I last played my Clarinet in the Winter of '64, when I was in College. I cleaned it well, greased the corks and oiled the bore. I haven't opened the case since. I never had a chance to play it again. My life and times changed for me after that...that seemingly short time ago. My new neighbor squeaks a few tunes from time to time. I never really had a good ear, but my new neighbor definitely blows flat. I took private lessons from age ten and had a very good tone from weeks of blowing open ''A'' before I even started my fingering technique. I very much enjoyed all the the technical subjects covered by the videos produced by Earspasam Music. This year I'll look for my old horn and apply my newly acquired skills from all Earspasm Music's excellent tutorial presentations. A gracious thanks to the producer and a Glorious New Year to All.
Love the "I'd love to thank Vandoren for having such ecofriendly packaging...*cough*not." Does ANYBODY like the humidity packaging? I've yet to meet anybody who doesn't rip that packaging right off.
Normal clarinetist : I keep my reeds in a special box that control temperature and humidity so they're perfect Me : hmmm... this one looks not too split... and it's the last one anyway, so let's play!
Me: opens brand new reed. Marching band tech: asks for your reed for a demonstration. Me: hands over reed. Tech: smashes reed in the music stand. Me: stares. Tech: go get a new reed now. Story of the wall test
A rough feel on the reed means the the pores open. soak in water for 2 mins, place on a flat surface & gently rub towards the tip. This seals the edges of those tiny tubes in the grain and extends the life of the reed. Like you said, rotate reeds. Don't play your best one to death. Even a reed needs a holiday. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, now I'm worried about humidity!
How many clarinet players does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but he has to go through ten boxes of bulbs to find one that works. Now you tell us he only uses that one when company shows up? I'm glad I play bassoon!
Kenneth H how many bassoon players does it take to change a light bulb? One, but he has to learn how to make each light bulb by hand and then only one works.
It's fun (interesting) to hear you complaining about summer as the difficult time for reeds. Here in Sweden, and particularly up in the north, where I went to school, it's the winter that's tricky due to the dry climate. If I made (my main instrument was bassoon at the time) a reed that worked up north, it'd be great when I came back home.
Love the video! I'm a clarinettist and also a software developer and have been thinking about making an app to track my reed inventory. Curious if this would be useful for other players. You'd essentially make a record for each reed and have the ability to take notes on it's characteristics each day you play them. You could set your location and it would pull in weather details for you and over time be able to see trends and perhaps suggest the best reeds in your inventory for 'today'. Anybody else think an app like that would be useful?
It would be really useful! It would be wonderful if you create the app so it works on Android, iOS, Linux, both phone and PC, MacOS, Windows, basically as many different things as possible!
What I find most annoying is that whats so tricky (especially in the summer) is finding a good day to try reeds during the "follow-up" over the summer. East Coast weather is so picky =(. I mean we may have it the easiest though.
Hello! Very informative video. I just have a question. When you measure the humidity/temperature, do you measure the outside temp or the room you are in? Thanks!
I love opening new reeds because my old ones are always bad... I'm still kinda new to Clarinet, does the quality of the reed really matter, does it really affect the sound quality, I'm assuming most people don't notice.
+Brandon Woolworth In a lot of respects it's about how it feels to play a reed. I'm a pretty casual player, but even without a lot of experience I find reeds that feel slow to respond vs ones that are just hard to get moving in a single box of reeds. Casual and new players probably have a broader range of reeds that we'll accept - we're not as tuned in to some of the nuances that come with experience - but even a penny pincher like me has tossed reeds because they just made playing miserable. Can the audience tell? They may not know what's off, but they will detect if you're not able to play cleanly. So yes, it does matter. it just may depend on how much *you* care if it matters :)
+Brandon Woolworth When i played bass clarinet in 8th grade I didn't care what brand they were or how damaged they were. I was the only bass clarinet player in that class , so if i ran out i would just use the old ones that were breaking at the tip
Sometimes my sax reeds feel rough on top and sound rough too. So I take a tiny knife and shave off the roughness. Just a few strokes. The reed usually feel and sound better. Strange, but true.
