If you buy into the myth that there are only two or three “good” reeds in a box of ten, you are buying the wrong reeds. There are many, many options available to you. When I’ve got the right brand, cut, and size of reed for my mouthpiece and embouchure, easily eight play respectably well right out of the box. Within 15-20 minutes, I can adjust nine or ten to play quite well, and maybe three or four of those at recital quality. I use the steps below and nothing else.
Um, no.Don’t waste time and cane messing with the topography of the reed’s cut. With all the variation in reeds, the cut is the one thing that is really quite consistent. If you don’t like the cut, shop around some more. If you own a diagram like the one shown here, with elaborate instructions on which tiny sectors of reed you should sand, I recommend that you throw it away.
Make sure the reed is flat. Many aren’t, and one that was flat yesterday may not be flat today. A piece of 600-grit wet-dry sandpaper held against a piece of glass is the perfect tool for this. Concentrate on the part of the reed that contacts the mouthpiece’s table. For $2, I had a local glass shop cut me a 3″×4″ piece of ¼” glass, with the edges ground smooth. You can also use a mirror or window pane. A flattened reed will respond better and squeak less.
Balance the corners. This is the one exception I make for changing the reed’s cut. Well-balanced reeds have a nice clear tone and respond reliably throughout the instrument’s range and at any dynamic level. I find that balancing the corners can correct for much of the asymmetry of a typical reed. Even a reed that already seems pretty good can often be improved. Tom Ridenour’s method is dead simple and strikingly effective—required reading.
If absolutely necessary, clip the tip using a high-quality reed trimmer. I do this to maybe one in twenty reeds. I do it to make a reed feel a little stronger. Clip off the tiniest possible amount at first—a little clip goes a long way. It’s very rare that I clip off more than a tiny bit, and if I do, it rarely works out well.
I’ve got ethnic woodwinds on the brain lately, and no end in sight since they are the topic of my doctoral dissertation research. If you haven’t added any ethnic instruments to your arsenal yet, here’s what I recommend for a relatively easy to play, low-maintenance, inexpensive, and versatile beginning to your collection. Read More “Getting started with ethnic woodwinds: your holiday wish list”
Should you buy a “step-up” or “intermediate model” woodwind instrument? In most cases, I think the answer is no.
For flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, or saxophone, I think the wisest course, if you can afford it, is usually to start with a high-quality, best-in-class student-model instrument. The advantages of this are:
Lower price range (though maybe in the upper part of that range)
High-quality student instruments are easier to play than low-quality ones, giving beginners an advantage and a positive experience
Quality student instruments can, in some cases, be used all the way through high school band
Quality student instruments retain their value better, so you may be able to recoup some of your investment if the instrument falls into disuse or you replace it with a more advanced model
At some point, the option may be suggested, by an educator or a salesperson, to “step up” to an intermediate model. My experience with these is generally:
The price range is not much lower than professional-quality instruments
The quality not much better than good student instruments
Sometimes they have some cosmetic differences that make them seem more “professional” or luxurious but which do not give any real advantage to the player
So, in most cases my advice is to skip the step-up instrument. Instead consider investing in some private lessons with a good teacher. These will bring much greater benefits.
And if you intend to audition for college scholarships, participate in competitions, or otherwise play at a high level, the private teacher is a crucial resource when you are ready to buy a professional model. These are instruments suitable for the demands of college music programs and at least semi-professional playing situations. Because they are expensive, it’s worth choosing one very carefully, and a good teacher can help you figure out what you need, connect with a reputable dealer, and get the best price.
As a graduate student and younger professional I started to get opportunities to teach in masterclass/workshop settings and to adjudicate competitions. I had taught private lessons for many years. But sometimes I found it challenging to give effective feedback in these newer situations, where I was hearing someone play for the first time and needed to give useful suggestions after just a quick first impression. For example:
I would listen to a talented competition entrant who played at a much higher level than my students, and I would find myself at a loss for what to address.
I would listen to a struggling masterclass student with deep fundamental flaws in their playing, but it seemed too overwhelming to tackle in fifteen minutes. So instead I would harp on some small detail like an esoteric alternate fingering or the various possible approaches to a certain grace note.
There are plenty of “right” ways to teach in these situations, but here’s the breakthrough that really helped me:
Have a specific list of things in mind to listen for. In terms of the woodwind sounds I’m hearing, I generally focus on tone, response, intonation, execution of volume/dynamics, and finger and tongue fluency. Assuming these are generally in place, I might also consider non-woodwind-specific musical/interpretive factors.
While listening, make a list, mental and/or written, of a very small handful of items I want to address (sometimes just one). I do my best to pick the most bang-for-the-buck ones, or the ones I haven’t already addressed with another student in the same masterclass, but I don’t stress over it too much.
