 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2006-06-10 16:41
I don't know if this will be useful to anyone but myself, but I thought I'd share it just in case it was. It's probably not applicable to really dedicated oboe students or professionals, but I know there are a few amateurs like me out there, and maybe my experience has some applicability to such folks.
I have been trying, for the last 4 months or so, to make reeds regularly--maybe three or four a week. I'll tie up a few on the weekend, then scrape one on Tuesday, one on Thursday, one or two on Saturday, etc. Results have not been good--much of my practicing has been on rather old reeds I made back in January, when I made a WHOLE BUNCH.
So last week, I was in Oregon visiting my parents, with not too many demands on my time, and I made a WHOLE BUNCH of reeds. I had a really high percentage of good reeds come out of the bunch. I'm thinking that "batch reedmaking" has some distinct advantages for the amateur who has lots of things going on besides oboe playing. For one thing, devoting, say, two hours at a time to just scraping reeds is good for concentration--much better than scraping a reed before work or after dinner, when my mind is anticipating the day or is too tired to function. Also, taking several reeds through the process in parallel helps me to see what I'm doing wrong, because I have several reeds to compare with each other at each point of the process. Such comparisons are good for reminding myself of what works, what doesn't, and how to fix what doesn't. When I make reeds one-at-a-time, I end up comparing a half-finished reed with an old tried-and-true wonder of the past. In that situation, it's hard to see how to get from here to there. The result is that I try and find the shortest distance between the two points, and end up impatiently ruining the half-finished reed before it has much of a chance.
I'm not sure that my recent success can be attibuted to the batch process or just luck, but I think I'm going to shift to devoting a few hours on the weekend just to making reeds, and not try to fit in one reed here or there. I'll see if that doesn't improve my yield of good reeds.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-06-10 18:13
... think we all have to find what works best for our (amateur) reed-making, with my day job being progressively exhausting September to June, can't cope with the concentration effort needed for exact precision work in the evenings, so like you i don't do one-a-day.
Besides, most evenings the light's not good enough, prefer daylight for doing reeds.
What works for me Sept- June is tying up three blanks on weekends and finish at least one of the three to playability for Mondays when i have my lesson and my teacher can evaluate my progress. A few quick finishing flicks of teacher's magic knife often transforms a so-so reed into a lesson-playing reed :-)
The other two out of my weekend tied three might be discards in the process, although some weekends i'm luckier than that, but most of my reeds so far haven't been that good, with problems that need the magic hand of my teacher to fix the right spots. If i don't chunk my tips, these are getting pretty good now! This american scrape is a complex challenge to get right!
This summer (vacation time) i plan on tying and making a whole batch of as close to playable reeds as i can, and try to build up a supply for next season.
So far my batting average on american scrape is (gulp) about 5% my so-so's to 10-12% successful after teacher's finishing touches, so light laundry basket's is filling up (ack!)
Split canes account for many of my losses (mostly tying, some during scraping) plus chunking off the tip ends, what are your main reed-making challenges?
As for reducing the number of splits during tying, i've been experimenting with a warm water dip after the pre-soak period, just before tying on, and i start my winding at about 44mm, work up to 47mm, ensure the sides close, then lap over and wind down.
Starting at 44mm has significantly reduced my quota of splits, and i think cane feels more pliable and shapes quicker and better around the tube when warm and wet rather than cold and wet.
I knot off differently from taught too, i loop a hitch over the tube, then a hitch on the tension end (held by the hook) then repeat twice. That way the finishing hitches are locked by each hitch over the tube (except the last hitch) None have unravelled since knotting off this way, touch wood.
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Author: d-oboe
Date: 2006-06-10 20:15
My method is to "make reeds when I already have good ones." It takes a bit of discipline to work this way, but the results are so much better, as stress isn't a factor in producing a functioning reed. And of course, you are less likely to make mistakes...but if you do, you can just stop, rather than frantically moving on to the next reed.