Nothing is worse than a rough reed against the lip. I find alto reeds play like crap for an hour or so, and then sound great for many hours. Best to keep 4 or 8 broken in, and cycle through them. As long as the tip sides have the same flexibility, they dont reallly need to be worked on, sanded, or trimmed... just played.
My son's teacher just sent out a memo to parents regarding purchasing reeds for class! LOL! I went through 3 videos to finally come up to the full explanation of what a reed is and what it does! Not directed at you personally Sir, but I find it kind of amusing to why having fun with music and sound manipulation is stripped out and the high almighty by the book symphony want to be musicians who buy an airline seat for their instrument show their anal side of things. Having a good ear is one thing, but who cares! It's not beneficial to the demonstrate this. I learned alot from those non-musicians and Producers like Brian Eno. In the end, being too perfecto and discipline with this way of thinking takes away all the fun for the kids! Thanks for the Demo!
I am the same- I always loved a reed when it was worn smooth and starting to look transparent across the edge... right before it started to splinter... 😐
Hi Michael, Great video, and I tell you the struggle is real!! I live in Colorado where the weather kills reeds by the hundreds. I know it's the complete opposite, but what are your suggestions for when it's super cold and dry? There are times in the winter when the relative humidity drops below 10% making almost any reed unplayable. I do keep my reeds in a plastic bag and a humidity pack, which helps a bit.
Holy cow i didn't know you lived in Brooklyn, i live in THE BRONX, i thought you were from Chicago or California for some reason. I am starting to get into BASS clarinet, i am a sax player, i have to go on your site and get going with some lessons man.
Wow. I have a pack of 3 Rico Royal 2s and I'm still just using the first one I opened. I never thought of trying others in the pack. And this reed seems to last forever! No mold, no splits. How long are they supposed to last?
Larry Shone Just because it still makes noise doesn't mean it's still good. If you play often, that reed is guaranteed beyond dead, espescially if it's that soft of a reed.
I have many reeds that make the clarinet sound extremely ‘airy’ full of air and with less tone. My best reeds sound pure and there is no airy sound on them. Why is this? And is there a way to improve the sound of these reeds so they don’t sound airy?
Should you soak the entire reed? I know a bunch of people that do it that way, but I could have sworn that my previous clarinet teacher told me not to soak it beyond the bark line (I was in high school at the time, so I could possibly have misremembered what he said, or he gave me advice relevant to me at the time, or something else entirely).
I personally use fibracell reeds for my own instrument (bari sax) so I'm not sure if the marking of humidity would be useful to me seeing as how they are...not necessarily fake reeds but not genuine wood...any suggestions? I currently have 4 in my possession right now and they all work perfectly fine but as you would expect some days they play better than others but this could be because of other reasons...
Syd The Fox I've had better luck with making my own rather than buying them premade. yes it's more than $12 to get all of the supplies to make reeds but in the long run it will save you money
I recently ordered a bunch of those humidity packs from the Cuban Cigar store and they sent them to me in nothing but the postal packing. Currently I have them sealed in a ziploc bag and wrapped in Seran Wrap so that they all won't dry out simultaneously. Is that effective?
+SalvationSax Yeah, that's a problem of course. I keep them sealed in a ziploc too (actually I double-bag it), and they tend to be fine for at least a year.
You say you do not sand your reeds. what do you do when you get a reed that is very unbalanced. I have the Ridenour ATG system and love it, but haven't yet gotten to try it on bass reeds.
Oh I definitely sand them. But not for several days after they are first played. Maybe even a week. It's important (to me at least) to let the reeds adjust to being, well, reeds. Sanding them right away doesn't do you or them any favors.
Earspasm Music Unbalanced reed breaks-in in a unbalanced fashion and will wear out more quickly. Having a well balanced reed from the beginning saves a lot of trouble,you will get more life out of the reed and the reed will also be lot more resistance to weather changes
Don't put force on the reed. It's fragile. Don't let anything touch the reed part except for your lips. Only handle the cork part if you can. And maybe switch to a different reed hardness. I picture a space bubble around my reeds and am always mindful of it never being near anything that could damage it, be it bumping against walls, people walking by, or accidental falls.
