Reeds Do pros use hard(er) reeds?

[ghostler]

I do NOT miss the days of all-smoking all-the-time-everywhere. I am a lifelong non smoker.

During rehearsal break times, I'd get my second hand smoke break with my musician mates by the back door entrance.

 

[JSL]

I do NOT miss the days of all-smoking all-the-time-everywhere. I am a lifelong non smoker

+1. One of the very best things to ever happen for those of us who played numerous gigs in bars, dive bars, restaurants, etc. was when they banned smoking in those venues. Possibly saved me from getting lung cancer, given all those nights I played in dive bars. I did grow up in a time when everywhere you went, the indoor spaces were full of smoke. Luckily that all ended when it did.

 

[ghostler]

What I stated was being facetious. But I didn't let a bad habit interfere with friendships, you know, give and take. I wasn't always around smokers every waking hour of the day. Some seem to blame such brief hours, but sometimes I think there are other factors in their life as contributing factors to their health problems.

My father could not give up the cancer sticks. He was buried on his 71st birthday. I have now bested him as I have exceeded that by half a year. My mother gave up the cancer sticks when he had his triple bypass surgery some 15 years prior. She bested him by another 16 years.

 

[JSL]

My father could not give up the cancer sticks. He was buried on his 71st birthday. I have now bested him as I have exceeded that by half a year. My mother gave up the cancer sticks when he had his triple bypass surgery some 15 years prior. She bested him by another 16 years.

I only smoked for a short time way back when I was in high school. I don't think I was seriously hooked, but the way I gave up cigarettes was to quit buying them and started bumming them off friends. Eventually no one would give me any. That actually worked to gradually get off them. Didn't stop me from occasionally smoking another substance (you can guess what that was), but it did get me off the cigarettes for which I'm very thankful all these years later.

I guess I saved my lungs for playing the sax, to bring it back on topic (sort of).

 

[skeller047]

My father could not give up the cancer sticks. He was buried on his 71st birthday. I have now bested him as I have exceeded that by half a year. My mother gave up the cancer sticks when he had his triple bypass surgery some 15 years prior. She bested him by another 16 years.

I am a professional addict. (Been sober for over 40 years, but still…) Been a non-smoker for fewer years, evidently nicotine is harder to give up than other things.

What finally made me quit, cold turkey, was watching my mother suffer from brain cancer which had metastasized from lung cancer, due to smoking. She died at 61, and her last few months she really wasn’t completely here. I like being here, so I did the math.

I feel your pain @ghostler, my condolences.

 

[ghostler]

I did as Bill Clinton, @JSL , put the cigee to my lips in high school but did not inhale.

My condolences for the loss of your loved one, @skeller047 , too.

We had a number of smokers in various bands. Don't think that made a difference whether they used hard or soft reeds.

In playing the clarinet, especially jazz, found that I was more expressive with a softer reed, 2.5's. Love Dixieland. Rarely need to play into altissimo (maybe just the bottom end), clarinet goes high enough plus has a good enough bottom.

Just bought a Rico Graftonite B5 mouthpiece for clarinet. Will know whether it is good enough for jazz soon. Picked up a Selmer 1400 ebonite clarinet in playable condition for $73. (Hard to believe that the remaining stock of new are retailing at music stores for $1,300 to $1,400.) Seems this replaced the Bundy's. Has a big bore so should be good for jazz. Still have the Boosey & Hawkes Edgware Intermediate woodie to complete minor repairs and wring out.

Will see what hardness of reed is best.

 

[wooster]

Which reminds me of the pianos in the practice rooms in college, all scarred up with both kinds of cigarette marks -

If you laid the ciggy down on the wood, it made an oval burn mark - generally seen at the edge of the lid
If you stood it up on its (nonburning) end, it made a round burn mark when it burned down to the wood.

I suppose the practice rooms were officially non-smoking which is why there weren't any ashtrays.

I do NOT miss the days of all-smoking all-the-time-everywhere. I am a lifelong non smoker.

Wow that brought back some really strong childhood memories. My dad was a choirmaster, organist and chain smoker. All of our pianos had these marks on them. I can see them now.

 

[Vlad]

Wow that brought back some really strong childhood memories. My dad was a choirmaster, organist and chain smoker. All of our pianos had these marks on them. I can see them now.

The old Jo-annas I remember all had fag burns on the white keys

 

[atwl77]

Eddie Daniels has said that he realised that he could play longer when in the studio recording The Five Seasons if he moved to a softer reed that he didn’t have to bite so much. He said that he could only last about 20 minutes and he’d have to have time out, and the string quartet would be just hanging around waiting for him.

20 minutes!
Now I don't feel so bad for crapping out during practice after just 40 minutes if I happen to use a reed that's slightly harder than my comfort zone 😅

 

[Colin the Bear]

In my 20's I used a Vandoren 3.5 on alto. I thought nothing of busking a four hour set, five or six days a week, with the occasional evening gig.

These days I'm using a 2, play sitting down and am thinking about getting a stair lift.

 

[PiccoloPirate]

^^^^
Hopefully a mechanical one, as
opposed to, in the Arms of an Angel.
I might need a fireproof parachute. 😈

 

[jonf]

Which reminds me of the pianos in the practice rooms in college, all scarred up with both kinds of cigarette marks -

If you laid the ciggy down on the wood, it made an oval burn mark - generally seen at the edge of the lid
If you stood it up on its (nonburning) end, it made a round burn mark when it burned down to the wood.