Have some accumulated ideas of techniques and approaches that can be applied to the problem areas. For woodwind fundamentals, which are appropriately addressed at every stage of advancement, I zero in on posture and playing position, breath support, voicing, embouchure, finger and tongue movement, and fingering selection. For interpretive matters, I might address small-scale phrase shaping, and from there work up to interpretation of larger structures like themes, movements, complete pieces, and even full recital programs.
Your lists (what to listen for, and what techniques/approaches to apply) might differ from mine, though you are welcome to adopt them if you need a starting point. The object is to have a methodical approach to listening and problem-solving, so I’m making efficient and effective use of time.
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Lots of woodwind doubler horror stories have to do with quick switches to flute or piccolo. (“Twenty minutes of hard-driving R&B tenor saxophone, then two bars to switch to flute and enter pianissimo in the third octave…”) Doublers in this situation often beat themselves up about perceived deficiencies in their flute embouchures, and commit to even more hours of Trevor Wye, but never quite seem to solve the problem.
While daily work on the flute embouchure is crucial, as is a good warmup, I think often the real problem is the reed embouchures. If playing clarinet, saxophone, or double reeds is leaving your embouchure too tired, tense, or numb to play the flute at your best, then consider improving your reed playing. Adjust your tone production to be less tense, adjust your setup to be freer-blowing, and adjust your mindset to be focused on efficiency rather than muscular effort. Keep up the flute lessons, but touch base with good reed teachers, too.
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Woodwind instruments including the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone all have more than one fingering for some notes. Why is that, and do you need to learn them all? Instead, could you just learn the one main fingering for every note and get really good at using it?
Here are some things to think about:
There’s not always one “main” fingering. For example, the clarinet has its “pinky finger” notes that have left-hand or right-hand options, and you need to know both equally well to play above the beginner level. The flute has “1 and 1” and “thumb” fingerings for B-flat that are both common and standard. The oboe has two or three standard fingerings for F. The bassoon’s thumb and pinky options for F-sharp and A-flat and the saxophone’s “side” and “bis” B-flats are also arguably equally important.
Using an alternate fingering can sometimes help avoid awkward movements. One example is flip-flopping (one finger lifting up while another presses down) with F to F-sharp on saxophone or in the clarinet’s middle register. Another is sliding (moving a finger from one key to another) like going from D on the oboe to F with the right-hand F key. Sometimes these awkward movements are unavoidable, but good woodwind players avoid them whenever possible.
Alternate fingerings don’t always sound or respond the same. Some do, such as the clarinet’s pinky finger notes, because the pinky keys open and close the same holes. But some alternate fingerings might be a little louder or softer, sharper or flatter, more or less resistant, or brighter or darker in tone. Excellent woodwind players use these differences in artistic ways.
So alternate fingerings are important and useful. But do you need all of them?
There can be a lot of alternate fingerings. Advanced bassoonists sometimes refer to a book of fingerings that is over 300 pages long! (There are books for other instruments, too.) Sometimes there can be dozens of fingerings for a single note.
If you’re currently learning an instrument and using a method book (individual or band method) that has a fingering chart, you could check to see which notes have more than one fingering. It might be a worthwhile challenge to learn all those fingerings, and see if the book gives any hints about when to use which ones.
If you’re a more advanced student, the music you’re working on might present challenges when fingering patterns get awkward. Take on the challenge of researching lesser-known alternate fingerings that might help. (Sometimes a fingering has both advantages and disadvantages that you have to weigh carefully.) Start collecting useful fingering charts, or compile your own.
If you have my sights set on playing professionally, then you will need to know lots of alternate fingerings, have good resources to consult when you need more options, and know exactly how each fingering sounds, responds, and tunes on your instrument.
I’m not sure I can recall the last time I walked into a music store and bought something.
I hear every so often that I should support local businesses and mom-and-pop shops, and I have to admit that this sounds vaguely like a responsible and virtuous thing to do. But here’s why I don’t—and can’t.
It costs too much. Prices are inevitably higher in local stores. I understand that so-called “full-service” establishments have overhead, but so do I. If they can justify charging higher prices, it seems fair that I can justify shopping around.
They don’t stock what I need. Other than a few scattered specialty shops, local music stores stock what they can sell in volume, and that’s inexpensive instruments and accessories for the beginning band market. I live in a small town, but even in the fairly large cities where I have lived, I have, more frequently than not, been unable to get what I like. A few months ago I made a two-and-a-half hour drive to go saxophone shopping with a student at a large music store in a large city. The store was large enough to have a saxophone specialist on staff. The store regularly stocks one brand of (arguably) professional-quality saxophone (and it’s not Selmer, Yamaha, Yanagisawa, or Keilwerth), and had exactly two major-brand instruments available, used. We also contacted a small saxophone specialty shop that was a little farther away, one that actually has “saxophone” in the store’s name. They had zero pro-line horns in stock.
