My instructor told me that I have a really flat reed. Are there any brands of reeds that aren`t flat?

umm....if you scrape the reed a bit, does that make the reed go sharper?? I dunno, just a thought, when my reeds seem flat I just sit in front of my tuner until I can find out what embouchure fitting makes it closest to being in tune, but sometimes you just gotta toss it.

You should check to see if you have a crack in the reed. That will send the pitch plumetting and every note will be as flat as a pancake. Get yourself an oboe plaque, they cost a couple of dollars and are invaluble for checking for cracks and cleaning out the inside. Scraping the reed doesn`t really help with a flat reed, clipping the reed may help, but that is only if there isn`t a crack in it.

Ok a flat reed. I`ve had this problem...

1. The reed either is cracked and the vibrations aren`t being sent in the right places.

2. The back and/or the heart has been scraped away too much.

3. Your embouchure is really bad and you have no control over the reed.

4. It is too long.

Hope this helps- if you don`t make reeds then I would suggest starting. Or perhaps buying a reed from somewhere that makes good ones!!

mmimports.com


brandon

do you have your reed pushed all the way in??

All these are good suggestions but if none of the suggestions hold to be true. I would try clipping the tip of the reed thus making it shorter so the pitch of the reed should go up. But only clip like a very tiny bit and that could change it all. So I would get your teacher to fool around with the reed a little. Remember: If you have a lift a reed up with your embouchure it`s not worth it-scrape on it and fix it so you can play with the air

Chris- I really enjoyed reading your last post about how you "know" that clipping the tip will fix the problem! I also found it very rude that you bashed all of our suggestions on how to possibly fix the problem. If you note- and would actually try- these suggestions you might learn something. I don`t mean to sound harsh but clipping the tip is the last thing you should be worrying about.

I would also like to note a flat reed can and will be brought up in pitch if you just `play it!!`

So be careful about what you do.

Yo Brandon,

I don`t think I said anyone of your suggestion or anyone else`s were bad. I was saying if none of those suggestions seem to be the problem try clipping the tip. So chill out, I wasn`t trying to "insult" everyone else`s suggestions.

Why don`t you change your reed? It is going to wear off eventually. The life of a reed is 4 weeks max.

actually....i`ve had one that worked three months perfectly ~ started out good though - i think that`s a good idea, you might want a diff reed