Hey Reader,

I’m coming to you a few days early because I’ll be at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Miami, Ohio this week! I’m presenting my third panel discussion for oboe studio teachers, this time around the topic of balance. This topic includes not only balance between work and life, but balancing pedagogical subjects with the joy of playing, repertoire with reedmaking, strict policies and making exceptions to those policies, and more. You can find us on Friday, July 10th at 3:40pm in CPA 114.

Breaking out of a reed slump

I’ve been going through a reed slump for the past few months. It’s seemed like I can’t get a reed to both vibrate the way I want it to AND play in tune. I’ve tried different kinds of cane, different staples, and a different setting on my profiler and haven’t had any consistency in output for myself. In an absurd twist of irony, the student reeds I’ve been making have been great! I’ve even taken a student reed or two for my own use in a pinch.

At my last gig of the season with the Berkeley Community Chorus in mid-June, I was playing with a colleague and he mentioned to me that he doesn’t really measure how long he ties, he judges the length of the reed by the standard of “get the reed sealed, then make 2 wraps to the top of the staple”. The result of having 3 wraps to the top of the staple before crossing over is what I aim for anyways.

The conversation blew my mind. This way of determining how long to tie seemed familiar from when I learned to tie in high school, but I haven’t thought about it this way in years!

Back in graduate school I remember that we were given specific measurements to tie at for the different shaper tips, and I just fell into following those measurements - even when I changed shapes.

The other part of tying that I haven’t considered, clearly to my detriment, is that the length of the reed changes based on the combination of staple and shape. It’s clear just by looking that different staples have different opening sizes at the top, and different thickness of metal. Likewise, different shapes have a different width at the “throat” where you’re supposed to fasten the cane to the staple.

I went home after that rehearsal with my mind blown. Of course! It makes so much sense: maybe I’ve been tying my reeds too short! Maybe that’s why the vibrations are off and everything for myself is flat while the student reeds are still working.

I somehow got through the concert cycle on the terrible reeds in my case, and then tied a bunch more reeds paying closer attention when the cane seals in relationship with the top of the staple. So far all the reeds in this batch have been a breeze to finish and feel comfortable. It also seems to have resolved the issue I’ve been having with ridiculously large openings, even with 10.75 diameter cane. I have high hopes for this next batch of blanks I tied to take to the conference. (Although I’m not yet fully out of the slump, I’m still hoping to try a different profiler template!)

How long do you tie your reeds? Do you use the same guidelines for how long to tie? I’d love to hear about your experiences and methodology.

Until next time,

Alli

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