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Re: Performance time: 5 new reeds, 1 winner

Author: C. Crow
Date: 2006-08-08 14:58

I never realized that Mack made so many reeds each day. Did he soak up the reeds from the day before, first, to see if they still played? I do remember during my Saturday morning lessons with him (25 years ago) how quickly he seemed to be able to perk up my best "finished" reed, talking all the while.... Suddenly I didn't need the alligator embouchure.

As for myself I find that the "auto pilot" approach can work only in the very early stages of the scraping process--with a reed that has been scraped for 2 or 3 minutes and is still mostly bark but with a very long, unclipped tip I feel it's possible to gauge the quality of the cane, opening, and tone, and determine whether it's worth investing more time. If not, snap.

I have tried to teach myself not to spend time on a reed that will never be good, based on this early evaluation. Of course I always said that. I always thought I was doing that. Now though I think I'm better at really doing it!

Also I try to have the reedmaking process (from that point onward) be a linear process of improving the reed with each burst of scraping. I try to avoid scraping so fast that I reach a point where I am trying to compensate for a mistake in the scrape or fix something that I goofed up. Maybe this is obvious to other people but it has taken me a long time to figure it out. And I suppose many things I only half learned are holding me back. Among my big mistakes was trying to work as fast as Mack did during my lessons. Especially at that final finishing I try to work TEN times slower than he did.

I usually only make one or two reeds during the day and I usually do not expect the reed to be completely "finished" before I get to my job. However it does usually have a proper crow and resistance. My warm up after finishing the reed consists of quarter note scales in all keys. Then I put it away until I get to work.

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