Author: d-oboe
Date: 2007-04-26 18:07
"I put the C crow at 440, and unlike the lucky others here, I have never had a reed work and play up to pitch that crowed anything under a C."
*Just* for the sake of arguing - why does an in-tune C crow mean that the reed itself will play in tune? Is there any way to prove that the pitch of the crow is directly related to the pitch produced by the player, and the oboe?
I would say, no, there isn't. In fact the "C" that many a crow is so gloriously tuned to isn't even the 440 pitch, it's the "A" that's 440! The "C" that shows up on a 440-tuner is an equal-tempered approximation!!
To me, the only surefire test to see if the reed will work is to play it in the oboe. That's the only test that matters, because that's the only task that is required of an oboist - play the oboe! What does it matter if it crows C here, and A out here, or whatever, or if the 2nd C comes in now, or with a little more air. It doesn't matter! If one is finding it hard to play in tune, but the reed crows the blessed C, does one go and blame oneself, and feel like a flunky oboist? No. The reed is not playing in tune, so it needs to be adjusted so that it does.
Now, having argued this - my playing reeds normally crow a C-C# in 2 octaves...but I haven't, in a fairly long time, crowed a reed against a tuner, and then clipped or scraped based on that pitch.
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