In order to avoid ulcers on the job, I decided early in my career that I needed a reed-making method I could absolutely count on. What follows is a series of scraping instructions that has worked for me for decades. Read more
Reed Making
Reed Talk
John Mack, former Principal Oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra and Richard Woodhams, Principal Oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra talk “reeds” in the following videos.
Clean Your Reed, Please!!!
Keeping your reed clean is easy and here’s a method that works. Your reed will last longer and your teacher will thank you. Advisory!!! If you have a queasy stomach, you may want to skip this post. Read more
Choosing Tube Cane
The first step in making an oboe reed from scratch is to acquire some 10-11 mm tube cane – available online through most double reed accessory businesses.
Cane can range in quality from very hard and dense to soft and pithy. Read more
Refine or Recycle Your Reed
What is the likelihood that the reed you are currently scraping will become a playable reed? Should you continue to scrape/refine your reed or should you recycle it (strip the cane off the tube and begin again) before you waste more time in a fruitless effort? Here is a chart that helps you decide. Read more