Bend and filed

[impulse]

Two questions that are a bit confusing. What are we talking about when we bend notes? Is it to play complete the note at a slightly different pitch or is it a progressive shift so the note is started at one pitch and moves up or down during interval the note is played?
The other question is what is a filed reed as, I guess, compared to an unfiled one? Thanks, Russ

 

[Pete Thomas]

A bend on a saxophone can either startt at pitch and bend down, start flat and bend up, start at pitch bend down and up.

Theoretically you could start sharp and bend down to pitch or start in pitch and bend up, but in practice not so easy as its much harder to sharpen a note than flatten it. (Opposite of a guitar)

Just playing the note at a slightly different pitch (on purpose!) would involve some of the same embouchure skills as bending, but unless the note actually goes through a pitch change, it's not really a bend.

 

[spike]

Hi Russ,

Bending notes refers to raising or lowering the pitch, can be done by relaxing the jaw or contorting the oral cavity and larynx as in harp playing.

Filed reeds sometimes called French filed reeds is where the "bark" is cut or filed off in a straight line at the top of the playing section,
Unfiled, see Vandoren V16 and Javas, the "bark" is left on and its cut follows the curve of the profile.

Hope that's understandable, I'm not sure of the correct terminology.

gruss - spike

I see i was pipped to the post by Pete

here's a link to shooshies mouthpiece exercises, they'll help not only with bending notes.

Shooshies

 

[impulse]

Thanks Pete and Spike, but a couple of codas.
Pete OK on the meaning of "bending" but in practice do people bend notes because they, knowing it is off pitch, bend it to the correct pitch, or do they also bend the note during the playing of it to add an odd effect; like an eeooOWW?
Spike my brain needs a little help here. "where the bark is cut or filed off in a straight line at the top off the playing section" I`m trying to figure a straight line cut. Wouldn`t any cutting of this top curve result in another curve as it follows the spherical curved surface of the reed? Ricos, Royals and La Voses are I guess all unfiled. Is that right? Russ

 

[Rogerb]

I think(an Pete will correct me if necessary, I'm sure) the answer to the first question, Impulse, is both, although the first is more of an 'adjustment' and the second for an intentional 'effect'.

The second is easier..... a sax reed is actually cut from a *cylindrical* object (a reed!), so the 'straight line' across the outer surface is, as you say, actually another curve 😀
It goes across the reed just above the cut & tapered section, and the bark is 'filed-off' below it.

I assume this would tend to make the reed very slightly more flexible.

 

[spike]

Hi Russ,
I'll leave the bending to Pete.

Rico Royals are filed.
Filed:
Imagine we take a reed blank, draw a straight line across the grain half way down, strip off all the bark to one side of the line, from the middle to the tip, now model the reed with a cutting machine diagonally from shoulder to tip. The cut will start on the portion of reed where the bark has been stripped off.

Unfiled:
Take a blank as above but don't strip off the bark just cut diagonally from the shoulder down to the tip, in this case a half moon shape of bark will be left at the shoulder of the reed, because the outer surface has a curve and the blade used will be straight

The difference between the two is that the reed with no bark on the shoulder is more responsive assuming the profile to be the same.
Also the word filed is used so I presume the bark is filed off and I don't know if they're filed before or after they're cut.

The only examples I got in my box, Unfiled: Vandoren V16 and Java, Guardala. Filed: Rico Royals, Hemke Premiums.

Hope to have helped. Maybe I should've just uploaded a jpeg of the two. Let me know if I still haven't explained clearly.

gruss - spike

P.S. Hello Roger, "cylindrical" that's a good word, can I start again?.

 

[nick_cook]

My teacher did bending with me this week. Not as an effect, but to show me how the jaw position affects the note being played. I've got to practise this with 'C', and this exercise has really helped me get the upper notes with the octave key.