 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-06-24 23:22
... so, what's a reasonable average? -- from the combined experience of mixed skill levels of players on this bboard, how many playable reeds do we oboe players usually use up on average each year, based on hours of practice and playing? (not counting reject reeds if make your own)
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-06-25 02:32
" . . . (not counting reject reeds if make your own) . . ."
Does that mean we can't count reject reeds that we buy from someone else?
In my experience, at least, not every reed one purchases, even from skillful reedmakers, is good.
I honestly don't know how many I "use up" over a year's time. I have a lot of reeds that are in various stages of not-quite-dead -- some of them acquired as long as a year ago. Some reeds are like the Energizer Bunny (they keep going, and going and . . . ). Most of them aren't. What I REALLY hate is a reed that flattens itself out after one hard rehearsal or concert. I had one that did that on me this Spring -- bummer.
More typically, I go through a couple a week -- a week with a long rehearsal, a concert, and something between 1 1/2 to 3 hours of practice each day, and a lesson -- can't forget the lesson reed! That would come out to a little over 100 per year, it seems. But I don't think I have that many reed carcasses in my litttle boxes, so maybe it's less than that, or there are fallow periods when I don't go through them quite so quickly.
But I also rotate my reeds, so I may have 10 or twelve in various stages of playability at any given time. And I try to use the almost dead ones that were never anything to write home about for my own practice, and save the good ones for the ears of someone besides my dog and my husband.
Susan (who just today ruined a perfectly playable reed, trying to make it more responsive)
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Author: oboegy
Date: 2006-06-25 05:20
Great question! I'm an amateur, making all of my own reeds for the last three years. I've been keeping a detailed reed journal for the last 15 months, but I had never taken the time until now to tally things up.
Just for reference, I make American style long scrape reeds from gouged cane that the professionals who have supplied it have described as "hard". I keep twenty playable reeds at any time - when I make a new reed I then trash the least playable of the previous twenty, regardless of age. I believe I average about 1 1/2 hours playing time per day.
Over the past 15 months, I've scraped up 85 reed blanks that I've tied. My results have been 56 playable reeds. So that's about 45 reeds annually. Right now, my oldest reed is one that I finished last September 3rd. Of the reeds I've discarded, the one with the longest survival in the field of twenty wound up lasting 11 months. The shortest longevity was about twenty minutes (when I smashed the tip that I had just spent an hour finishing against the rim of the reed soaking glass - @$#%&!) I'll have to sit down tomorrow and figure out what the average playable life has been.
Again, thanks much for asking. I've been meaning to figure this for a while now and would be very interested to know others' comparable experience.
George
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-06-25 19:36
CONGRATS oboegy on your high success rate with reed-making!
... well, after asking that spur o' the moment question, realised (like oboegy) had to actually do some tallying up and 'fess up to all of you ...
so, currently in circulation, or in the wings = 20
6 retirees used for home practice
3 'best' reeds for performance (which are past their prime and should be retired and replaced for next season)
2 band rehearsal reeds, also retiree quality now
2 lesson reeds, one plays (teacher fixed it) other needs some fixing (my lesson!)
4 so-so 'dunno' reeds with quirks, dunno if they're worth fixing or not
3 blanks currently waiting to be made into new reeds
Next, when i count all the reed packaging tubes or cases salvaged from the time i started in Sept 2004, there are 46 of those, and i know some other cases went out repackaged as new hand-made U-scrape reeds to a friend, about 10 (so that means i used up 56 in about 18 months), and i know i've made some of my own which have died this year already, about 6 ... all that adds up to 62 + current 20 = 82, let's say for mathematical convenience and allowing for forgottens, that's a round 7 dozen in 2 full years, or average 3.5 dozen (42 reeds) a year so far.
Dare i crunch these numbers with an averaged commercial cost of Cdn$15 each (about US$13.25) ... Ack! Staggering!
In comparison ... new brass tubes cost 2.75 (have to replace some occasionally when the cork starts breaking off the bottom end), and each piece of new average-quality ready-to-tie cane costs 2.50, plus a bit of thread, new DIY hand-made reed only costs $5.50 in materials. DIY wastage could be as high as 66% to meet same annual expense as buying commercial or somebody else's hand-made reeds
... uh ... (clearing throat) my american scrape mis-adventures have been higher than that this last 6 months, so i had better ignore j.l's (beep) laundry basket and hope things will get better :-)
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Author: oboist
Date: 2006-06-25 20:48
Hi all!
I tie up 2 reeds a day...
Playing about 80-90 concerts a year ,teaching and practicing I think I end up with about 200 reeds
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Author: d-oboe
Date: 2006-06-26 00:15
For the summer...I have no performance demands...just practice time! (Yay!) So I haven't been cranking the reeds out quite as heavily. But on average, I would say I use up 2 reeds a week.
I make my reeds from the tube cane, and I am generally quite picky in the early stages. The gouge is crucial to the success of the reeds, I find. If the gouge is uneven, or after I've shaped it isn't centered, I garbage it. With that in mind, about 90-95% of the reeds I tie on *do* actually make usable finished reeds. The remaining 5-10% are the ones that leak, or are otherwise loose, or un-closing. Or ones that are subject to a knife mis-hap!!!
As far as making reeds, I try to average 3-4 *finished* reeds a week in prime-time. So generally, I tie about 5 reeds each week, and then open them, and finish them the following week. That way there is a bit of leeway...if I have a rough busy week, and I really can't find time to tie on reeds, I already have some waiting. Keeping partial-scrape reeds also helps in times of stress.
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