Five Minute Reedmaker: Altitude and Back Again
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- I spent a week at 7,000 feet elevation, and I performed, taught, and worked with a lot of people on their reeds. Here's what I learned!
I'll be so interested to hear from people who routinely play in the mountains - what did I get wrong and right here?
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I play in the Salt Lake City area, at about 4500 feet. Many years ago, before I knew anything about reed making, we did a concert in Evanston, Wyoming, about 6900 feet elevation. My favorite reed at the time wouldn’t work for me, but I found an old, worn out reed worked great!
I've played in Salt Lake City, and felt pretty comfortable with older reeds, but BOY it feels really different up in Wyoming! You wouldn't necessarily think the extra 2500 feet would matter but somehow they do...
Lovely to meet you there, Jennet.
You too, Adrian! I enjoyed talking with you!
Thank you so much for addressing this. I traveled from Portland, OR (near sea level and quite moist) to Santa Fe, NM (7200 feet and very dry) for a concert band festival. Anticipating trouble, I went there two days ahead and worked on reeds in the hotel each day. I thought I had 6 or 7 working oboe reeds and 4 or 5 working EH reeds the day of the concert, right up to the concert. During the concert I had a big EH solo, and at the beginning of it, I could get absolutely no sound. I quickly changed reeds and with a terrible, brittle sound managed to get the rest of the solo out, but it was really horrible. So disheartening. ...Just to top things off, our flight home was cancelled and we rebooked a flight that was near boarding and we were unable to check baggage and I had to give up my reed knives to TSA.
UGH. Travel is not great for double reeds at the best of times... and yes, I didn't touch on it much, but Flagstaff was SUPER dry. I saw EVERY PLAYER dip their reed, repeatedly, while playing more than is the norm here in Indiana...
Enjoying your book SO MUCH! I love your energy, and friendly demeanor! I hope to see you in Scottsdale again next spring!
Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I hope to see you there as well!
Thank you for this video. Since I live at ~7300 ft, it is good to see that you did the same kinds of things that I do with my reeds. I am glad that I can adjust reeds I make at your Oboe Reed Boot Camp since I need to take cane off reeds made at your altitude to make them work for mine.
Thanks for weighing in! I'll be so curious to see your reeds down here - and might advise you to leave at least a few good ones at home so you don't accidentally adjust them...
So interesting. Given what you are describing, I am wondering whether you think it was the heat, dryness or altitude that you were adjusting for -- and if altitude, whether it was that the cane was behaving differently, or your lungs. The adjustments you describe are similar to what I end up doing (I think!) when working back into shape after a respiratory infection - when I find I need a little more forgiveness in the 'sustain.' It also seems a little like what (I think?) some of us do when the weather in the Midwest becomes a little less humid heading into winter.
Heat isn't it, I don't think - the temperature was around the same. And it WAS very dry - but also we were playing in indoor, climate controlled environments, which I also do at home in the midwest. I'm going with altitude, with a side of aridity.
Wow!!! Fascinating observations; thank you!! Wondering what staple you used on the third reed; your favorite. Okay, as I am commenting, here is a possible question to address on future videos. Are you ever in the situation where you need to use ear plus; perhaps doing larger works with huge orchestra? I remember seeing a visiting major US orchestra in Toronto, and there were clear acrylic buffer stands (for lack of better name) in between rows; particularly the brass and winds. If using ear plugs in any circumstance, what do you find works best for you? Thanks.
Thanks, Kathy! That third reed was on my JIR Custom tube. I'm almost but not quite 100% using those for myself now. And what a great question about ear plugs! I'll think about a video for that - those sound shields you are talking about are certainly better than nothing but I don't know that I trust them with MY ears...
@@JennetIngle Always a big thank you!!! Also, I have to add; I am VERY impressed that you always get out orders right away.....you are the best!!!