As far as I can tell, the “superior customer service” factor is largely a myth. I think most woodwind players have experienced the frustration of going into a music store and being “helped” by the heavy-metal guitarist behind the counter. And even in specialty shops, I’ve rarely found a salesperson who can answer serious questions with much more than regurgitated advertising copy or a personal opinion. And, while I don’t doubt that specialty retailers are passionate about what they do, it’s important to keep in mind that they are businesspeople and subject to motivations other than getting you the best possible product for the smallest possible price. Read More “Confessions of a mail-order shopper”
I personally use, and have had great success, with the Perfecta-Reed micrometer. I’m able to balance not just the tip, but the entire reed. It takes me a little more time, but I am able to get most of the reeds in my box to play substantially better using it.
I completely agree with everything else you’ve mentioned other than the ‘topography doesn’t matter’ comment.
Hi Michael – thanks for stopping by and sharing what works for you. (Note: the PerfectaReed can be found here—scroll down).
To clarify: my point is not at all that topography “doesn’t matter;” my point is that what comes out of the box is essentially what the manufacturer intended, topography-wise. And if the design of the reed doesn’t suit me, then I should probably just buy different reeds.
I was recently looking through The Instrumentalist for pedagogical articles to give out to my Woodwind Methods course and came across a wonderful one called “Selecting Clarinet Reeds” by Robert Miller. It was published in the August 1991 edition.
Very concise, insightful, and thorough, and it goes along with everything you’ve mentioned here. E-mail me if you’d like a copy of it. I scanned it for my course’s Blackboard site.
For what it is worth, balancing my clarinet reeds (and to a lesser extent saxophone) has made my ensemble playing so much better! I used to struggle in orchestra with having a comfortable reed for a passage, resting for 40 measures, and then really struggling through a solo/soli and feeling quite embarassed! (and dont even mention something like Bolero where its such a long waiting game before you even play!). Learning to properly balance a reed has really helped with the necessity to re-position and hydrate my reeds 10 times in one concert. I typically use a combination of a bevel edge reed knife and 600grit sandpaper when i work on the backs of a reed. I do notice for alto saxophone reeds I almost always take some cane out of the “F” section in your little reed diagram. I don’t know that I really follow those charts word for word, but taking some cane out of that gives me a less resistant reed in the lower register. I tend to like thinner reeds than most so it could just be a personal thing (or maybe i just need to learn to play with more air to support a thicker reed but at 26 i think i have all the air i’m going to get).
I personally use, and have had great success, with the Perfecta-Reed micrometer. I’m able to balance not just the tip, but the entire reed. It takes me a little more time, but I am able to get most of the reeds in my box to play substantially better using it.
I completely agree with everything else you’ve mentioned other than the ‘topography doesn’t matter’ comment.
MP
Hi Michael – thanks for stopping by and sharing what works for you. (Note: the PerfectaReed can be found here—scroll down).
To clarify: my point is not at all that topography “doesn’t matter;” my point is that what comes out of the box is essentially what the manufacturer intended, topography-wise. And if the design of the reed doesn’t suit me, then I should probably just buy different reeds.
I was recently looking through The Instrumentalist for pedagogical articles to give out to my Woodwind Methods course and came across a wonderful one called “Selecting Clarinet Reeds” by Robert Miller. It was published in the August 1991 edition.
Very concise, insightful, and thorough, and it goes along with everything you’ve mentioned here. E-mail me if you’d like a copy of it. I scanned it for my course’s Blackboard site.
For what it is worth, balancing my clarinet reeds (and to a lesser extent saxophone) has made my ensemble playing so much better! I used to struggle in orchestra with having a comfortable reed for a passage, resting for 40 measures, and then really struggling through a solo/soli and feeling quite embarassed! (and dont even mention something like Bolero where its such a long waiting game before you even play!). Learning to properly balance a reed has really helped with the necessity to re-position and hydrate my reeds 10 times in one concert. I typically use a combination of a bevel edge reed knife and 600grit sandpaper when i work on the backs of a reed. I do notice for alto saxophone reeds I almost always take some cane out of the “F” section in your little reed diagram. I don’t know that I really follow those charts word for word, but taking some cane out of that gives me a less resistant reed in the lower register. I tend to like thinner reeds than most so it could just be a personal thing (or maybe i just need to learn to play with more air to support a thicker reed but at 26 i think i have all the air i’m going to get).