I try to keep all my available tubes full - whether it is an unopened blank, a partial scrape, a new reed, an aging reed, or a retired reed. I really feel that cane benefits enormously from just sitting around, tied onto the tube. It seems more "relaxed" and settled, rather than raw. I once had some partially scraped reeds that sat for a month before I actually did something with them, and it was so easy to scrape them!
I admit it takes a good long time to build up a stock of good reeds - not just saving bad ones - but with consistency it'll happen!
I personally recommend making fewer reeds, but more often. That way, if something goes wrong, or the gouger isn't working, or the reeds are leaky (that's a BIG one) only a few reeds get tossed rather than 30. And, it helps rectify the problem early on.
Since I keep my tubes mostly full, I usually only replace 2-3 reeds per week. (scraped-out into reeds, not just blanks)
D
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Author: Kai
Date: 2006-06-11 09:36
I second d-oboe in the 'fewer reeds, but more often' theory as I can't concentrate on making reeds for long stretches of time. Also, what I realise is that when I do something right or wrong on reed-making, I would still have fresh memories of them when I work on the next one in the next few days.
However, tying is a different matter.. I would tied as many as possible before my hands hurt from the string tension. Then I would take my time to scrape them. Besides, if I ever need to make a reed in an emergency situation, its good to know that I have blanks to work with.
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-06-11 14:14
... ooh, yes, string tying and hurting thumb (guiding thread), that's a big one for me, five or six is hand's maximum capacity on at one sitting, so i stick to only three at a time now, no good for playing when fingers hurt :-(
... i like the idea of keeping all available tubes tied up to cane, which is phase 1 of my summer plan, new batch cane just arrived so can start soon
... earlier on this year i tried to make more reeds in a sitting, not good idea as it turned out, so now my revised goal is to aim for 1 playable reed at a time, however long that takes, i'm hoping 3 days might work out as a good average
... talking of saving hands and fingers for playing, i'm much more wary when using kitchen knives or other sharp utensils while making dinners nowadays
... QUESTION -- with all these tubes tied up as blanks, a batch of over 2 dozen, what do people like to store their blanks in and how do folks like to keep them organized depending on various stages their reeds are in? How do you identify your reeds when they've arrived at playability and are good for this but not that or whatever, etc?
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-06-11 14:48
<<How do you identify your reeds when they've arrived at playability and are good for this but not that or whatever, etc?>>
I don't make my own reeds, but over the course of the past three years, I have bought a lot of different reeds, looking for the Holy Grail. I don't know that I have a GOOD system for keeping track of them, but I do have a system of sorts -- multi cases. I have one case that I keep for reeds that are currently the best of the crop. It's a 10-reed case, and I just know each one of them individually (no, I do not give them names . . .). I rotate among these daily, depending on the demands of the occasion.
For example, I keep the very best -- sweet, dark, and responsive -- for occasions when I am going to be heard in a close setting, or for when it matters -- like lessons, church performances, indoor concerts, rehearsals when I know there is a big exposed oboe spot, etc.
The rest of that first box, I pretty much gauge by responsiveness and tone color, and use the ones I can stand to hear for practice and for outdoor band.
I keep another case for reeds that are, say, too soft but not bad, or too resistant but not bad, or used-to-be-great but are almost dead, for those all-too-frequent occasions when I've just gotta find something to play on, or for when the weather is muggy and the reeds seem sluggish. This is the biggest group.
I have another case for reeds that are basically OK but "need something" -- and I haven't figured out what, yet. This is the place for reeds that OUGHT to be good, but aren't. Sometimes, one of them just gets better, for no apparent reason (just like some of the good guys go bad, for no apparent reason).
On top of this, I have two small cardboard boxes that I keep in the drawer of my little oboe-equipment chest. One box contains the dearly departed which have no hope of resuscitation -- the ones with smashed tips, split backs, big chips out of the sides -- and one strange reed that arrived with a tiny pinhole right through one side of the heart. Theoretically, these are the reeds that I'm going to take apart for salvage when I start making my own.
The other box contains reeds that just never did work right, or have become obsolete (for example, my beginner reeds, or reeds from makers whose style I used to like, but don't anymore). These are playable, and I do go through them now and then, but it's a pretty low-yield exercise. Still, I don't throw anything away, because . . . well . . . you just never know.
