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I play clarinet, but i just started this year.

xD i've already taken it upon myself to learn a lot of instruments. i can play, at least at a beginner level, trumpet, piano, recorder, flute, baritone, trombone(those last two i can't really read the music...but i can make sounds and memorize fingerings/positions) and i can play at an advanced level of clarinet, bass clarinet, alto, soprano, tenor, and bari saxophones.

I need help my reed is new and its really frustrating because i have a concert on the 4th. I Have been playing for what seems like forever but i have never broken one before a concert How the hell do i get it to soften up fast

I play bassoon and have only made a bassoon reed once but its amazing how much goes into it. At first it was horrible but then i went to band camp the instructor practiclly mutalated it and now its my favorite one. im actually quite proud of it.

thats true! =)

Oboe reed-making can be kind of dangerous. The knives used must be VERY sharp. I bled a lot while learning (and if I still made them, I'm sure I'd be bleeding occasionally still).

In anticipation of your starting to make reeds, make sure you take apart all your broken reeds and save the staple (the tube+cork piece). You should also make or buy a good reed case. It may take a while to locate the items required to make one so if that's your plan, you should start collecting those as well. You'll need a brass chocolate tin (the same size as a deck of cards), the styrofoam pieces that come in Jones reeds cases or in the boxes with mouthpieces (as the clarinets and saxophones and your band director to bring you those if they happen to get a new mouthpiece).

Once you have all those supplies, you'll need scissors and tacky glue and some old reeds. You'll want to cut strips of the foam that are 1/3 and 2/3 the height of the case (2 strips of each) and as wide as the case, then fit those in so that you have a 1/3 piece and a 2/3 piece on the bottom inside of the case with a gap long enough for about 3/4 of the reed to fit comfortably between them. The other two pieces go on the inside of the lid (the 1/3 over the 2/3 so they meet when the box is closed). To hold the reeds in place, you can cut shallow notches into the pieces glued to the bottom inside. The goal is to fit as many reeds as possible inside without having any part of the blades touching other reeds or other parts of the case though it's ok if the cork ends touch the case anywhere).

A basic reed-making starter kit includes a reed knife, a mandrel for oboe reeds, cotton string for reed-making, a ball of beeswax, a sharpening stone, a cutting block, a plaque for oboe reeds (contoured is better than flat), and some "gouged, shaped, and folded" cane. Expect to spend around $125-150 dollars. The best place to buy from is Forrests. They also carry some books on reed-making and have some nice toolkits you could ask for for Christmas or a birthday (it's daunting for family to buy the pieces individually 3nodding ).

The biggest thing to learn when making an oboe reed is how to use the knife. This page has an animation. You hold the handle of the knife in your dominant hand with the thumb on the back of the blade. The mandrel with the reed on it is held in your other hand. You apply a bit of downward pressure with your thumb and use the handle of the knife to rock the blade forward towards the tip of the reed, then pick it up and set the blade back towards the butt of the reed and rock again for another stroke. That site I gave you the link to also has a good diagram of the parts of an "American scrape" oboe reed. You will need to know that. There are other scraps - French and German. You are not likely to ever use them but just be aware that they exist. You can google them for pictures and comparison if you're curious.

When you make the reed, you'll notice how different it looks from store-bought ones. You can't really see the different parts in those. When you make one, you'll be able to see a noticeable difference in thickness between the thickest part (the heart) and the thinest (the tip). Doing the scrape just takes practice. The hardest part, IMO, is getting the wrapping right. It's hard to wrap it so the blade touch just right, don't slip, don't leak out the edges around the wrapping or up higher on the blades, etc. That never really gets any easier. That and the cutting of the end are where one tiny slip can do irreparable damage. Most of the work on the scrape can and will be fiddled with for ages after you've "finished" it.

Unlike with bassoon reed-making, I can't really suggest that you start out with modifying store bought reeds, unfortunately, as the ones for oboe don't hold up very well under the knife. You, Lilies, could try shopping at L&L Music/Wind Shop (8940 N Westland Dr, Gaithersburg). They have a very impressive selection of reeds including some hand-made ones that you could play until they were wearing out and then try rehabbing them on your own for practice. L&L is also the best place for double reed instrument repair in our area, imo.

And one bit of advice that I always tell new double-reed makers even though I know it will never stick with them through their careers... just becuase all your work goes into the reeds doesn't mean you can blame every little problem with tone quality or ease of playing on your reed and ignore your instrument. Keep up with it's maintenance and if you plan to play professionally, try to find a course in repairing your instrument - either a formal class or just something informal with a repair tech at your favorite repair shop.

even if you use reed guards, your reeds can still warp if you don't make sure they're dry before you put them away >_>