54 January/February 1996

BasicSaxophoneSkills

Paul Berler

Reeds, Part I

It’s concert time. Your suit hasbeen cleaned and pressed, noneof your music is lost or missing,

and you’ve been practicing hard forthe past several weeks to get readyfor this performance. Your reputa-tion as a musician is on the line, andyet you are calm and relaxed. Youtake your instrument out of its caseand begin to warm up. As you areplaying, however, you notice some-thing odd about your sound asyou’re playing. It’s not focused,there is no richness or body to it.None of your high tones are speak-ing well, and your low tones aren’tcoming out at all! What’s going on?You think for a minute, it might besomething mechanical; a leak per-haps? But you then remember thatyou just had your horn tuned-uplast week! Finally, you look at themouthpiece, and you see it. There’sa crack in your reed the size of theGrand Canyon, and you don’t haveany spare reeds to use! Now thenervousness sets in, and the sweatstarts rolling down your face, andthen you wake up and realize it wasall just a bad dream.

Does this scenario sound familiar?It does to me, because I was exactlylike this in my high school days andI’m sure that a lot of people canidentify with it because it’s such acommon problem. Taking care ofyour reeds is a vital part of being asaxophonist. If you choose not tocare for your reeds, if you’re thetype of person who says, “I just slapa reed on my mouthpiece straightout of the box and play it until itdies,” you’re setting yourself up for

these kinds of problems. Unpre-pared reeds (i.e., reeds straight outof the box) have a greater risk forproblems simply because mostmanufacturers of reeds sell them inwhat is known as a “rough state.”That is to say that these reeds willnot be able to hold up for very longagainst the kind of treatment wesubject our reeds to. And let’s faceit, we put our reeds through hell!

In this column I’m going to as-sume that you have selected a brandand strength of reed that suits yoursound concept and your style ofplaying. I’m not going to state thatone brand of reed or one certainstrength is the best for everyone; allI will say is that the more open yourmouthpiece facing (i.e., jazz mouth-pieces), the softer your reed strengthshould be. The more closed facing(classical mouthpieces), the harderthe reed. Again, this is true most ofthe time, not all of the time. Forexample, when I play baritone saxo-phone in a jazz band section, I use aBerg Larsen mouthpiece with themost open facing, and a Hemkereed, strength #4! So, whateverworks for you is what you shoulduse, period! Also, always have anextra supply of reeds to work with,don’t wait until you’re on your lastreed and it’s all brown and moldyand chipped before you say, “Hmm,maybe I should buy a new reed.”Don’t buy reeds one at a time, buythem by the box. Reeds usuallycome in boxes ranging from five totwenty-five.

Let’s assume you’re starting a newcycle of reeds, in other words, all of

your previous reeds are getting tothe point where they are unplayableand we have to break in some newones. I suggest preparing reeds ingroups of four, simply because mostreed guards are designed to handlefour reeds at a time. By the way, I’malso assuming you have a reedguard to store your reeds in. If youdon’t have one, go out and buy onebefore continuing with this article.The first thing we want to do isexamine each of the reeds for anykinds of imperfections. Make surethe reed isn’t cracked, chipped, orwarped right out of the box, obvi-ously those reeds cannot be usedfrom the start, so get rid of them.Make sure the color of the reed is anice golden yellow and is also some-what shiny. If the reed is green inany way, that means it hasn’t beencured enough. Don’t throw it away,however! Simply store it in a dryplace for about one year, and itshould be okay. I know some peoplewho never use reeds straight out ofthe box, they always store all thereeds they buy for at least a yearbefore they even take them out ofthe box! Also, hold the reed up to alight source and make sure the reedhas a heart. The heart is an area ofthicker wood in the center of thereed. It need not have any particularshape, but in an unadjusted reed,this area should extend almost tothe side edges of the reed.

Now that we have selected somereeds to use, we can move to thenext phase. Some people call it cur-ing, others call it conditioning, Isimply call it preparing the reeds for

Saxophone Journal 55

use. The first thing you’ll want to dois number your reeds with a pencilon the back side so you can keeptrack of which reed is which. It isalso important that you conditionthe reeds in the order you numberthem, so you can tell which reed hashad the most work done on it,which is second, and so on. In orderto prepare your reeds, you’re goingto need a few pieces of equipment: apiece of glass (or some other hardand flat surface) upon which towork, a large round glass with flatsides, sandpaper (preferably 400-600grit), and some kind of reed case orholder for storage.