On any given day, the top of my little equipment chest has got reeds in various stages of classification laying around on top of it. Periodically, I go through them all (or at least, through the three cases), and see who is having a good day and who isn't. I'm always being surprised by what I've got.
Susan
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2006-06-11 20:40
Keeping all available tubes tied up is not something I have a problem with...just this morning I had to go through the 4th-string reeds looking for some to sacrifice for tubes. (I have dozens of old reeds on Plesnicar tubes, but I'm trying to be consistent with Dunkel tubes, and most of those are on good reeds.) Dumb of me not to order more tubes last time I ordered cane. It's a good sign, though, if I have so many reeds that are good enough to not to sacrifice for tubes! I'm definitely not in the position of making reeds in a panic; I have about 16 I think I could play in a concert. But only about 5 that I'd want to play in a concert; hence my continual search for better approaches to making reeds.
Keeping track of which reeds are which is a problem. I have different thread colors for some made with different canes, or different staples, but there are still 6 or 7 with bright red thread, 4 or 5 with the maroon thread, etc. Keeping track of them by position in reed cases was a strategy I tried, but then I got in the habit of taking out 4 or 5, soaking them up, and playing whichever one suited my mood for a particular day, and that strategy went out the window. So I've kind of given up on keeping track of reeds and just keep my best reeds in one half the reed case, and soak up a bunch every time I play.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2006-06-11 20:44
Splitting accounts for the demise of about a quarter to a third of my reeds, but not at the tying stage. If the cane splits outward just above the tie, no more than a few mm past the thread, I don't discard the reed. Fraying of the tip accounts for another third or so; I made some discoveries about knife sharpening techniques yesterday that will hopefully help me get that fraction down a bit, but I think concentration about knife position and stroke is most critical for these. Then there are those reeds that just get too much taken off in critical places, and just never make a good reed.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-06-12 05:15
... hey, yes, i've trended towards reed cases for sorting (batching?) my reeds and i keep my very best three in my oboe case, slot's not big enough for a larger reed-case, and these three reeds only get played for performances (hey, wow, i've done 7 this season up from 4 last year!)
Colour sorting by thread doesn't work for me, but it does help identify individual reeds. I've tried dotting or coding systems with marker directly on the cork, but that's fussy and messy to clean off the cork afterwards. Now i'm using little strips of masking tape and mark that instead.
For band practices, i use a couple of reed guards (2 reeds each) and keep them in my pockets, one is 'jazzy' for anything in that genre, one is sweet for numbers on the soft and mellow side, one is good and loud for pieces that only use fp's to separate ongoing ff's (and that means i can just about hear myself when the brass are strutting their puff) and another is everyday average for 'mechanical' passage repeats at rehearsals. This rotates reeds by the type of pieces we practice, rather than 'every 20 minutes'.
(well, that's what i try to get anyway, reeds which play like that at last week's band rehearsal don't always respond the same next week)
Then i have a 6-reed case for retirees, past their prime, but worthwhile using for home practice (they're usually soft toned and mellow), and i wrap the thread entirely in white tape so they're easily identified as oldies.
Now that i have a reed-making teacher, i've had to branch out into another 6 reed case, to keep my 'lesson' reeds in one readily accessible place, at the moment two are playable, one is 'wot the heck do i do with this ?!' and the others are waiting for me to start or do more work on them. I keep tied blanks in little boxes at the moment, until my lesson reed case has a vacancy, so I'm thinking about getting a 10 or 12 reed case for blanks and use the boxes for overflow of tied blanks.
As soon as any reed is blown out, i break it at once if it isn't frayed or split already, and when i have time and tool to cut the thread off, i salvage the tubes right away. I usually nick the thread and that unravels easily enough, the knotted part slides off the tube's narrower end. Usually i check and reshape the tube on the mandrel if necessary, sterisol the tube, clean and regrease the cork, and buff up the brass before storing in a tin for retying at some future date. That way when i'm in the mood to tie one on, the tube's ready to use.
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