Hey Reader,

It’s my first week back to school and man it has been busy, and delightful! This year most of my continuing students came for at least one lesson during the summer, but many of those happened way back in June, so it’s been fun to catch up with them and talk about their summer adventures!

One of my own summer adventures included trying the new Legere Signature American Scrape oboe and English horn reeds and even getting one for myself. Legere has been pushing out their marketing through social media a lot in the past few months, so you may have seen review videos.

I thought I’d fill you in on my experience with both reeds at the conference as well as the oboe reed I brought home and have been using. Hopefully you can use this info to help you decide if it’s the right product for you.

The English horn reed

I’m going to start with the reed that I did not purchase, though many of the other oboists at this year’s IDRS Conference purchased and recommended the purchase of the English horn reed.

I play on a middle-aged Loree with a Hinicker bocal, and unfortunately I didn’t bring my English horn to the conference this year, so I was at the mercy of the vendors. I borrowed a Medium strength English horn reed from the Legere table and took it on a walk around to exhibits which had English horns to try. The biggest issue that I had with the reed was that it was too loose on the bocal, so I kept pulling the reed off the end of the bocal! It was really hard to get a good play test because each instrument I tried had a really poor fit with the reed. I tried a Loree, a Laubin, and a Fox English horn and all 3 makers had this same issue.

In fact, if you watch Spencer Rubin’s video review closely (on IG or TT), you’ll see that he’s wrapped the end of his bocal with teflon tape - I assume this is to get the reed to stay on the bocal.

Needless to say, I didn’t go home with an English horn reed. For a reed which costs more than $100, I expect it to fit on at least ONE of the three most common brands of English horn bocal currently sold.

The Oboe reeds

I mentioned before, I ended up purchasing and bringing home a Medium strength oboe reed. I brought my oboe to the conference and was able to try all 3 hardnesses offered while there. The Medium was by far the most comfortable, and had the best tone quality. It was also fairly in tune through the middle range, and quite responsive in each register. The representative at the table offered the reed I’d play tested for purchase, and I decided that I wanted to have the experience of breaking in a new reed, so I bought a new Medium reed, and that’s what I have now.

Over the last 2 months I’ve played the reed 2-3 times in my own practice sessions. At first I noticed that the intonation was not as nice as the one I’d tried at the conference. The reed was pretty flat throughout its whole range, so I did some digging on the Legere website. They recommend playing new reeds for 1-2 hours before making any judgements on pitch and attempting adjustments to the resistance or pitch center.

As time passed I found that the Legere reed was really convenient for demonstrating while teaching: I could simply take the reed out of its case and play whatever passage or concept I was discussing with my student. The convenience of not having to wait while a cane reed soaks is why I’ve been initially attracted to the concept of plastic reeds. The Legere delivers a good characteristic sound, a fair dynamic range, and now that it’s been played more, it’s more in tune than before.

That said, from low F down and in the second octave it’s quite flat and difficult to bring up to pitch. Anything that you might adjust by adding a tiny bit of mouth pressure to your cane reed will feel much more difficult to accomplish because the plastic just doesn’t have the flexibility of cane. When I try to practice on the reed, I notice my embouchure tiring more quickly than I’d like, probably because I keep trying to adjust the intonation by adding embouchure pressure.

Final thoughts

I wish that I could offer a more hearty recommendation of the Legere Superior American scrape reeds. They are miles better than the old short scrape reeds were. (I have one of those too, but it’s always been too hard to play, and I think I ruined the seal by inserting a plaque as I tried to use my ReedGeek to thin the tip!) They’re responsive, comfortable to play, and produce what I think of as a nice characteristic sound.

The pitch issues, however, make this product a great tool only in circumstances where pitch doesn’t matter. I suppose one could practice on this reed, but I wouldn’t because I find pitch awareness to be an integral part of my practice. The inflexible structure of the plastic is too hard to be practically changed by a little extra embouchure work.

On the other hand, these reeds are great for particular circumstances: demonstrating during lessons when pitch isn’t an issue: for example when working with beginners who haven’t worked on tuning yet, or when casually demonstrating for the purposes of phrasing or style.

This reed was excellent during the 1-week outdoor music camp that I taught at in July. It needs no soaking so I could pull it out and play without waiting. It was easy to play throughout the full range of the oboe from low Bb to high G as well as piano to forte dynamics. It sounded halfway decent so I could quickly sit in during rehearsals and not worry about sticking out of the ensemble texture.

Do I recommend the Legere Signature American scrape reeds? Kinda. They’re closer than they’ve ever been before, and I’m happy with the $125ish purchase I made. I will be continuing to use the reed during sectionals and lessons, unless intonation is important pedagogically. I will emphatically not be using them in public settings like rehearsals or concerts.

Have you tried the new Legere reeds? Did you have a different experience than I have? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Would you take just 2 minutes to weigh in with your thoughts on the newsletter?

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Thank you!

Until next time,

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!

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