I've been having a lot of reed problems lately, a lot of failed reeds, a lot of unresponsive or hopelessly flat, hopelessly sharp, hopelessly ugly....basically everything was All WRONG and I could NOT for the life of me figure out WHY.
So I took out my old india oil stone and sharpened my knife, then honed it on my ceramic sticks. I've only had about an hour of reedmaking time since then and I already have two very promising new reeds. Why is it that I'm always thinking it can't be my knife??During the time I was avoiding reedmaking due to frustration I had a chance to look at some old photos and read a little of the wonderful Oboe Reed Styles by David Ledet. Noticing the horrid notch in my old knife and looking at some of the hacked and slashed reeds of professional players from around the world I gradually came to the tentative conclusion that maybe I should have a look at my current knife. The obvious answer is always the hardest one to find.I had a wonderful time playing at the Prophouse cafe on Tuesday as well! We actually made it through the Britten Phantasy quartet! (we did stop and start a bit, but it was still great!) I'll have to think very carefully about what sort of concert and venue I want to eventually perform that one in for the future. I've promised the string players to bring the Mozart Oboe Quartet for next time...yikes! What have I gotten myself into?!?! Haha. It' s definitely good for me.
