TIPS N' TRICKS
We recommend giving each new reed a few days to acclimate to your particular climate before making any permanent adjustments. The Buzz & Woody reed style promotes a supportive air stream and relaxed embouchure, often requiring an adjustment period for players used to other oversized and under-finished commercial reeds. Diligent practice with a tuner will help you hone in on the necessary air support and embouchure adjustments!
Help, I'm Sharp!
TIPS:
1. Make sure your reed has been properly soaked before playing! The entire reed from top to bottom should be submerged in clean water for approximately 5 minutes (this may take even longer if you live in a dry environment). I recommend bottled or distilled water, especially if you live with hard water in your home. Soaking the reed expands the cane, pushing it outwards against the wires, and in turn creating the leverage and tension necessary for the blades to vibrate freely. Soaking the reed will also expand the tip opening, helping to lower the pitch. If the tip opening still seems too closed after soaking then gently squeeze the sides of the first wire with a pair of pliers.
2. Check your embouchure shape! It should be round, with the lips pulled back slightly over the teeth, combined with an exaggerated version of our natural, everyday overbite. Practice looking straight ahead and whistling down towards the floor. On the bassoon, the only difference will be that the lips should be pulled back over the teeth to provide a cushion between your teeth and the reed. The chin should also appear concave and pointed at the very bottom—just like it looks when whistling or flashing a big smile!
3. Check your embouchure position. The amount of reed in the mouth greatly affects pitch—too little reed will cause everything to sound muffled and be sharp! The top lip should actually be close to the collar of the reed, with very little if any of the top blade of the reed visible, while the bottom lip should be farther back on the reed, with some of the bottom blade visible. The tip of the reed should feel like it goes into the mouth well past your teeth.
4. Make sure your embouchure and air support are properly balanced! When you don’t blow enough air from your abdomen you will end up gripping the reed too tightly with your embouchure to make up for it, getting the notes to come out but making them sound pinched and sharp. Just as a basketball player uses their legs to jump and make it easier to shoot the ball, we should use our airstream to do most of the work to create the sound of our notes on bassoon!
5. Let your throat relax and expand as your air flows out to the bassoon. The sound waves created by the reed actually go backwards and bounce around in the throat and mouth area FIRST before going out through the bassoon, so the more open and relaxed your throat is the more resonant and lower-pitched the sound will be as it travels out the bassoon. Physics, y’all!
6. Try using a different bocal. The higher the number, the lower the pitch of the bocal. So if you are using a #2 bocal, you may need to try a #3 bocal instead to bring your pitch down. Even different bocals of the same number can have slightly different pitch levels!
7. Check to make sure your reed doesn't go on the bocal TOO far. If it does, try wrapping some teflon “plumber’s” tape around the end of the bocal to keep the reed from going on too far.
Help, I'm Flat!
TIPS:
1. Check that the tip opening on your reed is not TOO open. If it is, gently squeeze the blades directly in front of the first wire to help close the tip. If the tip is still too open after a few play sessions, go ahead and use pliers to gently squeeze the top and bottom of the first wire.
2. Check your embouchure! Make sure your lips are firm and doing most of the work gripping the reed, don’t just try and grip the reed by biting your teeth through your flat lips. Also check to make sure you have a nicely visible overbite—if your jaw is too far forward compare to your top lip, you will like get a much lower pitch than we want.
3. Check your tongue position. It should NOT be under the reed or at the bottom of your mouth! Get your tongue out from under your reed and try to keep it at the same level as your reed as much as possible.
4. Make sure that your embouchure and air support are properly balanced. Use more air support from your abdomen and/or tighten your embouchure! Think of your airstream as the legs of a table that are there to “support” your notes that are sitting on top!
5. Only flat on notes above the staff? Make sure to support with air from your abdomen and tighten your embouchure! Voicings also play a vital role in getting notes above the staff up to pitch, so make sure you have your tongue in an "Eww" or "Eee" position to help raise the pitch. Don’t forget about the back of your tongue either—try saying the syllables “Tee-Kee” to feel where the back of your tongue should be for these higher notes.
6. Check that your reed goes on the bocal far enough! The farther the reed goes on the bocal, the higher the overall pitch. Higher number bocals also have wider diameter openings, meaning that you may find most commercial reeds aren't reamed out enough to fit properly. A reamer is an important, relatively cheap investment that I recommend to anyone who primarily plays on commercially bought reeds. Just make sure to only ream your reed when it is completely dry!
7. Choose another bocal with a lower number on it. If you play on a #3 bocal, for example, you may find that you need to change to a #2 bocal to bring the pitch up to where it should be.