In the midst of my busyness…
Sunday October 28 2007
— I managed to begin a little experiment.
First off, the concert went well last night. Theofanidis Rainbow Body, Symphonie Fantastique, Danse Macabre amongst others.
One of my reed subscribers sent me two reeds made by a well-known Mack student professor along with 10 staples and the same Mack+ shaper tip that the professor uses. My instructions were to duplicate it as close as I can.
I’ve made about 6 reeds on my own staples but using “hard cane” (as instructed) and using the Mack+ shape and matching the proportions and lengths exactly as the two reeds. All of my reeds play close to 20 cents flat, and require a LOT… of blowing up to pitch and “extreme reed pressure” (and sometimes biting), but they certainly get a bit more of a covered Mackish sound. In fact, I played my concert on one of these reeds last night (lipping it up to pitch, of course).
Flat reeds always sound great when you can get them up to pitch, but usually they’re just that. Flat. But it has been a very good experiment for me to remind me of WHY… I don’t like playing flat reeds and WHY… I don’t like lipping up reeds constantly. I can already feel the wear on my lip after about 3 days of playing on these reeds, and I’m starting to get some jaw pain reminiscent of my TMJ… problems. I practiced my Malcolm Arnold Sonatina with my tuner on a flat reed this morning and was able to get through the piece okay, but I wasn’t able to do the dynamic contrasts, color changes and variety of articulations that I wanted to, because I was squeezing the reed so tightly with my lips.
Mr. Stolper used to tell me that Tabuteau had a picture of an inverted triangle (smallest part down) in his office. At the top was the word “response”. Below that was “stability/pitch” and below that at the smallest point was “tone”.
The more I play and the more I hear, I am becoming convinced that in a big hall small tonal discrepancies disappear, and what the listener will listen for the most is what you do with the music, not your tonal quality on the music. And if I have to play a reed with great tone but can’t do much with it, then it’s probably just not worth it.
Alan
May 20, 2008
“I practiced my Malcolm Arnold Sonatina with my tuner on a flat reed this morning and was able to get through the piece okay, but I wasn’t able to do the dynamic contrasts, color changes and variety of articulations that I wanted to, because I was squeezing the reed so tightly with my lips.”
My teacher does exactly that. She was taught by Mack at Juilliard and uses a Mack+ shaper. I’ve been so depressed since I started studying with her and using her reeds. She sounds amazing, but I really don’t think it’s for me (or my oboe). When I start out using the tuner I play extremely flat and I bring up the pitch automatically by a really firm embouchure where I’m just about biting. I really can’t stop biting using her reeds though even with daily practice. They usually lose the lower octave of the crow after about 5 minutes of playing. In some cases I brought the reed crow up to a D. The tone is more covered (as well as dark) for her than it is for me though, my oboe (A violetwood AK) is absolutely transparent and a tad bright edgy sounding. Apparently Mack used the brightest reeds; he used a very dark sounding oboe to end up with the sound he had. Any recommendations on what I should do? I have been studying with her for about 8 months now and I’ve made a modest improvement. Sorry for the long comment !
Alan
May 20, 2008
^^ Let me rephrase the first sentence of the above comment; that’s how I feel about playing on my teachers reeds, but she makes reeds similar to the ones you are describing.
Oct 29, 2007
Heinz Holliger would seem to be living proof that proposition.
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