Clarinet Reeds?

Question:So...this is my 8th year playing (my senior year in high school) and i play on a size 4 vandoren paris reed. I have some questions:

1. Whats the highest reed size they make
2. How do you know when you need to increase a reed size?
-whenever i tune i am always sharp
- i practice 3 hours a week and my tone is decreasing
3. I really would perfer not to increase a reed size, how can I maintain a reed size? do i have to relax my embrocure?

EXTRA INFO: i will be playing in college, and i have a rovner ligature with a hite mouthpiece and selmer clarinet. :)

any advice would be appreciated

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: So...this is my 8th year playing (my senior year in high school) and i play on a size 4 vandoren paris reed. I have some questions:

1. Whats the highest reed size they make
2. How do you know when you need to increase a reed size?
-whenever i tune i am always sharp
- i practice 3 hours a week and my tone is decreasing
3. I really would perfer not to increase a reed size, how can I maintain a reed size? do i have to relax my embrocure?

EXTRA INFO: i will be playing in college, and i have a rovner ligature with a hite mouthpiece and selmer clarinet. :)

any advice would be appreciated

If you want to play in college, I advise you to upgrade your reed choice.
Vandorens are not good reeds for professional playing. They're mainly step-ups for high school students. If your tone is decreasing and you're using Vandoren 4's, it's time to move on. I'm sure you've encountered dozens of dead reeds already on Vandorens and didn't even know it. Vandoren's are NOT meant to played straight out of the box--they need filing and shaping before they play with the best tone quality possible from that reed.

If your Hite mouthpiece is hard rubber, keep it! It's a great choice and a great brand. Also stick with the Rovner ligature. If you don't have a wooden clarinet, I advise you to get one. Your future clarinet professor can help you find a good one.

Your questions:
1. Check the Vandoren website.
2. When you constantly find yourself overblowing a reed, squeaking more often than normal, and your embouchure isn't as tired as normal after playing, the reed may be too weak. Your tuning may be a result of your clarinet itself--if you're playing a higher intermediate or pro model Selmer clarinet, check the specifications of your model! It might be tuned to A442, which is becoming standard for intermediate to pro model horns.
3. SWITCH BRANDS!

My top 3 reed picks:
1. Gonzales. I live by these reeds. They produce a great tone quality--very warm and solid. I've been playing them for the past 2 years and have only gotten 1-2 dead reeds out of the HUNDREDS I've played. The cane is superior quality.
2. Rico Grand Concert. Also a phenomenal professional reed. Great cane, great response. A little bit more pricey than Gonzales.
3. Rico Reserve. My clarinet professor likes these reeds--I have yet to play one, but I've heard great things. My professor got me started on Gonzales reeds, so I trust him on this one!

What strength to use: Vandorens are a bit thicker than these reed brands. Keep that in mind.

Everyone has a different opinion about reeds and when to change sizes. You have to do what is right for you.

Most standard reeds go 1-5 by half sizes. Some go easy, medium easy, medium, medium hard and hard. Professionals frequently make their own reeds.

In terms of changing sizes, as a band teacher I like to see solid breath support. There should be some degree of breath effort to maintain a steady tone. It is also a matter of quality of tone. But, again, different directors have different philosophies. I never start a beginner with less than a 2 1/2, yet another director always starts their beginners on 1 1/2.

Most of my players by their third year of playing are on 3's, but I have a very talented jazz player whose teacher insists that he play a 1 1/2. I think he has weak tone, but his jazz teacher wants him to have the greater ability to bend and scoop tone.

Best person to ask? Your current private lesson teacher. You may even want to call your future college and ask the current band director. You may not want to give your name because this may be seen as a demonstration to them of a lack of understanding of the instrument.

Also, realize different brands use different types of cane (not to mention the plastic coated reeds!). These all have varying degrees of strength and longevity. A 3 Rico will not last as long as a 3 Vandoren.

As a clarinet player you SHOULD be sharp. If you are not pulling some, your reed would not be stiff enough. However, if your tone is getting worse, you may be having either too tight an embochure or may be squeezing the reed too much with your lower lip.

What is your embochre like? For years I taught, "firm grip with the upper teeth and firm bottom lip. After spending some time conversing with the clarinet instructor at San Jose state and some other wind players, I now teacher an "O" shaped mouth with fairly balanced pressure all the way around. If you're squeezing too much on the bottom lip, you may be able to regain tone by thinking of a circular lip which will help you redistribute some of the tension currenly on the reed to the top of the mouthpiece.

Highest reed size is 5 I think.

When you start learning the clarinet, you would usually start on quite a soft reed, as you probably did, and as the muscles develop in your lips and your embouchure gets stronger, you gradually increase your reed size, but when your emouchure is fully developed, you stop increasing the reed size, you just try various different reed strengths - both hard and soft, to find out which suits you best. It also depends a lot on your mouthpiece setup. Strength 4 sounds fine for your setup, but 3.5 would also be fine.

Ok, if you're always sharp, then you do need to relax your embouchure. How to do that? Well you definately need to do more than 3 hours practise a week! You should be doing long tones for at least 10 minutes a day. Start on low C and try to hold it for as long as you can with as relaxed an embouchure as possible. Imagine you are trying to lift your top teeth off the mouthpiece. Continue down chromatically from there holding each note as long as you can. Vary the dynamics too. When you've reached the bottom, start working upwards on the higher notes. You'll be amazed at the improvement in your tone if you do this for 10 minutes every day.

One more thing, a lot of people think the higher the reed size, the better the player. Not the case! If you can make a good sound on a really soft reed, then you can really control your instrument.

Hope this helps!

1. Depends on the brand most would go up to 5
2. Generally your teacher is the one that tells you to go up a size. I find that my students are unable to judge their own playing enough! But if the reeds are getting too soft/ easy to play and if your tone is getting plastic then I would first think about changing the reed brand. Vandoren are good for students and some professionals I know do use them but they can be a bit unrespomsive for some people. If you aee thinking of doing college major in Clarinet. Now is the time to experiment with other reeds. Listen to professionals and see which tone you like. Most clarinet players will name their reeds/ instrumet brands on their websites. Or the websites mentiones the players tha use them. Some brands you could try are

Gonzales. (http://www.gonzalezreeds.com)
Vintage (http://www.reedsaus.com.au/about.htm)
Mitchell Lurie
Vandoren
Rico/ Rico royal (http://www.ricoreeds.com)

3. Prob best to ask your clarinet teacher. They can see you play! There are a number of things that can make you sharp and a tense embouchure is one of them! Again check with your teacher