. So, you get 11 or twelve people simultaneously ringing two or more of these un-adjustable tones, each according to their own lights. And then you throw an oboe on top of that. It is a recipe for intonation nightmares.
And just to make it interesting, the composer has written the oboe part to lie on and around the dreaded "middle" C -- the one that on the oboe tends to be problematic in and of itself. And the dynamic is given as mp or pp -- long, tapered notes at the ends of phrases.
I went to rehearsal last night using a reed which hit the needle as well as any reed I have ever played, and it immediately sounded flat to the bells. So, now I am contemplating whether I need to change reeds (to one that plays sharp to the tuner needle?) or somehow compensate in my own technique. I love the reed I am using -- it's very mellow and very responsive, and I'm surely not going to chop it off just to meet the needs of this one piece.
How much would you say one can roll in on, or choke up on, the reed, before the oboe tone starts to suffer? Any hints on how to minimize the damage here?
Susan
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Author: d-oboe
Date: 2006-02-16 13:29
Oh pitch. What a b_____.
For your handbell situation, try using a slightly higher reed, if you have one. I think handbells are pitched higher than A440 reference if I'm not mistaken.
Other than that, just boost your air a little, and roll in a little.
If it is an older reed, try scraping the back, as this tends to raise pitch on finished reeds. Make sure to scrape ONLY the channels, avoiding the rails and spine, otherwise pitch can go down. If the pitch doesn't change dramatically, it should at least give you better flexibility to bend the pitch up.
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-02-16 15:12
<<< my LaVoz reed >>>
Oh for heaven's sakes. [HUGE rolleyes] Honey, you're using what are IMHO the WORST mass-produced reeds I've ever personally encountered. They're absolutely atrocious.
Do yourself a favor and move up to at least Fox factory-made reeds. At Giardinelli's they're the exact same price as the Lavoz, $6.99, and are tons better, considering that they're factory reeds.
Get a couple of Fox Medium-Soft, as they don't offer a Soft. And they may sound flat at first, but that's your embouchure: don't rush in there and clip the tip like the reed-adjusting manuals tell you to do--give them a week of playing before you decide they're flat.
Fox reeds.
http://www.giardinelli.com/product/Woodwinds/Accessories?sku=462726
I have been ordering online from Giardinelli's for nearly a year now, and it's super easy with a credit card, I've had no problems whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I just ordered some Gower reeds from them Sunday night, and they arrived Wednesday afternoon.
Giardinelli's themselves used to offer decent mass-produced student reeds, but I see that they've dropped them from their online catalog. Probably not enough demand.
If your parents don't feel comfortable ordering online with a credit card, you can quite easily request Giardinelli's to send you a catalog, and order your reeds with snail mail and a check.
Catalog request.
http://www.giardinelli.com/srs7/g=home/cr/catalog/
Whatever you do, don't order your Fox reeds from the Friendly Neighborhood Band Instrument Store (even though your parents may say, "Well, but it's so convenient, Mr. So-And-So says he can have them here by Wednesday"), because they will charge you a humongous markup, and they'll end up costing $12 instead of $7.
And you really ought to order several at a time, because that way you eventually end up with a stock of reeds in reserve, for when you bash your "good" reed against your teeth and break off the tip. None of us here have only "the" reed or "a" reed; we all have huge collections of reeds. Which is normal. So you need to start working on accumulating your own huge collection of reeds, and if your folks have a problem with that, just send them to me and I'll explain it. You're not playing a cheap instrument; oboe reeds are just darn expensive compared to clarinet reeds.