The first phase of conditioning issoaking. This is done in order to getthe reeds used to moisture content,and it begins to give the fibers of thereed more resiliency. Fill your glassabout two-thirds full of water (pref-erably distilled water). Place thebutt end of each reed in the waterfor a few seconds. Remove the reedand turn it over so that the tip isfacing downward. Put the reed inthe water tip-first, leaving aboutone-half inch above the water line,then carefully pull the reed againstthe side of the glass. If the back ofthe reed is pressed gently againstthe side of the glass, the water ten-sion will hold the reed in a verticalposition. Follow this same proce-dure for the rest of your reeds. I liketo add a new reed every five min-utes because that allows you sometime in between to examine and testreeds before you have to removeanother one from the water. Theadvantages of soaking reeds in thismanner are: 1. the reeds can bemonitored more easily and are keptin their proper order, 2. reeds arepositioned in a way that will alloweach to receive the same amount ofmoisture, and 3. the soaking timefor each reed can be accuratelytimed.

After each reed has soaked forabout fifteen minutes, remove itfrom the glass and wipe away theexcess water by using the thumband index finger to slowly move thewater from the butt end of the reedto the tip, one finger on each side.Repeat this several times to remove

all excess water. Then place the reedin the mouth and coat it lightly withsaliva in preparation for the initialplaying period. Put the reed on themouthpiece and assemble the saxo-phone for playing. Note that a newreed should be introduced to thestresses of playing vibrations gradu-ally. If it is not, the vibrations canlead to damage of the reed fibers,thus reducing the reed’s playinglife. Since lower tones and softerdynamics need only a slow vibra-tion, it is best to start the initialplaying test with long, sustainedtones in the lowest register at amedium-soft to medium-loud dy-namic level, then gradually movingto the middle register still at thesame dynamic level. High registertones and loud dynamic levelsshould be reserved for later playingtests. The first playing periodshould only last between five andten minutes, and remember to playeach new reed for an equal length oftime. A reed that plays well at firstwill probably have a shorter playinglife, while a reed that feels some-what hard will have a longer life.

After playing each reed remove itfrom the mouthpiece and evaluateits performance. How did the reedrespond in each register? At eachdynamic level? Did the reed seemeasy to play? Was it too hard? Toosoft? Just right? These are the kindsof questions you need to ask for anoverall evaluation of the reed. Thenplace the reed on your glass platewith the back side facing up to al-low uniform exposure to the air. Letthe reed air-dry until all of the sur-face moisture has evaporated. Aftereach reed has been soaked, played,evaluated, and dried, place them inyour reed case according to perfor-mance quality. I like to place thesofter, more responsive reeds first,and the harder ones subsequently,but you can order them howeveryou want. Let these reeds dry andrest for about twenty-four hoursbefore playing them again. Now youshould begin to see why you can’thave just one reed at a time, whyyou need a cycle of reeds. Whilethese reeds are being conditioned,you obviously need some reeds on

which to practice and perform. Ialways try to maintain a cycle ofeight reeds, four which are beingconditioned, and four which are inuse.

The second session, which shouldoccur one day after the first session,is very similar to the first session.Soak each reed in the glass for aboutten minutes. Then in the playingsession, play each reed for aboutfifteen to twenty minutes, extendinginto the upper ranges of pitch anddynamic level. Again, save the ex-tremes, such as the altissimo registerfor subsequent sessions. Evaluateeach reed’s general performance interms of pitch quality (did all notesspeak clearly and easily?), intona-tion (using a tuner, did octaves andother intervals sound in tune?), andarticulation (did legato and staccatonotes begin clearly?). In general,softer reeds will sound thin andreedy and will not play in the upperregister with ease. Harder reeds willnot play in the lower register clearlyand will not articulate with accu-racy. Reorder the reeds in terms ofperformance quality, if necessary,and store them in your reed case.Remember to try and play each reedfor an equal length of time andalways be as objective as you canconcerning a reed’s performance.Don’t be surprised if a reed was inposition number one on the firstday, but has moved to position threeon the second day.

Again, the reeds should be storedfour about twenty-four hours beforemoving to the third and fourth ses-sions. These sessions, which will bediscussed in the next article, involvenot only soaking and playing thereeds, but also physically adjustingthe reeds to resolve any playingproblems that might be caused byan imperfection in the reed’smakeup. §