Ugh. Reeds are misbehaving. Weather keeps changing. I’m gonna get grumpy if I can’t find a few English horn reeds to get me through the month.
I did resort to ordering a couple; one wouldn’t work at all, and the other one has slipping blades that look to be slipping further all the time. I think it might have arrived cracked too. Sigh. So nix those. (I won’t even tell you what they cost!)
I’m using a few older reeds, but they are on their way to a reed coffin and it could be any minute now that I will have to lay them to rest.
So it’s back to the drawing board. Or at least the reed room. With Nutcracker lurking I really must get a few reeds that will take me through the run … and I need a reed that will cooperate with Pictures at an Exhibition as well … which means playing in tune (duh), good attacks for one movement and a good high E-flat for another. It’s not at all a tough piece, but it does require a cooperative reed.
Why must reeds be so rebellious anyway?
I also managed to lightly bump my oboe with my English horn. Not a big deal, I thought. Hah! I picked up the oboe and only high notes would come out. Hmmm. I’m playing the English horn/oboe 3 part in Pictures. Needless to say that means oboe basement playing. After puzzling over what the heck I could have done, I realized that the English horn bell had tapped the bottom octave key and had bent it enough to keep the darn octave key opened! Can you believe it? It was a simple fix once I figured it out, but what a thing to happen right before downbeat. Still, I handled it with not a lot of anxiety. I guess, after all these years, I just don’t panic quite like I used to. Or maybe I’m too old to panic like I used to! 😉
