Blog Post #2—Updates, Materials, Some General Information (2)

Whoa, is it the end of Week 2 already?!  Insane!  However, in the short time between my last post and this one, a lot has happened!  First of all, in the pictures below, you can see that I have received my first reed making equipment kit as well as a book titled Oboe Reed-Making: Simplified.  This post will tell you whether or not I've been successful with these things ;)

The Awesome Reed Kit + Book

From Left to Right:
reed gouges, reed blank, corks, plaques, knife, mandrel, ruler, string, and cutting block 

So, what are all of these materials and what do they do?

Reed Gouges- a piece of cane that has been split, cut, and shaped so that it is ready to be placed onto the cork (most beginning reed makers start at this step)

Reed Blank- a reed that has not been scraped/cut

Corks- a hallow piece of cork with a metal pyramid/tube at the end where the reed gouge will eventually end up

Plaques- support for the reed blank as you begin to scrape and shape it

Knife- used for scraping the reed

Mandrel- holds the reed/extends its length—primarily used as an assisting tool

Ruler- to get exactly measurements

String- used for typing the gouge onto the cork

Cutting Block- for when you need to cut the tip of the reed after scraping it

Additionally, I would like to address a few things that I've seen throughout the comments on my first blog post.

• I didn't include a photo of a reed—sorry!

From Left to Right:

The end is the cane, this part of the reed is hardest to make (and also makes the sound)!

The red part is simply just the string that holds the cane onto the cork

The cork has a metal, pyramid-like cylinder attached to the end of which the cane is wrapped

• Most people don't know how an oboe reed works.  Please get your life together, Liv
  Okay, okay, sorry!  First... let's compare and contrast single reeds and double reeds with a nice visual:

Here, we have a single reed on the left and a double reed on the right.  The double reed is for an oboe, and the single reed is used for instruments such as a clarinet or saxophone.  Additionally, the single reed is accompanied by a mouthpiece—yeah, oboists don't get this privilege.  See, the way a single reed works is that you adjust your embouchure (aka positioning of your mouth) so that the reed vibrates against the mouthpiece just right to produce sound.  The same thing happens with a double/oboe reed, only you have to make both pieces of reed vibrate—this is twice as hard!  You could basically say that a double reed is a tube that you make sound with, and a single reed is more so an assisting element to a mouthpiece.

• How to make an oboe reed
  A few people were wondering this, but I think I'll wait to address this until I have a better understanding on how to analyze the process (aye) of making one.  This leads me into my next update...

I STARTED MAKING A REED, AND THINGS DID NOT GO WELL

Yesterday (2/25/17), we had a workday in class, and I decided to start scraping the reed blank.  Since my materials kit came with only one reed blank and then twelve gouges, I thought it was a good idea to work backwards in terms of the steps.  So, there I am, scraping the blank with a full audience of exactly four people, and it's going pretty well.  Scraping a reed isn't exactly tough to do (especially because you must soak it beforehand), but the cane is very tender.  Anyways, after 3 or 4 scrapes on the one side... well, this happened:

Obviously, I am a grade A, professional reed maker.  From the picture, you can see that I scraped too hard and tore the one side of the blank.  As annoying as it was to already mess up at, like, scrape #5, I continued on and began working on the other side, just to practice the technique.

Here is a gif of me scraping the other side of the blank.  As you can see, it is very easy to press just a little too hard and ruin the whole thing.  Oh well, at least I know now!




Now... for the finished product of my *first attempt at making a reed *drum roll please*...

*note: even though I technically broke
the reed after the first few scrapes,
I wanted to continue to practice scraping

TA-DA!  Now, if you ask me, I'd say this is concert ready.  But seriously, I'm actually very pleased with this product because now I know what to be cautious of and what to avoid in the future!  Even though I didn't construct the blank and only scraped it, I feel pretty successful.  While I may have to reconsider how much time I give myself to actually get a hang of the steps, I'd say that this process is continuing to move ahead!  Plus, as a certain Language Arts teacher mentioned, you could definitely pick your teeth with this.

Also, before I forget, I have sent out four emails to potential interviewees!

1. Richard Woodham, principal oboe player at the Philly Orchestra
2. The Philly Wind Symphony
3. The kind woman who sold me the materials kit
4. The director of the West Chester Concert Band, whom I saw perform during Montco. Band

And guess what?!?!  I have already received responses from both the Philly Orchestra and West Chester, so the interviews are running right on time!

WOO, WEEK TWO DONE, and I'd say it's been overall a huge success!  Other than either having to spend much more time learning or extending the window I give myself to learn, everything seems to be right in place—I can greatly appreciate that.  Additionally, I like to think that this is going to be the last time there's more than a week between my posts.  I am most definitely going to be posting more than before Day 6's, which will not only allow you guys to follow my progress better, but also hopefully shorten the length of these cyclical posts.

Thanks to all that commented on my blog last cycle and for all the feedback!  I think I've greatly begun paving the road (boulevard?) towards my goal, and I even have one broken reed to add to the pile!  Next week, I'll hopefully have at least one interview going and I'd like to push the rate at which I learn this whole reed making thing.

Once again, thanks for reading!

- OMB

P.S. This is an appreciation sentence for Allison M., who wholeheartedly supported me when I told her about my idea for this project.  Thanks Allison, have fun hitting colorful spheres into pockets!

