REED LORE
- Will Jansen, (Holland). a) Know your instrument thoroughly; know
exactly how it responds to staccato, to large intervals played legato and how it
responds - the whole compass up and down - to ppp and fff blowing. b) Try to get
good reed cane; not "the best", because what is the best and where
does THAT grow? c) Use few tools; to make a good reed you don't need an
assortment of hardware making your table look like the operating room in a
hospital. Scraping a reed with only one but GOOD knife does more than scraping
it with twelve different ones that are less good. Simplicity is the hallmark of
the right. d) Have patience;- when you finish a reed, you start by taking off
too little; removing too little twenty times brings the reed near the point of
perfection. At this moment, be careful; because next you're taking off too much!
e) If you have finally found a good type of reed, stick to it. f) If you have to
play a lot of modem stuff, written actually in the compass of an oboe because
the modem composer does riot know the difference between a bassoon and an
ocarina, as is usual these days, do not try to get this extra "height",,,
by making hard reeds. Use another number of bocal, if possible. g) a normal
reed, free-blown, should sound somewhere between middle f sharp and a.
- Louis Skinner, (Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania). a) The reed and crook in
combination should sound at least as high as piano middle c (c - 256) to
generate a high enough pitch into the bassoon. If not, you will pinch the reed
to make it sound higher, thereby squeezing off some of the fundamental of the
bassoon tone. b) If the thickness of your gouge is consistent, use a small pair
of outside calipers to gauge the height of your reed collar elevation on each
reed. By subtracting the gouge thickness twice (for each side of reed) you will
determine the exact inside height of the reed at that point (preferably just in
front of wire 1, if you have a slight collar before the scrape). Constructing
the same model reed and maintaining the same inside collar height will give more
consistent tone quality and intonation.
- Gerald Corey, (Baltimore). a) To easily shorten the length of a
stick of gouged cane (shaped or not), use a pair of sharp curved-blade pruning
shears. If right-handed, hold the cane bark down and the shears "right side
up" (cutting edge descending). Cut off the unwanted portion from the right
end of the stick (all cracking goes to the right also, making a clean slice,
even with dry cane). Smooth edge with emery board. If you are left-handed,
reverse the procedure above (shears will be upside down - cutting blade
ascending). b) If your reed case has only a bent wire to hold each reed, add a
metal tube (for mandrel) to avoid having the tube section of the reed go out of
round while drying. In the US., go to a large stationery supplier and ask for
Chicago ring post binders. You need the 3/8 inch length and only the female
half, and the tube fits over your wire holder in reed case. If tube is slightly
too large, file it down to fit your reed.