Take your time!

Hello and welcome to the second post of Oboe Probs! This week I'm talking about taking your time with reeds and my process. This is something I always struggle with and it's usually when I forget to plan ahead and I have a performance or lesson coming up. Please keep in mind, this is going to differ from reed maker to reed maker- I am just sharing my experience!

Day 1: I start with shaping and tieing my blanks and then I'll do what I call "preliminary scrapes." These are just long scrapes to structure the tip, establish the slope of the tip, and to get the channels started. I also like that this step gets the bark and pith off of the reed to expose the good part of the cane that I want to use. Depending on how the cane feels when I'm working on it, I'll then clip the reed open and let it dry open. If the cane feels super open then I won't clip the tip off and let it dry that way.

Day 2: Let's get this baby to vibrate! For this step I'm focusing mainly on thinning out the tip and blending into the slope and the heart in order to get those vibrations. I try to leave the back alone as much as possible during this time because I don't want to dig out too much! Remember you can create vibrations from other places in the reed than just the back. Once I have this reed good and rattly, I start to slip the tip until the crow gets to about a C (sometimes slightly lower) and then I'll leave it be again!

Day 3/4: Finishing! This step takes the longest by far and is the most aggravating in my opinion. This step is all about getting the reed up to pitch, checking for stability with the octave test, and then building in the tone.

When I follow this process I get really good reeds almost every time! I just need to remind myself to take these steps and not try to make a reed in one sitting. Does anyone else have a process like this? Feel free to share your process with me or ask any questions you may have!