How do you know what strength of reed to play? What does it change? The answer is different for everyone, but here are some tips to help you find the reed strength that will work best for you!
Glad I saw your video to confirm what I've been feeling. With few in person teachers, it's tough to know exactly what to do on your own. I'm a typical adult new player of tenor with a Yamaha 4C. Started with 2.0 strength and have really liked it. After about 10 months I'm thinking I should be able to use 2.5 but every time I tried it felt too hard and I got tired quickly. I finally decided to force myself to "get used to it" and it only took about 2 or 3 days and it was feeling much better and my sound is a bit better. You described it really well about the soft reed limiting your ability to blow very hard and being too thin or bright. Thank you. I'm about to switch the mpc to maybe a HR C* or maybe a 5* so I might be going back to the 2.0 for a while. We'll see.
You know this is a great video, but it is still the tip of the iceberg. What would be interesting to see is to try three different mouthpieces from the same company with large, medium and small chambers (like Rico) at 5 or 7 opening, and three different thicknesses from the same brand (like Rigotti) at 2, 2.5 and 3 in medium strength. Try all combos to see which mouthpiece matches with with which reed. Because all it comes down to is experimentation and preference.
Absolutely! This is pretty base level, but you could definitely go deep down a rabbit hole of experimentation with all the factors you mention. I have, to a degree, just not on video. :)
Does not being able to push your mouthpiece in far enough affect your sound and how does using a clarinet reed on a soprano sax work. I can't get that sound I am searching for on my soprano yet.
I'm an ex Turkish clarinet player and I just started to play the saxophone. I'm used to reeds which are even softer than 1 and I can produce a stuffy sound with it. I bought a legere 2.25 reed and even that feels too strong for me. I'm gonna try the vandoren zz 1.5 now. Any suggestions?
Vandoren is a bit harder than other reeds in my experience. I've had some from Vandoren that were way too hard for my tip opening, as well as too soft. So, maybe something that is made from Rigotti cane or single origin cane could give you better consistency, and a better idea of where you actually are on reed strength.