From an absolutely "novice" position, I have to tell you that they all sound the same. But you'd expect that response from someone like me who knows diddly about Saxophones or Reeds. That said, is it more (for you as an accomplished player) about the way the Reed responds to your demands on the Reed?
It depends, if you are beginning/ new to bass clarinet, then they are good and make it easier to make a sound. However, if you have been playing for a while(aka: if you can make a sound and play consistently) then you need a step up brcause Rico reeds produce augur tone quality, and you may struggle with your upper register notes. I'd recommend a vandorin 1 and 1/2, or vandorin 2 for the first step up. I currently use vandorin 3 and 1/2, and it's my 4th year plating. So basically, it depends on your expirenc level. Hope this helped!!
Then I would recommend a step up, and you will notice a change in your tone. However, reeds can be REALLY expensive, so either use them until they die, or if you know someone who is just starting out, you could always sell/give them your reeds.
Ive seen a lot of sax players who put their reeds in a can full of vodka (water gets bad really quick).... In this video you say something about "waterlogged reeds"... what is the damage in this? why its bad to a reed to be "waterlogged"... because, if you storage a reed in a can full of liquid... well.... it will be "waterlogged" all the time...
1) waterlogged reads don’t play well and will become mushy . Mushy reed will bend ..not break when you put your thumb on the tip. Many become mushy without being waterlogged though. Vodka is to clean and get rid of the smell that some reads get.
There is a whole skill set for working your reeds that you are missing. Out of most every box I get 100% fabulous & resonant sounding reeds. Each reed will often last me over 100 gigs. But there is a simple and logical skill set you need to learn to get that. (It sure beats bitching about crappy reeds.) My book, "The Incomplete Guide to Sax" should be published soon, (Just have a few details to work out) has detailed instructions on how you properly select, set up, adjust, and rework a played out reed. Keep an eye out for it. It really will rock your world!
*cough cough* Play trombone you won't have to deal with this *cough* trombone master race *cough* ^ that up there is a joke for those of you who didn't know. ^J^
life is like a box of reeds you never know what you're going to get
ATOMICxCIMOTA zomg haha so true
ATOMICxCIMOTA
Definitely.
Its is true because in life you mostly get down falls
Life is a box of reeds, it's AF expensive and it's during a wink
also they are gone in the blink of an eye
I last played my Clarinet in the Winter of '64, when I was in College. I cleaned it well, greased the corks and oiled the bore. I haven't opened the case since. I never had a chance to play it again. My life and times changed for me after that...that seemingly short time ago.
My new neighbor squeaks a few tunes from time to time. I never really had a good ear, but my new neighbor definitely blows flat. I took private lessons from age ten and had a very good tone from weeks of blowing open ''A'' before I even started my fingering technique.
I very much enjoyed all the the technical subjects covered by the videos produced by Earspasam Music. This year I'll look for my old horn and apply my newly acquired skills from all Earspasm Music's excellent tutorial presentations.
A gracious thanks to the producer and a Glorious New Year to All.
Paid reviewer???????
"Eco friendly packaging, not." XD lol
I don't get it
Isabella Adams vandoren wraps each reed individually with plastic, which is super bad for the environment
Love the "I'd love to thank Vandoren for having such ecofriendly packaging...*cough*not."
Does ANYBODY like the humidity packaging? I've yet to meet anybody who doesn't rip that packaging right off.
Wait if you said reed 70... and it was July 7th, that's day 188, so divide by 70 you get...!! You've approximately been through 1 reed every 2.6 days.
That seems really fucking quick
ACTUALLY!! Thats because he opens a whole box at once and rotates his reeds each day/hour of practice.
Like most advanced players, he isn't using all the reeds. The throw-aways probably have numbers, too!
*me the poor who play with the same reed for 3 months...
@@michka841 for me it is 2 weeks
In California we have the opposite problem-dry in the summer, wet (finally!) in the winter. Thanks for the baggie tip, definitely going to try that.
Normal clarinetist : I keep my reeds in a special box that control temperature and humidity so they're perfect
Me : hmmm... this one looks not too split... and it's the last one anyway, so let's play!
