For several years now I’ve been using D’Addario’s “Reserve Classic” clarinet reeds, and this week I was reminded again what a successful choice that’s been for me.
The word “shimmer” had popped into mind as I was prepping my clarinet solo version of the great Hudson/Mills/DeLange song, “Moonglow.” I wanted shimmer in my sound. I wanted shimmering trills in my improvised tag at the end, and I wanted some shimmer on my shirt (or tie -or whatever.) Gimme lotsa shimmer!
Well, working backwards, the shimmering shirt was found at a thrift store. CHECK (Did you know you can save nearly 1000 gallons of water by buying used shirts? So many of them look brand new.). The trills are there, as of last night’s first-of-five performances. CHECK (Gotta say though- my “improvised” sections are mostly pre-planned around a set of workable figures. I’m not a great improviser at all, but there’s only one way to get better…) And then, there’s the shimmer of the sound. That’s why I’m writing today.
In my reed case (a homemade contraption which uses a leather-bound humidor, some pine wood to separate compartments, and some layered cork to mount humidity packs), I keep around 40 reeds at a time. 20 are in opened boxes, just acclimating. The other 20 are in their little plastic holders, side by side, and arranged by overall favorability and amount of break-in time. In other words, the reeds on one side are the ones I’ll use for concerts, and the other ones get rotated through slowly to make their way up the ranks.
Now, there’s one big (important!) disclaimer I’m going to make before I go any further. I tell my students this, and occasionally I have to remind myself of this: The more you practice, the less important your reed selection is. That’s just the truth. And, you can test this yourself, time and time again. Ever notice how “varied” the quality of your reeds feels after a break -maybe a holiday or a trip where you had to leave your instruments at home? Do we think it’s the reeds that changed or was it us? Ok, maybe there’s a bit of both. But, I’ve been playing professionally for over 20 years, and I can tell you that there’s no value in attributing the quality of your playing to anything other than your practice. Temperature, cane, humidity, ligatures, other equipment… It all makes a difference. But, preparation overrides it all.
Back to the shimmer.
Do you want to know what I mean by a shimmering sound in “Moonglow?” Ok. Here’s what I mean:
I want my clarinet to sound like THAT.
Well, there’s a lot more to it, as we all know, than the vocal cords we strap on to our mouthpieces, and I’ll save my thoughts on practicing with such a beautifully elusive goal for another post.
BUT (and now, finally to the point), I said that I was “reminded” again why D’Addario’s wonderful reeds were such a good choice for me this week. Why? In short- because I could have grabbed almost any of my concert reeds (playing both as principal in the section and as soloist) and sounded the same in front of our sold out crowds. In fact, there are three reeds in my box put aside for this solo which I don’t even bother to distinguish between before putting them on the mouthpiece. I could literally take any of them and not play a single note before the solo, and I could count on that reed giving me every chance to channel these golden tones of the past without argument. I don’t know about you, but that never happened to me in all my years with other reedmakers. Maybe the other compaines have upped their game in the last years. I hope they have, and I hear wonderful sounds coming from artists of all “makes & models.” But, to know a good thing when you have it is a gift. And, it means less time fussing with equipment, and more time enunciating.
“It must have been moonglow…that led me straight to you.”
CHECK.