What is your routine for breaking in reeds?
We all have different routines for making our reeds work best for us, and some of us like to think of this as a reed ābattle planā, part of our preparation for our practicing for the week, or a big concert coming up! How do you prepare a new reed for performance? What kinds of reeds do you use? How do you store your reeds? Do you think there are areas of this part of clarinet playing you could improve or learn more about?
6 replies
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First of all, I have to say I found Kimberley Cole Luevano's course on Reed Care so inspiring - she has such a clear method for how she takes care of her reeds. As she says at the beginning though, everyone finds the things that work for them!
Like Kim, I like to break reeds in over a long period of time, playing them in a little bit, day by day. Unlike her, I do soak my reeds a little bit before I play them for the first time. This process usually takes me 5-7 days. I think she's right that it's not good to play too much in the altissimo register too soon.
I also try to buy my boxes of reeds in bulk (usually 5 boxes at a time). Where I buy them, you get a 10% discount if you do. It's a lot of money up front, but it means I do save a bit overall and it means I can go for quite a long time before worrying about running out of reeds.
I have a beautiful reed case from Howarth's of London here in the UK, but I really love the ones that Kim uses, they look so great for managing humidity.
I also play quite a bit of bass clarinet, and when I do that, I use a plastic reed from LegĆØre - I find this helps a lot with doubling (I never need to worry about it drying out) and I get almost as good a sound as with a cane reed. Bigger reeds warp so much more easily, so I do find that even though the plastic reeds can be a bit more expensive, I do save money as they last a very long time!
Anyway I can't wait to hear about your reed strategies! Let's get this discussion going š¤©
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Im still very much a novice in breaking in reeds. I have been using the Vandoren 56 because I love the tone quality. I sand them lightly and play them in the low register to the throat tones for about 5 min the first day and increase the time until they are broken in.
But Iām certain there are much better techniques I could be using -
I play Vandoren Blue Box 2-1/2 reeds. I used to favor Zonda reeds for their consistency and durability, but I believe they are no longer available, at least not in the US. Like others, I will play a new one for a few minutes right out of the box and gradually increase the time. After a few days I will put it on a piece of glass to detect any rocking motion (usually very slight) that indicates warping. Vandoren makes a piece of rectangular glass that is flat on one side and ground glass on the other. If I detect a warp, I sand the stock in 8-16 rotations in each direction. and press the reed flat against the smoot side of the glass. Sometimes this takes a couple of tries over a week or two. If it blows easily, great. If the sound still isn't smooth and/or articulation isn't clean, I hold it up to the light flat side facing me to check for balance in the cane. If that's an issue, I use two or three very light strokes with a reed knife and that fixes things most of the time. I'd love to hear everyone else's ideas. And here's a question - is there anything to something I've read a few times, i.e. soaking an older reed in hydrogen peroxide rejuvenates it? I've not tried this, at H2O2 is not something you want to inhale.