Hey Reader,

It’s finally almost summer break for me - I wrapped up my final lessons of the semester yesterday, have a concert with Santa Clara University tomorrow, and then I’m off (ish) for two weeks!

As in previous summers, I’ll be slowing down the cadence of the newsletter for the summer. Instead of weekly, I’ll be writing biweekly newsletters to allow myself a little bit of creative space for other new and exciting projects! So I’ll be off next week, then you’ll hear from me every other week.

One of my projects this summer is to overhaul my reedmaking class materials, and as I do that I’ll be thinking a lot about reedmaking. I haven’t addressed reedmaking in this newsletter very much, so I’m planning to write on the theme of reedmaking this summer. To that end, I’d love to hear from you about your reedmaking - what are your pain points with your reeds, what are you struggling with right now in reedmaking or adjusting, what are your recent breakthroughs, and would you like to learn anything in particular about reedmaking? Please reply and let me know.

I’m going to start by discussing my favorite easy-to-acquire and easy-to-use tool: sandpaper!

A reed adjusting tool anyone can use…

I was introduced to the idea of using sandpaper on my reeds back in 2013 during my second season with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra. Young(er) Alli was playing second oboe and working a day job as a manager of a growing dog walking company in Chicago. In this particular concert cycle we were in an on-campus concert hall at a private university with excellent acoustics and my reeds just weren’t up to the task of playing a sensitive and blended second oboe.

The principal player recommended I try to thin the tip of the reed a bit more, but I didn’t have a sharpening stone with me and my knife was pretty dull by that point. There’s nothing like panicky on-stage reed adjustment to dull your knife! She handed me a tiny square of ultra-fine sandpaper and showed me how I could sand just the corners of the reed to help with response and I was instantly hooked on sandpaper.

To this day, I carry fine-grit sandpaper in my tool wallet to use on tips of reeds, I hand out little squares of it to any student whose reeds seem to need a little help (ok, this happens once they’re in middle school and have been playing for a few months, I’m not sure I’ve met an elementary aged oboist who I trust working on their reeds.) with instructions on the method for using it.

How to use sandpaper on your reeds

1. Purchase the finest grit wet-dry paper your hardware store has available. One piece is enough, but if you’re like me and give it out like candy on Halloween, get a packet of the stuff.
2. Cut a small piece off that will fit in your tool wallet or case cover. I’m currently using a strip that’s 3.25”x.75” (8.2mm x 1.9mm) because it slides into one of the slots in my tool wallet.
3. Ensure the reed about to be adjusted is wet enough to play.
4. Set the sandpaper on a hard, flat surface like a table or music stand. Place one corner of one blade of the reed on the sandpaper at a small angle. With no extra downward pressure move the reed in tiny circles up to 5 times. Keep count of the number of circles you make so you can repeat this on each of the 4 corners of the tip.
5. Then, place the tip of one blade of the reed on the sandpaper at a slight angle with no extra downward pressure and draw it across the sandpaper like you would paint with a paintbrush. Repeat up to 3 times. Keep count of the number of strokes you make so you can repeat this on the other side of the reed the same number of times.

I’ll probably make a video of this process sometime this summer, but for now I hope this explanation is clear enough. Let me know if you try it, or if you have any questions about this method!
​

I’ll be back in your inbox after a week’s break!

Until next week,

Alli

Hey, Reader, Do you have any burning questions about playing oboe? Reply to this email and ask, and you might see the answer in the next newsletter!

​​​