When I started playing (thank you, Terry the Teacher, seen below in a fetching portrait by Jenny Williams) I thought you just bought one of the instruments invented Adolphe Sax (1814 – 1894) and got on with it. No-one warned me about Reeds.
I’m a bass in a community choir and when I sing my vocal chords vibrate. When I play it’s the reed which vibrates. And I learn from The Rough Guide to Saxophone (Hugo Pinksterboer Penguin) that they’re cut from the plant Arundo Donax, a hollow cane, related to bamboo and grown mostly in the Var, southern France.
Harvested at two to three years old and cured for a year, the cane tubes are cut to length, split lengthways into four reeds and shaved to an accuracy of half a thousandth of an inch. (Do we need to know this? Yes, maybe?)
I’m impressed. But still such a novice that I’m best with number 2. My music shop’s run out. Full marks to Sax.co.uk for this:
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| and then there's the mouthpiece |
Rico Royal- Very much the ‘standard’ reed for a large proportion of players. These are filed, relatively bright and (potentially) loud. A lot of players start off their careers using these. They’re something of a ‘blank canvas’, responsive, flexible but without much character of their own- and, as such, work very well for beginners. The majority of more experienced players move on to reed types which suit their particular style of playing- but Rico Royals are good for keeping your options open.
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