Making a reed play darker

[DanF]

I've searched this forum as best I can and have read numerous threads on reed adjustment, but I haven't been able to find anything
on how to "adjust" a reed to play darker, ie which part of the reed to work on, if that's possible. Can anyone steer me in the right direction or share their knowledge of this? All input appreciated.

[Roger Garrett]

I've searched this forum as best I can and have read numerous threads on reed adjustment, but I haven't been able to find anything
on how to "adjust" a reed to play darker, ie which part of the reed to work on, if that's possible. Can anyone steer me in the right direction or share their knowledge of this? All input appreciated.


Dan,

I'm going to jump on this because I know that you might eventually come to a perspective that I hold. That is - the reed doesn't play darker - it either plays with more or less response and with clarity. That having been said, I'll try to explain more.

The reed is simply the vibrating mechanism by which the air is "excited" and sent traveling through your instrument. The mouthpiece, ligature, neck, and instrument combine to create an overall tone quality that you might perceive as "bright" or "dark" - and the reed (cane quality, cut, thickness, etc.) contributes to those characteristics. However - it is primarily your setup and your personal approach to embouchure and use of air that will determine if you play with a "darker" sound. I can get into how the upper lip and the slower air speed contributes to what you "perceive" as a "darker" sound another time. But here is my best advice regarding reeds:

1. Make sure they are flat on the back and not warped. Do this by using a pencil to mark three lines on the back (below the cut half - bark half only on the flat side) from side to side. Then, place the reed on 320 grit wet/dry 3M sandpaper and sand in a circular/oval motion - sanding ONLY the bottom half of the reed - stay away from the tip. Stop and check the marks on the back - are they coming off in the center of the reed? If so, it is warped and you need to continue to sand until the pencil marks are gone. When they are gone - use 600 grit to polish the lower half of the flat side of the reed - soak it and play test. You will find the reed blows more freely and with more resonance.

2. balance the tip of the reed (front side). Do a play test by playing on the left side of the reed, then the right side. If one side blows harder or fuzzier - check the reed grains or fibers in a light source - see if you can confirm one side is heavier (the look test is the weakest). The final test is to make sure the reed is well soaked and then run your finger along the tip on the flat side and see if you can tell a difference in resistance left and right. Determine EXACTLY where the resistance is on the heavier side, and, using either reed rush, a reed knife or a small square of fresh 320 grit sandpaper, remove some of the surface of the reed where it is most resistant. Do a little at a time - it's easy to remove more cane; it's impossible to replace it. Play test frequently.

3. A thrid possiblity for sound and intonation improvements can be found by carving off the corners of the reed at the base of the cut. For example, a Vandoren reed often has a shoulder with a sharp edge - smooth over the shoulder so there is no sharp edge - soften it - and you may notice a difference in sound. I do this with bass clarinet reeds - and it helps. It doesn't help at all with Bb clarinet reeds.

When the back of the reed is flat and the tip of the reed is balanced - you will achieve more CLARITY in the sound - and then you may use your air, embouchure, and mouthpiece/ligature/neck/instrument combination to begin to achieve a "darker" sound.

As an aside - I tell my students that they are misreading "dark" for resistance in feel and fuzziness in tone. Clear up the tone first - and then be sure the resistance is enought to control the tone but not so resistant that you lose response.

Ideally - a written forum such as this is not much help because there are so many variables related to sound production - such as air, embouchure, etc.

I make mouthpieces for clarinets (and some saxophones) and I can't tell you how many times a person has come to me for custom work trying to achieve a particular sound but the problem is their approach to the instrument. No mouthpiece (or reed) will solve their problem until they adopt fundamental changes in their playing. I don't know you - so I feel comfortable saying this!

Hope all of this helps.

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Music Education
Director, Symphonic Winds
Illinois Wesleyan University
Http://sun.iwu.edu/~rgarrett/

[DanF]

Thanks Roger. I appreciate your explaination, especially from someone of your qualifications. You are right when you say a reed should play with more clarity and I apologize for not making my question clearer. I should have asked how to make them play with more "body" when they are sounding very buzzy or "thin", which you have clarified. Thank you for your time and for sharing your expertize. Have a great New Year. Dan

[saxophrenic]

Roger,
I appreciated your general comments on reeds. I am scientifically trained so I appreciate an experimental approach to adjusting reeds (functional tests, modification, and re - test). I use a reed knife for big adjustments and Ridenhour's ATG system for smaller adjustments. All this guided by test and restest.

But no one ever explained a good way to be sure that the back of the reed is flat. I really like your pencil mark test for that. That's going to make my back sanding rational! Up until now I could test what I was doing to the reed except on the back.

Thanks and regards