[Opus7]

Hi!
I wonder if there are any benefit's to practise with a harder reed,and then
perform with a softer!The other day I found a fibracell medium alto in my
box of reed's,and put it on and started to practise!It was hard to blow,but I
kept on useing it for a couple of days!I did not like the sound I get,so when
I started to record a song in my home studio,I put on my usual RR 2.5,
and found out that it was much easyer to play,and I had much more control
of the pitch and sound! Of course I had to take some time to adjust to the softer reed before I started to record!
Thanx for any advice!
opus7

 

[saintsday]

Sure it makes sense. A friend of mine sheds with a 5 reed for a couple of days before important performances.

 

[Momeijheii]

Am I just weird, but when I started playing Vandoren 4's it was hard to get any kind of sound, but after a couple days, I loved 'em; but when
i tried to play my 3's, I was nasty flat and just plain icky.

 

[jbtsax]

My suggestion is to practice with the same setup you would perform on. Find a reed strength you are comfortable with and that gets the sound you want and stick with that. If you need more control in your sound, practice long tones rather than put on a harder reed.

As your embouchure develops you may want to move to a stiffer reed, but let the embouchure determine the reed, not the reed determine the embouchure.

John

 

[kilter]

I agree with jbtsax.. practicing with a hard reed and then returning to your normal setup will just make you need to readjust your embouchure.. it's a better idea to just practice with the setup you're most comfortable with. Nothing wrong with trying out a harder reed, for sure.. but there doesn't seem much point in constantly switching back and forth.

 

[Momeijheii]

oh, i've switched to the Vandoren 4's now.
i only tried switching back one time...dont really know why, but i'm cool
with the 4's

 

[DXCamp]

IMO, it would be best to practice on a reed you would feel comfortable with in performance. One tip for you is to prepare 2 reeds for performance so there is a backup in case your #1 reed gives out. Reed response is a primary factor here.

 

[hakukani]

Just buy mouthpieces. Use the same reed.

On alto, practice with a 105 tip.
On tenor practice with a 145-160 tip.

Lift weights, the heavier the better.

(This post is a joke, not serious. Experiment, use different reeds. Shave the reed, play with a thing tip, and extra heart)


MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU--DON'T ASK PERMISSION.

If it doesn't work, well, try something else....

 

[Doug Lange]

How do you find two reeds you like? I can only ever find one reed I like, which gets sacrificed to the reed gods. I hate the remaining reeds but play them anyway because the best one was so good.

 

[RootyTootoot]

My suggestion is to practice with the same setup you would perform on. Find a reed strength you are comfortable with and that gets the sound you want and stick with that. If you need more control in your sound, practice long tones rather than put on a harder reed.

This has to be right, surely? I would have thought the best thing is to aim for a setup you're happy with throughout the range and which sounds good and stick to it. At that point you can just let the music happen and stop worrying about m/ps, reeds etc. Of course, pro players swap m/ps and reed strengths for different types of gig but that's out of necessity because of the demands of different musical settings. The best thing is to have as much consistency as possible especially if you haven't been playing that long. IMHO.

 

[EgilF.]

I somtimes do the opposite. When I play concert in loud bands I put on a reed that a little harder (about 0,25 harder) than the reeds I use in my practice room.