Me: opens brand new reed. Marching band tech: asks for your reed for a demonstration. Me: hands over reed. Tech: smashes reed in the music stand. Me: stares. Tech: go get a new reed now. Story of the wall test
that is the oposite of me
A rough feel on the reed means the the pores open. soak in water for 2 mins, place on a flat surface & gently rub towards the tip. This seals the edges of those tiny tubes in the grain and extends the life of the reed. Like you said, rotate reeds. Don't play your best one to death. Even a reed needs a holiday. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, now I'm worried about humidity!
this guy was really fun to watch and informative.
I give you props for taking the time to do this !! I would be too lazy
Hot and humid? I live in south Florida, that's all I know...
Cold and dry? I live in northern Minnesota, that’s all I know...
lol tampa life
Drastically different weather every day? I live in New England, thats all I know...
Same
yo sameee
I play Baritone sax but find these videos excellent to learn from thank you!
How many clarinet players does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but he has to go through ten boxes of bulbs to find one that works. Now you tell us he only uses that one when company shows up?
I'm glad I play bassoon!
Kenneth H how many bassoon players does it take to change a light bulb? One, but he has to learn how to make each light bulb by hand and then only one works.
Enrique Serna lol you're not wrong
How many second clarinet players does it take? None; they can't get up that high.......
It's fun (interesting) to hear you complaining about summer as the difficult time for reeds. Here in Sweden, and particularly up in the north, where I went to school, it's the winter that's tricky due to the dry climate. If I made (my main instrument was bassoon at the time) a reed that worked up north, it'd be great when I came back home.
Love the video!
I'm a clarinettist and also a software developer and have been thinking about making an app to track my reed inventory. Curious if this would be useful for other players. You'd essentially make a record for each reed and have the ability to take notes on it's characteristics each day you play them. You could set your location and it would pull in weather details for you and over time be able to see trends and perhaps suggest the best reeds in your inventory for 'today'. Anybody else think an app like that would be useful?
Ben Lambillotte That’s a pretty good idea
neato
It would be really useful! It would be wonderful if you create the app so it works on Android, iOS, Linux, both phone and PC, MacOS, Windows, basically as many different things as possible!
please tell me you made this app, because this NEEDS to exist
Oh yes, please that would be amaaaazing!!! I hope you did something?
you should make a video about how different tones you can get by shaving it on different parts... :)
gosh I love the sound of that horn:)
thanks for sharing your reed procedures:)
It’s a bass clarinet, not a horn :-)
Lovely sounding instrument! Good tips on breaking in reeds too. (Oh yes, nice playing as well).
Great video! I love waterlogged reeds though lol. Keep mine in a container with a water/mouthwash mix
man I want a bass clarinet so badly
Sell a kidney and buy one
😂there really fun to play but very time consuming. You can always rent one tho
@@michka841 that’s more like the price of a bass clarinet
Me too
You have wonderful tone, sir.
So helpful! Thanks a million! Love your channel, it's packed with great information and is extremely fun!
Not eco friendly to create the wrapper and more energy waste to dispose it! Thanks Vandoren!
Awesome video by the way!🙏
New reeds always sound fluffy and awful when I play them.
What I find most annoying is that whats so tricky (especially in the summer) is finding a good day to try reeds during the "follow-up" over the summer. East Coast weather is so picky =(. I mean we may have it the easiest though.
Hello! Very informative video. I just have a question. When you measure the humidity/temperature, do you measure the outside temp or the room you are in? Thanks!
Love these videos, and also the wicked glasses!!!
Hot and Humid? Come to Florida
I love opening new reeds because my old ones are always bad...
I'm still kinda new to Clarinet, does the quality of the reed really matter, does it really affect the sound quality, I'm assuming most people don't notice.
+Brandon Woolworth Play clarinet a few more years and you'll realize just how wrong you are. ;)
+Brandon Woolworth In a lot of respects it's about how it feels to play a reed. I'm a pretty casual player, but even without a lot of experience I find reeds that feel slow to respond vs ones that are just hard to get moving in a single box of reeds. Casual and new players probably have a broader range of reeds that we'll accept - we're not as tuned in to some of the nuances that come with experience - but even a penny pincher like me has tossed reeds because they just made playing miserable.
