Oboe Reeds: Learning How to Experiment

As you may have heard before, being consistent in your reed making helps ensure consistent reeds. A simple but powerful statement indeed.

Reed making is a rather long and varied process, and most successful reed makers would recommend that you do the same thing every time. That way you can slowly make corrections without losing your point of reference.

But what if you want to try something new?

The spirit of adventure definitely has a place in reed making, as long as you have the time (and patience) to do some experimenting. There is so much new equipment available to oboists today that can help (or hurt) your reed making adventures.

There are new kinds of staples coming out all the time, and someone is always introducing either a new gouging machine or shaper tip to the market.

Sometimes it is possible to borrow these new toys from friends to try, and other times you may be able to try a shaper tip on loan from a double reed company.

Just remember, dont be afraid to try new things! Thats how you learn.

But here is a tip to make your experimenting as productive and efficient as possible:

Whatever you do, dont get too caught up in the frenzy and try to change more than one thing at once.

It may go without saying, but reed making with any new materials at all is just like a science experiment. Remember those days back in lab class?

You never change more than one variable at a time when testing something new. You want to be able to determine just how the new change affects all areas of the experiment.

Some things you might try:

• change the length you tie the cane on
• try gouging your cane a few millimeters thicker

Try these and many other things! As long as you keep everything else exactly the same, you will have conducted a successful experiment and you will learn something.

It is surprising and fun to see how your reeds w ill change, and sometimes (hopefully most times) it will be for the better!

Oboist and online entrepreneur Maryn Leister helps beginner and professional oboists to be more productive and have more fun on the oboe. She publishes the weekly Oboe:Space newsletter and gives away more FREE oboe reed tips than she can remember with her Reed Guru service.

Sign-up for the Oboe:Space newsletter and stArt getting your FREE oboe reed tips now at http://www.oboespace.com

Author:: Maryn Leister
Keywords:: oboe reeds
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