Well my reeds died. Went caput it seems.
Yesterday I played in a big band jazz band concert. And in the morning I went through the music and noticed the reeds went south. Now, I practice my clarinet mostly. Which I should practice my tenor sax alot more (or go jogging) to remember how much air flow it takes.
So in the morning I had to go through and select a mouthpiece and reed of which I was going to play.
On clarinet I simply play a 3-1/2 Vandoren Traditional or Legere Quebec. End of story unless the mpc is out of "normal".
On sax now .... I do swap between too many mouthpieces. Ranging from a Selmer C* to a Selmer metal G and other brands 8s.
Thus one cannot use the same strength of reed from top to bottom of my mpcs.
Which brings up an interesting selection process. I do not necessarily select a reed based on strength, but more based on the tone.
I played a mpc which most people would normally play a 2 or 2-1/2 reed on. But, even though it played really well I did not like the tone. Everything was fine, it was just missing that really thick base core sound.
So I went up to a 3 reed. Which, at first it was all airy (not flexible yet) and poor response (using a loose embouchure, non-pinching). After a little soak the reed started having good response and an excellent full tone. I also had to focus my airstream a bit more for better reed and horn response.
But the tone was excellent.
When I was playing my tenor several times a week I really ended up playing very hard reeds even on large tip openings. The tone was incredible. I loved playing it.
Now playing every so often I found myself going to softer reeds where playing was easier but the tone was thinner. This allows one focus on technique and playing rather than also having to think and support the embouchre/airflow aspect of playing. but much more enjoyable tonal spectrum.
So I was curious on the players out there how they select a reed ?
And whether you ever try playing harder reeds than normal to see what they have to offer ?
Or if you even hear the difference in various strengths ?
Yesterday I played in a big band jazz band concert. And in the morning I went through the music and noticed the reeds went south. Now, I practice my clarinet mostly. Which I should practice my tenor sax alot more (or go jogging) to remember how much air flow it takes.
So in the morning I had to go through and select a mouthpiece and reed of which I was going to play.
On clarinet I simply play a 3-1/2 Vandoren Traditional or Legere Quebec. End of story unless the mpc is out of "normal".
On sax now .... I do swap between too many mouthpieces. Ranging from a Selmer C* to a Selmer metal G and other brands 8s.
Thus one cannot use the same strength of reed from top to bottom of my mpcs.
Which brings up an interesting selection process. I do not necessarily select a reed based on strength, but more based on the tone.
I played a mpc which most people would normally play a 2 or 2-1/2 reed on. But, even though it played really well I did not like the tone. Everything was fine, it was just missing that really thick base core sound.
So I went up to a 3 reed. Which, at first it was all airy (not flexible yet) and poor response (using a loose embouchure, non-pinching). After a little soak the reed started having good response and an excellent full tone. I also had to focus my airstream a bit more for better reed and horn response.
But the tone was excellent.
When I was playing my tenor several times a week I really ended up playing very hard reeds even on large tip openings. The tone was incredible. I loved playing it.
Now playing every so often I found myself going to softer reeds where playing was easier but the tone was thinner. This allows one focus on technique and playing rather than also having to think and support the embouchre/airflow aspect of playing. but much more enjoyable tonal spectrum.
So I was curious on the players out there how they select a reed ?
And whether you ever try playing harder reeds than normal to see what they have to offer ?
Or if you even hear the difference in various strengths ?