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Author: kelloboe
Date: 2006-02-16 18:10
Thumbs up to Fox reeds. During my first lesson with my teacher (a local high school band director), he asked me what brand reed I played, I told him and he told me to put it away. He handed me a soaked Fox medium soft reed and told me to play. I couldn't believe the difference that reed made. It wasn't a battle of me against the reed. He had me look at the tips of several new Fox reeds and observe whether they were too open or too closed or opened more to one side or the other. We discussed the impact that had on their playability. When buying, I now review 10 to 15 reeds at a time and may only selecct 1 or 2 that meet my "playability" criteria. The reed, in my case, has made all the difference. Now that I have been playing for almost a year, I make a point of pulling out some of my less-forgiving reeds (I have over a dozen - ouch$$$$) and push myself to play and adjust to their unfavorable characteristics. You never know when you might be playing with a less-than-ideal reed. I hope to transfer to a college level instructor who makes his or her own reeds - maybe then I can tweek my stash of misc. reeds! Kelly
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Author: A_person13
Date: 2006-02-17 13:53
"got first 'nice tone' comments 7 months after starting, but went through very sharp pitched & shrill 'drac bite' phase for about as long again, it's sounding sweeter more often now at 17-18 months"
Well thanks for answering to the question the thread was really inteded for,but I like the advice to by the way.
Just wondering,when do you know to change the hardness of your reed?Sometimes I feel my medium soft reed is a bit soft,and I end up squeezing it too easily.I find that it is much easier when the reed is a little harder,but I dont really want to waste money if the medium is way too hard for me.
Also,what is the "left-hand f?"Ive heard many times,but I can't seem to find it on my oboe.Anyone know the fingering of that,or what keys I need for that?
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-02-17 20:09
I dunno about reed hardness. You just have to experiment. What matters most for me is reed responsiveness -- i.e., how readily it allows the tone to start, and how well it plays in the extremes of the range. That's an issue pretty much independent of resistance, in my experience. I think people sometimes confuse resistance and responsiveness, however.
As for "left hand F", your oboe either has it, or it doesn't. It's another key over there in the left hand pinky stack on the lower joint. You might have two, three, or four such keys. Best is four. Worst is two.
My first oboe didn't have left hand F. If I had known how much I was going to need it, I would never have bought an oboe without it.
Susan
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-02-18 00:32
<<when do you know to change the hardness of your reed? Sometimes I feel my medium soft reed is a bit soft,and I end up squeezing it too easily.
I find that it is much easier when the reed is a little harder,but I dont really want to waste money if the medium is way too hard for me.>>
When your medium-soft reed is done for, bite the bullet and get a medium, never look back. Pre-soak it right out of the box for 15 maybe 20 minutes before trying to blow it for first time.
<<Also,what is the "left-hand f?"Ive heard many times,but I can't seem to find it on my oboe.Anyone know the fingering of that,or what keys I need for that?>>
Left-hand F (LHF) is an extra F key fitted as a straight lever key over the left pinky set. It's the left alternative to basic right F. Since you're asking, maybe your oboe model isn't fitted with it.
Sometimes the term 'left-F' could also mean -- when there's no F resonance key on very basic beginner oboes, can use E-flat key to brighten forked F's. Can use right E-flat key -- or left E-flat key -- to do this, depends if you're playing key signature with 4 or more flats.
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-02-18 01:24
You'll know when it's time to move up to a medium reed when you find that your medium-soft reed keeps closing up on you when you try to play it, that it doesn't give you enough resistance.
Also, be aware that different reed-maikers have different opinions of what "soft", "medium" and "Hard" mean: I found that Fox reeds tend to be softer than other reeds. A Fox medium to me felt like a Soft by other reedmakers, and an Evans medium-soft that I bought on eBay I still can't play comfortably, it's just too hard.
There's nothing automatic about when you should move up to a harder reed; it's just when the reed you're using starts feeling too flabby and soft.
You'll just know, that's all.
But you shouldn't judge by the LaVoz reed you're using. Spend some time playing with Fox reeds. Get yourself a couple medium-soft AND a couple mediums, and fool around with them.
Make sure you mark them to tell them apart. I put little pieces of red thread around the Mediums.
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The Clarinet Pages
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