I suppose the practice rooms were officially non-smoking which is why there weren't any ashtrays.

I do NOT miss the days of all-smoking all-the-time-everywhere. I am a lifelong non smoker.

Ah, yes, memories (bad) of cigarette smoke everywhere. I was very pleased when, in the UK, cigarettes became banned in most indoor public spaces. When I started work in the 1980s, it was the norm for people to smoke at work, as well as in pubs, restaurants, cinemas, trains and aeroplanes.

My clarinet teacher was a smoker and drinker. During the course of a half hour lesson, he would smoke either two or three cigarettes, often lighting one from the butt of the last, AND drink a tumbler full of scotch.

 

[Targa]

Ah, yes, memories (bad) of cigarette smoke everywhere. I was very pleased when, in the UK, cigarettes became banned in most indoor public spaces. When I started work in the 1980s, it was the norm for people to smoke at work, as well as in pubs, restaurants, cinemas, trains and aeroplanes.

My clarinet teacher was a smoker and drinker. During the course of a half hour lesson, he would smoke either two or three cigarettes, often lighting one from the butt of the last, AND drink a tumbler full of scotch.

Back in the '50s at junior school I remember the teachers would have the decency to open the window and lean out while smoking during the lessons.

 

[jonf]

Back in the '50s at junior school I remember the teachers would have the decency to open the window and lean out while smoking during the lessons.

Ah, that triggered another memory about smoking, which would quite rightly not be permitted today.

In the 1970s and early 1980s I went to a Northern comprehensive school, that was still focussed on turning kids from school straight into (already by that time decline) heavy industry. So we had metalwork rooms equipped with lathes, oxy-acetylene welding rigs, huge metalworking saws and the like. If we professsed an interest in metalwork (which basically involved making weapons) we could go in for extra time during lunch break and after school. This was 'supervised', by a bored workshop technician who sat in the corner reading the Sun and chain smoking rollies......

Never once did he question why, as a 15 year old, I was making a combined axe/hammer.

 

[JSL]

So we had metalwork rooms equipped with lathes, oxy-acetylene welding rigs, huge metalworking saws and the like.

That triggers a memory for me. Way back in Jr High School, in Oakland, Ca, we had a class in 'metal shop'. And yeah, lathes, forges, saws, hammers, the works. I remember hammering red-hot metal, right out of the forge, to make a gaff hook for gaffing fish. I would have been about 13 or 14 years old at the time. I highly doubt they are letting 13 yr olds anywhere near a forge or metal lathe these days!

I was still playing clarinet back then. I have no idea how hard the reeds were that I was using.

p.s. Hey man, you're from Betelgeuse. When I saw that, I immediately thought you were living on a red giant star. But no, there is such a place on this planet. I learn something new every day!

 

[LostCircuits]

Ah, that triggered another memory about smoking, which would quite rightly not be permitted today.

In the 1970s and early 1980s I went to a Northern comprehensive school, that was still focussed on turning kids from school straight into (already by that time decline) heavy industry. So we had metalwork rooms equipped with lathes, oxy-acetylene welding rigs, huge metalworking saws and the like. If we professsed an interest in metalwork (which basically involved making weapons) we could go in for extra time during lunch break and after school. This was 'supervised', by a bored workshop technician who sat in the corner reading the Sun and chain smoking rollies......

Never once did he question why, as a 15 year old, I was making a combined axe/hammer.

Reminds me of my ME internship at MTU, working in the forge for a few weeks. Fun stuff, they had nobody to supervise me so the Master Smith gave me a heap of scrap metal and told me to make whatever I wanted. I ended up making hammered bowls, chandeliers with spindle rods, whatever piece fell into my hands and inspired my fantasy. The best part was that I was allowed to take home anything I made and on the weekends, I sold my stuff on the flea markets where every weekend I made more than my monthly compensation.

 

[Vlad]

Metalwork at school was brilliant, I learned Oxy Acetylene welding when I was 14, which I've subsequently used quite a lot in 'real life' There were about 3 of us delinquents who wangled doing mostly engineering workshop stuff, as we were keen and basically hated and bunked off everything else anyway, the powers that be thought at least we'd be there if we could do something we liked and might learn something of use too. The teacher was brilliant, ex Royal Navy and a top bloke, there was pretty much nothing he didn't know when it came to engineering. surprisingly a couple of us lads were even trusted to do the clutch on the headmasters car 🙂

 

[Dr G]

Here’s an image from my son’s metal shop class just last week. They are casting the bodies of small trucks, then milling, turning, and drilling parts to suit.

 

[LostCircuits]

I always thought that if my career as neuroscientist and later computer architect failed, I'd go back to become a blacksmith. I love carpentry, too, and tile setting but forging metal pieces into something beautiful like wine leaves, lilies, spindles etc. was just the ultimate art. Still today, when I see wrought iron, gates, fences, etc, I can't help myself but go and take a close look at the artwork. A lot nowadays is mass produced and you can tell the difference but once in awhile I see some exceptional stuff. Like my friend Jodie's studio

 

[wooster]

I went to school in the 60s in Glasgow and things were different then. I remember one of the kids brought an air rifle to class and when our English teacher noticed it, he took the gun told us to duck down and, sitting at his desk, started firing off pellets over our heads, shooting at a photo hanging on the back wall. I believe the picture was of Joyce Ligertwood, a teacher and Scottish poet.

Health and safety wasn't such a big thing at the time but he was an unforgettable teacher.