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10 Playing On the Reed

reeds in water cup

  1. Soak the reed in room temperature water for 2 minutes.
  2. Remove the reed from the water and shake off the excess.
  3. Hold the reed with your fingers on the tube covering and the tip opening close to your lips.
  4. Take a good breath (exhale-inhale).
  5. Form your embouchure around the reed:
    • Open mouth.
    • Place about half of the reed’s blade inside your mouth and let it rest on your bottom lip.
    • Close your mouth and hug the reed with your lips while holding on to the reed tube with your fingers.
  6. Blow air into the reed.

embouchure with reed

You should get a high, kind of squeaky sound. If you don’t get a sound, checkout the troubleshooting suggestions below.

Troubleshooting

If you don’t get a sound right away check the following things:

  1. Try to play louder by blowing MORE AIR into the reed.
  2. Is your tongue still touching the reed? The tongue only touches the reed to start the sound. It should pull slightly back immediately after tapping the reed.
  3. Keep space between your teeth; imagine you have a huge marshmallow between your teeth.
  4. Articulate with your tongue to start the sound. Some reeds won’t vibrate with just an air attack and need contact with the tongue to begin vibrating.
  5. Check the reed:
    1. Are the blades dry? Soak the reed in water for another minute.
    2. Is the cane swollen from soaking too long? Let the reed dry out a little
    3. Tip Opening of the Reed: Your air must enter the reed. Check the size of the reed’s opening at the tip. It needs to be about the thickness of a nickel.
      1. Too Closed: If the tip opening is less than the thickness of a nickel your embouchure might be closing the space between the blades so no air can go into the reed. Try these suggestions:
        • Soften your lips (squeeze less around the reed)
        • Soak the reed longer.
        • Chapter 89 Reed Adjustments covers how to adjust the tip opening.
      2. Too Open: If the tip opening is larger than the thickness of a nickel you’ll have to work harder with your lips and your air to get the reed to vibrate.
        • Blow a stronger stream of air into the reed.
        • Increase the strength of the hug from your lips around the reed.
        • Chapter 89 Reed Adjustments covers how to adjust the tip opening.

Have Fun Playing the Reed!

Make sound with the reed, experiment with long, short, high, low, loud, and soft sounds.

Now let’s play these sounds one at time.

  1. Play a loud sound.
  2. Play a soft sound.
  3. Play a short sound.
  4. Play a long sound.
  5. Play a long loud sound.
  6. Play a long soft sound.
  7. Play a long low sound.
  8. Play a long high sound.

What did you with your mouth/air/tongue/lips to make these different types of sounds?

What changed between the lowest and highest sound? If you don’t know, play #7 and #8 again until you can tell what is changing.

Describe what changes for each item in the list above.

Developing Control of the Sound

  1. Create a steady pulse in your mind.
  2. Play four bars of whole notes on the reed. Articulate the first beat of each bar.
  3. Keep your air stream steady.  Do not let it stop until the end of bar 4.
  4. Don’t worry about what pitch to play on the reed. Just try to keep the sound steady from the note you get when you start.

four whole notes on any pitch

What do you have to think about and do to keep the sound steady?

Articulation Practice

  1. Create a steady pulse in your mind.
  2. Play 15 beats of quarter notes on the reed. Articulate every quarter note.
  3. Keep your air stream steady and let your tongue create each pulse.
  4. Create a low pitch on the reed and maintain that pitch for all 15 beats.

Is the articulation clear or it is muddy?

Is the articulation heavy or light? Difficult or easy?

4 bars of quarter notes on unspecified pitch

Tips:

Rely on your AIR to create and maintain the sound.  Your tongue should just lightly flick the end of the reed on each beat.

Aim for a clear and immediate response as you articulate each quarter note.

Keep the pitch as steady as possible for the entire exercise.

Troubleshooting

If some beats end up silent, Blow More Air!

If your tongue gets too heavy and slow: Blow More Air!

If the sound hesitates, make sure the front of your tongue flicks the front of the reed.

Imagine (HEAR) the sound you want BEFORE you play it.

 

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A Modern Guide to Teaching and Playing the Bassoon Copyright © 2024 by Carol Lowe is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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