I am currently a music student that has been playing the clarinet for 5 yrs. I have recently taken up the oboe and the tenor sax, and both times my band director and one of my trused friends(who is gifted enough to play everything, and wants to become a music director of some college...) has told me to start to soak my reeds in a dish of water. It worked, but then i was lucky enough to make John Philips Sousa honors band, and there was no clarinet there who saoked their reeds. Has anyone else heard of doing this?? If so, Does it work for you? if not try it!

I think that soaking reeds isn`t necessary, you achieve the same effect if you put the whole reed in your mouth while putting your horn together. oboe players usually use a cup of water to soak their redds, just because they need to switch reeds so often and don`t have time to soak them in their mouths.

but if you would like, either way works, or if you just don`t like the taste of wood then use some water. just make sure none of it drips onto pads

aim - CropCircleRadr07 i also play tenor sax

I`ve always soaked my clarinet reeds, if I don`t I tend to "squeak". When I started out playing in a band everyone stuck the whole reed into their mouths, even some of the saxs.
I tend to soak new reeds for longer, and with Vandoreen reeds you might need to sand them down a bit first with sand paper.

Soaking clarient reeds in water is EVIL! The reason for this simple - you end soaking the lower half of the reed,w hich is not designed to get soaked through. Only the part that end up in you mouth should get wet. You soask the lower half, and all sort can happen.
I just suck mine whilst I am assembling my clarinet. If it is a new read, then maybe a suck another minute or so more. If you are squeaking, then you could be using the wrong thickness read, or even overblowing. Try the strength either side of the one you are using now.

That should`ve been: "you soak the lower half and all sorts of nasty things can happen"

Tom,

My teachers have always taught me to wet both ends of the reed before playing whether its with water or saliva. What "bad things" are you talking about when soaking both ends.

Wetting the lower half is one thing, soaking it another. If you just wet the lower half, the bulk of the reed will reamin dry - just the surface will get damp. The surface is the part which under goes the greatest stress, and so it is important that it remains flexible.
However, if you soak the reed, then the lower half will end up soaked to the core. If you then play with such a reed, you risk having too much flexing going on - which produces the same effects as if you use too low a reed strength.

I play in my school bands and in a professional polka band and i have alwayus been told to just suck on the top of the reed not the whole thing. it really does make a difference. The only time that I ever soak the top of a reed is when it is a new one because I am allergic to the coating that the put on the reed after it is made. But I do no soak the whole reed.

About soaking the bottom of the reed, will it still get wet even if that part of the reed is not exposed to that much water? i use a film canister to saok the reed, and its normally not in ther for more than 2-3 min. i only fill up the canister until the narrow half of the reed is submerged, and not that much of the other part is wet. is that still ok??
also, i have learned in the last few days that saliva is acidic, which wears down the reeds faster. when i soak my reeds, they last longer than when i dont soak them. is it just that i`m taking care of the reed, or do they actually last longer?

Sometimes in concert setting players will have reeds available to them in case they don`t like the response from the reed. Normally, you don`t ever want to soak a reed for more than 2-3 minutes. If you do more then they get water logged and sound dead.

But, more experienced players have their reeds already checked out and will have a backup available if necessary but won`t have one on the stand or anything.

Before I play i`ll normally soak the reed for a minute or two. You only want to soak it until the reed becomes flat ... if you notice when you first start sucking on it or soaking it it gets warped. Only soak it until it gets flat.

i should also say that for clarinet and sax reeds. I have no idea about oboe & other double reeds

If you play your clarinet a lot, the thing that will wear out a read will be little drops of salivia hitting the reed at high speed. Because the air is passing through a very narrow gap, it ends up travelling very fast, along iwth everything that`s in it. If you take a used reed, and putt it under a microscope, you will find it be covered in little pits. (I did this once during a rather boring biology lesson...)
If you don`t play your clarinet so much (so your reeds hang around for longer before being chucked) then the chemcial effects of your saliva will have a greater effect.
(Btw, saliva has a ph of 6.5-7.5 - slightly acidic to slightly alkaline).