Author: vboboe
Date: 2007-01-27 22:32
... dunno if this has relevance or not to cutting a good reed, what do you reed-experienced think?
Here are some bees buzzing in my brain, maybe some bats in belfry ...
Oboe 23.5 inches long, w/o reed
Length of cane above thread, when cut at 70.5 mm, is 23.5 mm of 'free' cane for vibrations ... seems like a ratio of 1 mm cane to 1 inch oboe?
So theoretical optimum reed length seems to be 70.5 mm?
... moving on to other bees and bats?
My reed teacher tells me that good test notes on oboe for reed are E F F# G all semitones apart, especially F to F#, if clear semitone, good, if not much difference or fuzzy, no good
OK, but how do i know what to do when cutting a reed to get clear semitones on test notes?
These test notes seem to relate, on above scale, to the heart windows just under the catch, so if the reed is fuzzy at F to F# should maybe adjust heart windows (maybe not equally thinned?) rather than say tip, hump or back (of course it depends!)
OK, other bee-buzzes ...
more wood left on gets higher steady tone with darker sound
more wood taken off gets lower steady tone with brighter sound
When playing we rollover down to the back of reed for high register notes, so we're actually going down onto thicker wood where there are higher-pitched vibrations -- trade-off is thicker wood gives darker sound for very high notes that would otherwise sound quite shrill
In reverse, we rollout to end of tip for lowest register notes, which is on thinnest wood, easier lower vibrations with brighter sound for notes otherwise sounding quite heavy
OK, so my theoretical reed-cut problem is, trying to clarify which way to cut the heart windows, what am i aiming for when cutting the heart windows in order to get nice and clear F to F# semitone test in oboe?
Is it better to leave more wood on in the heart windows to squawk an easy high pitched F there, or taking a bit more wood off to squawk an easy high pitched E?
In theory it seems a lot easier to bite up F to F# rather than biting up E to F# but does more wood left on in the heart windows fuzz up the semitone test?
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