Author: vboboe
Date: 2007-03-23 02:00
Yes, I think embouchure grows and develops over time, but i've no idea when it could be said to be 'stable' rather than just on a long plateau.
IMO your embouchure has probably changed a lot (stronger) than 5 years ago, since you're finding the hardest are currently more playable than back then
However, none of my reeds have lasted that long -- 5 years! Wow!
If i couldn't play them as they were, I fixed them so they were playable, and either lost the reed trying to do that, or blew them out entirely. When reeds in regular use are past their prime i retire them for a long vacation (about 6 weeks) then revisit them as home practice reeds. Some reeds that retired as 'playable' are sometimes found to be unusable by then.
As my expectations for tuning or dynamic range have improved, i've grown more intolerant of former playable reeds that won't deliver for me later, so out they go (salvage the tubes). I can do this easily enough, because i haven't invested in high quality cane or expensive, professionally made reeds at this early stage in my playing, el cheapo is disposable (even if the annual bill is still staggering!)
At 3.5 yrs now, i've only moved up to hard commercial reeds myself just recently, CHEERS, CHEERS, but can't manage my teacher's hand-made Magnificents at all, much too hard for me yet. When i outgrow the commercial hard, i do hope to be self-sufficient in my own hand-mades by then
For those who've been following my reed-making woes on tough hard standard American scrape, teacher has abandoned that with me for now and recently started using the Philly? modified American with taper scrape, O Joy, i can play them, they've improved my sound, they're moderately structured, will play longer before rotation, they're much easier to make successfully, and the biggest thrill of all, as it helps me realise i really am making progress -- grade 7 band oboe students say these are too hard for them to play :-)
Some of my clarinet and sax friends in band say a similar thing, they are playing harder reeds than when they started 3-5 years ago, although most of them are happy on medium or medium hard at the moment, and none of them bother hanging on to softer reeds as they don't expect to revisit them
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