Can the audience tell? They may not know what's off, but they will detect if you're not able to play cleanly. So yes, it does matter. it just may depend on how much *you* care if it matters :)
+Brandon Woolworth don't worry, i definitely notice
when i have a trash reed i don't even want to play my horn
+Brandon Woolworth When i played bass clarinet in 8th grade I didn't care what brand they were or how damaged they were. I was the only bass clarinet player in that class , so if i ran out i would just use the old ones that were breaking at the tip
Hate it when I have to throw away a really good Reed that finally wears out. Wish there was a way to preserve it to play for a year.
I love your tone, it's so soothing hahaha
One word: Légère.
Sometimes my sax reeds feel rough on top and sound rough too. So I take a tiny knife and shave off the roughness. Just a few strokes. The reed usually feel and sound better. Strange, but true.
Nothing is worse than a rough reed against the lip.
I find alto reeds play like crap for an hour or so, and then sound great for many hours. Best to keep 4 or 8 broken in, and cycle through them.
As long as the tip sides have the same flexibility, they dont reallly need to be worked on, sanded, or trimmed... just played.
This is so very helpful. Great stuff.
My son's teacher just sent out a memo to parents regarding purchasing reeds for class! LOL! I went through 3 videos to finally come up to the full explanation of what a reed is and what it does! Not directed at you personally Sir, but I find it kind of amusing to why having fun with music and sound manipulation is stripped out and the high almighty by the book symphony want to be musicians who buy an airline seat for their instrument show their anal side of things. Having a good ear is one thing, but who cares! It's not beneficial to the demonstrate this. I learned alot from those non-musicians and Producers like Brian Eno. In the end, being too perfecto and discipline with this way of thinking takes away all the fun for the kids! Thanks for the Demo!
thanks for the humidity control trick
My friend gave me a new Reed and it doesn't even play until I push my air as hard as I can. And it's the same strength.
Epetra oof
Give us a yaaay for the consistently damp weather of the UK :P
for reed storage at home, I bought a small cigar humidor and it works great
Wow,I thought keeping storing reeds was a piece of cake.
dude’s like the alton brown of bass clarinets
Nice video and this was uploaded on my birthday.
I am the same- I always loved a reed when it was worn smooth and starting to look transparent across the edge... right before it started to splinter... 😐
Ah, Brooklyn. Ah, Greenpoint!
This is gold but reedgeek works really great!
blimey !!!! what a palava !!!
Get synthetic.. Don't worry about it.
How do woodwind doublers keep their reeds from drying and warping on stage?
Hi Michael,
Great video, and I tell you the struggle is real!! I live in Colorado where the weather kills reeds by the hundreds. I know it's the complete opposite, but what are your suggestions for when it's super cold and dry? There are times in the winter when the relative humidity drops below 10% making almost any reed unplayable. I do keep my reeds in a plastic bag and a humidity pack, which helps a bit.
Oh boy, how I am excited to pop open my fresh box of V21s
Holy cow i didn't know you lived in Brooklyn, i live in THE BRONX, i thought you were from Chicago or California for some reason. I am starting to get into BASS clarinet, i am a sax player, i have to go on your site and get going with some lessons man.
Really really really helpful thank you💜💜
can you do a review on synthetic reeds
watch the part 2 of this video...
< Very comforting reed wisdom. I am not alone in this reed miseriously life jajaja ! >>
Do you play professionally? And do you play on a low C bass? And what mouthpiece do you use? A lot of questions, I know. I was just wondering
could you do a video on cane vs. plastic reeds?
Wow. I have a pack of 3 Rico Royal 2s and I'm still just using the first one I opened. I never thought of trying others in the pack. And this reed seems to last forever! No mold, no splits. How long are they supposed to last?
Larry Shone Just because it still makes noise doesn't mean it's still good. If you play often, that reed is guaranteed beyond dead, espescially if it's that soft of a reed.
