You need some very sharp items. You need to be prepared for failure, but . . . You need be lucky only once. Little else is shared by reed-making and terrorism. Perhaps the most inhibiting factor in small-pipe reed-making is that there is no real need to be doing this on a regular basis, unlike the makers of oboe and bassoon reeds which need regular replacement. So unless you’re a professional pipe-maker, reed-making is something that you will do very irregularly (if at all). To some extent you may have to partially re-learn the processes each time. That’s a bit of a nuisance but it may have the advantage that you vary what you do and discover better methods than a routine practice would encourage. Of course, there is no need to do this at all because a good reed will last indefinitely, but the insight into the instrument and the satisfaction of playing on your own reed are both very good rewards. For anyone who wants to have a go, opportunities have never been better. There’s lots of information around and materials are easily found. Chanter cane can be bought as bassoon cane and is available here. Select Tube Cane at the top of the page: howarth.uk/products.aspx?id=68&url=bncane.html Material for drone reeds can be obtained from the NPS who bought up much of the stock from David Burleigh’s workshop. Another source receives little attention, but your nearest elder bush will provide excellent material. It needs sufficient drying but is in fact a far more authentic material than tiny Arundo donax stems which are commonly used. A great starting point is the excellent series of videos in which Colin Ross demonstrates his own methods. These were filmed and edited by Steve Douglass and are on YouTube. They were re-posted in higher definition (and in shorter episodes), the first of them being here: youtu.be/Hph914LI-4g
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 22:46:59 +0000