For Blog #1 I commented on: Klugherz, Miles, and Zhang

Blog Post #1—An Introduction (1)

Alright, hi!  Welcome to my blog!  Now that introductions are out of the way (I'm well aware I haven't asked anything about you, but frankly I don't really care), this is my Genius Project blog.  I'll be posting here at least once every week/cycle, and in a couple of weeks there will be videos to accompany my blogs!  So that's a bit of an overview, for now.

Anyways, my project is learning the process of oboe reed making.  I've been playing oboe (see picture below!) for almost 3 years now , and I absolutely love it.  I'm also the only oboe player at the high school, so that's pretty neat, but it also means SO MUCH responsibility (and a lot of solos [which is just *perfect* for when you have performance anxiety])!  Back on topic, however, I recently noticed after attending Montco. Band (a county band that combines a bunch of high schoolers from different schools) that many high school oboe players begin making their own reeds.  Now, I always knew it would come to this--it was only a matter of time.  Additionally, I never really had much opportunity (or time) to get into reed making because of school, sports, extra curricular activites, etc.  However, this project is PERFECT for  making reeds because it forces me to set aside time doing school work to actually make reeds.

I'm very excited to begin learning how to make reeds because I already struggle with not breaking the ones I buy!  At the same time, however, I'm also very nervous for my success rate / progress because I know this is going to be a very challenging task.  Nonetheless, the Genius Project is well underway, and it can only go up hill from here... and perhaps then fall back down... but we'll get to that if and when we get there.

My Oboe

(his name is Walter and he is wonderful)

For starters, here is my motivation for wanting to pursue this activity; I've broken it down into 3 general areas.

• Relation
• Obviously, as I've already stated, I play the oboe.  Learning how to make reeds will allow me to climb the oboe playing ladder and really push just how serious I am about this instrument

• Useful
• Oboe reeds are expensive.  The average one from Amazon.com costs between $15 - $17.  By being able to make myself with reeds, I will be able to self-supply and hopefully also add a bit more of myself into my playing

• Aspects of Thinking
• Making reeds requires craftsmanship, patience (oh god... so much patience), precision, and handwork.  Some of these qualities I have, (hint: it's not patience) and others I could work on.  By combining these aspects into a single subject, I think I'm laying out a road to success for myself.  Plus, I love making things with my hands!

Moving on, I have a timeline of how things should roughly happen.  Keep in mind that making reeds may be easier or harder than expected, so things may shift as this project goes on.

Week 1 (this week):

• obtain materials and resources (equipment, books, videos, tutorials, etc.)
• begin the learning process!

Week 2:

• continue the learning process
• start putting the steps into action!
• begin making a list of and contacting reed makers whom I would like to interview

Week 3:

• learning process continues
• go through the steps with minimal help--begin seeing progress of "mastery"
• get the (or possibly those) interviews rolling
• talk to experts!  write down their thoughts, suggestions, and insights

Week 4:

• make a working reed
• a reed that is able to be used to practice and play through a piece
• does not have to be perfect and in no way "concert" worthy
• interview = done
• if the interview is not done / incorporated into this blog by the end of this week, YOU ARE VERY BEHIND!!!
• start filming weekly videos of myself using the reeds I make
• pick a relatively easy piece, but one that requires some amount of effort (no hot cross buns, Liv)

Week 5:

• improve making your reeds
• tie up any majorly loose ends; get better!
• take a step back and look at your improvement from Week 1 to now
• how's this going?  according to plan?  slower?  faster?  any changes that need to be acknowledged?
• don't forget the video!

Week 6:

• TED Talk Prep
• look at everything you've done so far; what does it mean?  what's the relevancy?  "so what?"
• get a script done by the end of this week--begin the editing phase
• overview progress
• how ya doing so far?
• major issues that still need to be fixed?  FIX THEM
• VIDEO

Week 7:

• the presentation is in a week--PRACTICE!
• have an almost solid, concrete layout for the presentation by mid-week
• analyze progress further
• add anything to your presentation that will enhance / help it
• pressing issues?
• anything you've completely forgotten to address?
• Hint: it begins with a V and ends in "-ideo"

Week 8:

• at this point the presentation is literally 1 Day Away
• PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!
• Don't forget the final blog post!
• you may be presenting, but people are still reading

Now that you've read through my very critical timeline, here is the goal that I've set for myself by the end of this project.

Okay, well, I lied.  I've broken down the Goal™ into two parts.

The Small Goal:

• To know how to make an oboe reed that works well enough to use during practice and band class
• To need very little, if any, assistance to make the reed

The Big Goal:

• To have a complete understanding as to how a reed is made beyond just making it.  That is to say, to know how to fix a reed if it isn't working properly or to know how to adjust it so that it's better than its current state
• To set the foundation of making reeds for myself for the rest of my oboe playing career.  I'd like to gradually ween myself off of manufacturing reed brands and begin relying on only myself to supply reeds

SO HERE IT IS, my first blog post.  I apologize for its extreme length; however I really wanted to get all my thoughts down to have a sturdy baseline for future posts.  I assume that my minimally weekly/cyclical posts won't be as long as this, but I can't promise anything.  I can, however, promise that this blog is going to make you interested.  Whether or not it's because you too want to struggle for the next 8 weeks or you simply like the way I write, I assure you that this blog is going to be informative AND fun to *reed.

Now, as I haven't completed any homework other than fixing my blog layout and making this post, I suppose I should end this.  

Thanks for reading!

- OMB

*please do not deduct any points for my awful puns... they will be frequently reoccurring

P.S. If you do not know what an oboe sounds like, here is a video from the Philharmonia Orchestra in London that should give you a good idea.
[please note that I do not sound this good]