Unknown629 Permand303 I began to swap through them, marked each one and play them in rotation
Switch to the Legere signature reeds .... No more worries about hot/humid/cold whatever .... LOL
I have many reeds that make the clarinet sound extremely ‘airy’ full of air and with less tone. My best reeds sound pure and there is no airy sound on them.
Why is this? And is there a way to improve the sound of these reeds so they don’t sound airy?
About how long will a box of 10 Vandoren reeds last if I play for 2-3 hours a day and follow your tutorial closely?
Should you soak the entire reed? I know a bunch of people that do it that way, but I could have sworn that my previous clarinet teacher told me not to soak it beyond the bark line (I was in high school at the time, so I could possibly have misremembered what he said, or he gave me advice relevant to me at the time, or something else entirely).
What brand of bass clarinet do you have?
Selmer Paris Privilege 67
weird packaging from van doren. i did buy a box of van doren clarinet reeds and they were packaged in a traveling hard plastic sleeve for each
XD I made the mistake of only playing the good reed many times (at the moment I had 2 Rico and 1 Vandoren)
I personally use fibracell reeds for my own instrument (bari sax) so I'm not sure if the marking of humidity would be useful to me seeing as how they are...not necessarily fake reeds but not genuine wood...any suggestions? I currently have 4 in my possession right now and they all work perfectly fine but as you would expect some days they play better than others but this could be because of other reasons...
LOL hot and humid..tryin learning tenor sax in alabama...hot and humid you say...lol
That feel when you get a new mouthpiece and all of your broken in reeds become trash, and all new reeds also sound like trash.
I know this is a very old video, but do you soak Bb soprano reeds for the same amount of time that you soak bass clarinet reeds?
Yep.
When I am doing marching band I noticed that my reeds die faster is that normal
Get a Legere plastic reed. You won’t have to deal with all the problems with natural reeds.
My guess is this: since you use it with more volume than usual, it vibrates more and gets thinner faster.
Do you soak your reeds every day or just the first time?
Irrelevant question- Do you use a tooth saver?
+Kitty Littlestripes www.earspasm.com/omega/shop/paraffin-teeth-cushion-3-feet/
You have 70 reeds at a time? I only use up to 4 per my two saxes!
I play bass clarinet and I need more reds what size please answer before Friday this week
Lucky Sax and Clarinets.. Over here on oboe with 12 bucks or more for a reed that had a 60% chance of sucking
Same here
Syd The Fox I've had better luck with making my own rather than buying them premade. yes it's more than $12 to get all of the supplies to make reeds but in the long run it will save you money
I play Bb clarinet and I'm switching to the bass clarinet do u have any tips
I recently ordered a bunch of those humidity packs from the Cuban Cigar store and they sent them to me in nothing but the postal packing. Currently I have them sealed in a ziploc bag and wrapped in Seran Wrap so that they all won't dry out simultaneously. Is that effective?
+SalvationSax Yeah, that's a problem of course. I keep them sealed in a ziploc too (actually I double-bag it), and they tend to be fine for at least a year.
This is another super cool video I'm gonna' make the children watch :-)
arent they like $5 a piece?
jan - july ~ 180 days, 180/70 reeds= 18/7 ~ 2.5 days per reed or a little less than 2 weeks per box. Is this a good efficiency?
+Max Jiang He does do this professionally
Probably over half of them aren't good enough?
What's your take on V21 reeds
I think they're good. I've used them on both bass and Bb. Still prefer V12's with my mouthpiece.
I've been told they're not that great from many players
I found a way to make reeds play with NO sanding or scraping. Want to hear more?
You say you do not sand your reeds. what do you do when you get a reed that is very unbalanced. I have the Ridenour ATG system and love it, but haven't yet gotten to try it on bass reeds.
Oh I definitely sand them. But not for several days after they are first played. Maybe even a week. It's important (to me at least) to let the reeds adjust to being, well, reeds. Sanding them right away doesn't do you or them any favors.
Earspasm Music Unbalanced reed breaks-in in a unbalanced fashion and will wear out more quickly. Having a well balanced reed from the beginning saves a lot of trouble,you will get more life out of the reed and the reed will also be lot more resistance to weather changes
Ok I just bought new reeds for the clarinet and after that I drew numbers on the reed case. I have to skip that part......
am i lucky or something because all the bass clarinet reeds ive ever used always have been perfect...
