I found out about your video through the Clarinet BBoard. I hate scraping reeds. This flicking technique is magic! I like how clearly you explained everything. I have to agree with you that this will kill a Rico reed pretty fast so this works best on Vandorens. Thank you for making this video, it is very helpful.
WOW! I actually tried this with a couple hard reeds and actually laughed out loud about the effectiveness of this. Now I'm getting more depth of sound. Thank you for posting!
Wayback in the day (as a kid) we would put a reed strength card (Vandoren plastic card with the comparative reed models/strengths) between the read and the mouthpiece and flick it so that the Reed would open up a little bit more.
Glad it helped! :) still use this every single day with no problem. Althought i have noticed some difference between cuts. American cut seems to be softer in the heart area and dies easier. And cheap bad quality reeds die instantly. Vandoren and d’addario reserve works great for me on all single reed instruments. :)
Haha. Its no problem for the reed if done lightly. The audio is beeing enhanced by the macbook. Its almost inaudible in real life, or its done too hard and will ruin the reed. I have adjusted 60-70 reeds doing this and only ruined the first 3-4 until i got the hang of it. :)
It sounds almost too good to be true!! I'm going to try it. What do you do the next days? Do you soak that reed in water before playing the first few days, or do you simply wet it in your mouth like in this video and just play for 30 minutes? Do you also rotate your reeds or play the same one every playing session? Thank you so much!
I rotate a full box usually. The next time i play it it needs a slight adjustment again, but often very very gentle. The hard part about this method is doing it very carefully and with purpose. It takes some time to learn how a reed speaks when a certain problem needs to be adressed. I feel a resistance in the attack and a bit of air sound - very tip. Feel unresponsive and still not dull sounding - further back. The first thing i do is make each side play the same by angling the reed about 45 degrees and flick at different depths. Very gently. Then i adress the overall feeling of the reed. I think i benefited from learning to scrape and sand reeds first so i learned where each problem area is and how the feel and sound, but with some experimentation and care it will come quick i think. There are mainly 6 areas i adress. Tip (first 3mm), about 5-7mm in and 8-12mm in on each side. This also require good cane. The old orange rico boxes for example can’t handle this method since the cane is too weak and dry.
@@theswedishmusicstudio thank you so much for the very complete response! I understand. But do you put the reeds in water at any time for some minutes in the beginning, or you find no need for that? And do you still sand the table of the reed so it does not leak air between the reed and mouthpiece table? Thanks again! (Yes, I have orange rico reeds and indeed seem too weak for this.)
@@HelderMusic107 Hi. sorry for the late reply. No I never place my reeds in water. It's no point. It will just clog them up. too much water isn't what we are after. it is less dense than saliva, and the reeds sucks it in. This will cause the reed to dry more the next time, is my experience anyway. It's like the water flushes away some of the natural bamboo oil. I also never sand the back of the reed. The sanding machines Vandoren and D'addario uses are great. No need to work on them further. They seal properly. (I used to sand. Because when I was young my teacher gave me his reeds from the 60s and onwards, the one he rejected. I still got a shoebox full with the stuff. :) The back was worse back then it seems.) If the reed don't sit properly on the mouthpiece it's either a warped mouthpiece, or a bad ligature. Mpcs from hard rubber can warp from sunlight and heat.
@@theswedishmusicstudiothank you! That is really helpful. Have you tried or do you like any synthetic reeds btw? I am a beginner saxophonist and synthetic reeds seem more convenient, although they don't seem to sound as good as cane...
@@HelderMusic107 i have used legere european cut or a few years. They are very nice once you find your strenght, but they do sound and feel a little bit thinner than cane reeds to my ears. Especially on clarinet for some reason. I use them on alto in orchestra and it works great. Have not tried the newest line of legere.
Not that i have experienced. It could be that i was never any good at adjusting reeds with other tools, but doing it this way prolongs the life of my reeds. When using a knife, or the atg method, i would have to balance them further when the weather changed etc. A good reed one day is a bad the next. Doing this, the reed gets a bit harder or softer on different days, but stays balanced. Like a ”once every other box” kind of reed, you know? I dont think the fibers are damaged, but just softened a bit. I dont flick that hard, and if that would break it in those 1-2 flicks i do, playing ff should inflict much greater damage, since that air burst is hitting the thin tip first. I dont know. Physics was never my forte (pun intended). ;)
Hi David. Update. I have tried LOTS of different brands and it seems like the quality of the cane matters. I could not flick a rico/d’addario blue box without it dying on me. Vandoren and d’addario reserve and reserve classic works great etc. American cut reeds seems in general to respond worse than french cut. Could be that they have thinner hearts? I havnt tried enough american cut to make up my mind. I have a couple of hundred french cut of different makes that i’m working my way through when i have the time. :)
