Hello Mr. R. Old friend KenL. For me it is much easier to play a long "G" while rolling the mouthpiece left and right. I can hear the differences much easier that way. Also, if both sides are dull, you can get a better color in the sound by sanding both sides. Another KenL preference is to have the whole reed wet so the flexibility is more even. I have reeds from the 70's that still play well, but not so well on my current mouthpiece.
Thanks, Ken. That's good advice. If the clarinet proves nothing else it proves there's more than one way to skin a cat. Creative work and thinking gets you past the finish line.
Dear Mr R While watching this vid & looking out for the mushroom cloud, it occurred to me that it would be very helpful if you could mention which grade of abrasive paper you are using as you are demonstrating evening the tip & balancing the sides of the reed, on each occasion please? That would be very reassuring for this newbie in this dark art. Molto thanks, André
After doing some sanding of reeds, (400, 800, 1000 grit paper) I noticed scratches on the glass. Giving that some thought, wouldn’t using glass as a sanding base leave fine glass particles on the reed... which maybe should be rinsed off before using the reed? I’ve been using a 5x8 portion of a food grade plastic cutting board instead lately. Thoughts?