When i put very little force on my oboe reeds it splits in half, how can i prevent this?
dont play
Stop playing it sideways
Don't put force on the reed. It's fragile. Don't let anything touch the reed part except for your lips. Only handle the cork part if you can. And maybe switch to a different reed hardness. I picture a space bubble around my reeds and am always mindful of it never being near anything that could damage it, be it bumping against walls, people walking by, or accidental falls.
2:31 I’m dying
Why don't you just use synthetic reeds?
From an absolutely "novice" position, I have to tell you that they all sound the same. But you'd expect that response from someone like me who knows diddly about Saxophones or Reeds. That said, is it more (for you as an accomplished player) about the way the Reed responds to your demands on the Reed?
?is it a clarinet or is it a sax?
Roey haha your so funny *said no one ever*
i get my reeds for my bass clarinet from rico are they on a 1 to 10 scale (1 being worst; 10 being best) how "good" are they?
It depends, if you are beginning/ new to bass clarinet, then they are good and make it easier to make a sound. However, if you have been playing for a while(aka: if you can make a sound and play consistently) then you need a step up brcause Rico reeds produce augur tone quality, and you may struggle with your upper register notes. I'd recommend a vandorin 1 and 1/2, or vandorin 2 for the first step up. I currently use vandorin 3 and 1/2, and it's my 4th year plating. So basically, it depends on your expirenc level. Hope this helped!!
+Shyvonne Potter what if im fine with upper register keys and notes?
Then I would recommend a step up, and you will notice a change in your tone. However, reeds can be REALLY expensive, so either use them until they die, or if you know someone who is just starting out, you could always sell/give them your reeds.
+Brandon Vo (Airsoft Sniper Badass) You need to check what reed strengths your mouthpiece is compatible with if you want a good tone :))
Aladdin Magi reed strength is 2 (1/2) and my mouth peace idk
Ive seen a lot of sax players who put their reeds in a can full of vodka (water gets bad really quick)....
In this video you say something about "waterlogged reeds"... what is the damage in this? why its bad to a reed to be "waterlogged"... because, if you storage a reed in a can full of liquid... well.... it will be "waterlogged" all the time...
then they get moldy if they are waterlogged :)
1) waterlogged reads don’t play well and will become mushy . Mushy reed will bend ..not break when you put your thumb on the tip. Many become mushy without being waterlogged though. Vodka is to clean and get rid of the smell that some reads get.
Is it just me, but when I get a new Reed out, IT TASTES ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE?!!?
There is a whole skill set for working your reeds that you are missing. Out of most every box I get 100% fabulous & resonant sounding reeds. Each reed will often last me over 100 gigs. But there is a simple and logical skill set you need to learn to get that. (It sure beats bitching about crappy reeds.) My book, "The Incomplete Guide to Sax" should be published soon, (Just have a few details to work out) has detailed instructions on how you properly select, set up, adjust, and rework a played out reed. Keep an eye out for it. It really will rock your world!
100 gigs? Lmfao!
Wallow in your ignorance. Just because you don't know how it's done doesn't mean that it can't be done. I've been doing it for 40 years.
your comment sounds like a bunch of bullshit.
My reeds play themselves. I`m just there to finger the keys.
I live on Texas :(
He he he
I live in florida
My reeds last 5 months each
Vyen Trang mine 5 seconds
That really omg’s my who did this
Y don't u buy a plastic reeds
Jesus Sandoval plastic reed? Thats a thing? If it is its not sipposed supposed to lol
Not sure why you complain about the humidity but soak your reeds in a glass of 100 percent water.
Just buy a legere
*cough cough* Play trombone you won't have to deal with this *cough* trombone master race *cough*
^
that up there is a joke for those of you who didn't know. ^J^
BRASS PLAYERRRSSSSSS
Tenor Phone Yeah, Gotta problem?
+HarpothekidRS noooo
Tenor Phone mhm
+HarpothekidRS xD