Palm Key Trouble with Legere

[lukasali]

Hey all -
I have been playing legere tenor reeds for a few months but have noticed that I am having a much harder time in the palm keys with them than I think I should. They tone is very nice, but it feels choked up and stuffy, hard to play with anything more than moderate volume. This is weird because I usually have a very good high end.

It's also not entirely consistent from reed to reed with the legeres, although there is a marked difference between the cane and legeres overall. Is there some way to adjust reeds to improve this aspect of their performance?

I'm using a morgan 5L mouthpiece and #41/2 or 4 reeds, and this setup has always been great with cane (vandoren blue box), just in case anyone is wondering.

Any help from those with experience would be great...

[Roger Aldridge]

I cannot help but think the Legere strength you're using is too stiff. I'd suggest that you drop down to perhaps a #3.5 or #3.75 and see if that helps. Generally speaking, I've found Legere regular cut reeds to be stiffer than cane reeds in a comparable size. As you'll see from my signature below, I use a #2.5 regular Legere on a Morgan 6C. Thus, I was greatly surprised to see you using #4 on a Morgan 5L.

It is possible to adjust Legere reeds with a ATG Reed Finishing System. I used one for a period of time when I was first using Legere reeds. Now, I have the mouthpiece set up on each of my horns well matched to a given Legere reed cut & strength and Legere reeds work fine for me right out of the box.

Finally, be advised that Legere reeds do not work so well on SOME Morgan facings. Eric Greiffenhagen made some adjustments to my 6C to enable me to get optimal results with Legere. On clarinet, I completely switched to Walter Grabner's mouthpieces. Legere reeds have a stunningly beautiful sound on his facings.

Good luck!

Roger

[Twombles62]

That's a huge strength. Legere's feel extremely strong to me. They're also very picky about mouthpieces, and just will not work on many of them. I'd suggest dropping down to at least a 3.5.

[warp x]

I know of some more players who find that the palmkeys are harder to play with the Legeres. I solved it by slightly altering the airstream, making it more go 'upwards'. No problems since then, on any mouthpiece.

[lukasali]

Thanks for the suggestions - I went back to my VanDoren #4s and they did feel much less stiff, and the problem was definitely solved. I've got a softer Legere on order and I'll see if that helps. It's just that usually reeds are too soft for me so it wasn't something that I was considering that they might actually be too hard.