happy times together we’ve been spending

Last fall, Shazar came all the way out here for my junior recital. He arrived Friday night, the day before my recital. I was a little nervous, both for the recital and for meeting an OD friend in real life. Shazar is wonderful because he knows how sacred that line is to me; he’s always respected it and honored the chance to cross it. So Friday night I was nervous and jittery. I wanted to do something. Something productive. So I made oboe reeds, while Shazar organized his new camera equipment. I smile as I think back on this scene. I’m pretty clueless when it comes to cameras and that world. About as clueless as Shazar is to the world of oboe reed-making. Two worlds clashing. Some of the first pictures taken that night were of me making reeds and sharpening razor blades. Yes, sharpening razor blades. I use them in to make reeds, but they need to be extremely sharp. I could easily buy more, but you can resharpen them once or twice and get a few more uses out of them. I remember Shazar watching me sharpen the razor blades and my knives. He later told me that in that moment, he realized how dangerous I could be with those things.

Why am I recounting all this? Because I just spent about an hour sharpening razor blades. My knives need to be reground so they sharpen correctly. Explaination? I used stones to sharpen the knives and blades. There are two types I use – a fine, hard stone and a coarser stone (the one in the picture). They help keep the very tip of the edge, or the burr, on the knife. But eventually the tip gets worn down and the knife needs to be reground. I use a diamond stone for that, but they are pretty expensive and I don’t have one of my own. I usually use the school’s diamond stone, but that means actually taking my knives into school and spending time in the reed room. I’ve spent too many hours in that room crying over reeds that won’t work, or reeds that crack. Everyone in the studio has put in their time there. Once you move off campus, you really don’t want to ever go back there if you can help it. But I’ll have to. Probably sometime over the summer.

I now have a nice little pile of sharpened blades and a larger pile of unsharpened blades sitting on my reed desk. My hand started to cramp and I couldn’t do much more. So I cleaned my stone and wrapped it up with oil to soak over night. I’m having cane issues, because the cane I like is slowly disappearing. Its from Italy and is getting more and more expensive. But its also really good cane. People who like it really like it and the demand for it in the states has grown. The effects of WWII in Europe are still reverberating through out the world. The cane doesn’t take long to grow, but it does take a while to dry out. The fighting in the European theater during the World Wars destroyed a lot of the cane fields. Old oboe players often lament the loss of pre-War cane and praise it’s amazingness. The destruction and general unrest in Europe uprooted many of the cane growers. Those who were not driven from their homes were bankrupt or just killed. Its taken some time for the industry to get back on its feet, and for the land to get back to its growing ability. Also competition from growers in China and the US has made it difficult. In the three years I’ve been back in the oboe world, I’ve watched too many cane companies come and go. Its difficult to find cane that I like. Pisoni seems to be hanging on by its teeth. So I’m trying to find other cane to use, while trying to find funds to buy some of the Pisoni cane in bulk before it completely disappears. Right now, the going rate for a pound of Pisoni tube cane (unprocessed) is about $135. Most tube cane is less than $100. But I love Pisoni!

Buying tube cane creates another problem. Its unprocessed. Its basically bamboo sticks. Processing cane involves splitting it (splitters cost $58), sorting out the bad pieces using a radius gauge ($36), using a guillotine ($150 on the low end) to cut the piece to a specific length, planing ($160) then gouging ($1500) the cane to a very specific width measured by a micrometer ($170) and finally shaping ($275) the cane. Those prices are for the machines used at each step of the process. I have a shaper, but nothing else. At this point, you only have a piece of cane that is ready to be tied onto a staple and start being made into a reed. The school owns all those machines, but there’s a catch. Each machine has slight variations that can greatly affect your reed and then your playing. Which is why I ended up buying my own shaper. I don’t work well with the school shaper. I also don’t like any of the school’s gougers. I tend to buy my cane already gouged. But that is more expensive. While it may sound quick, all these steps take an extraordinary amount of time, and there are drying out periods between some of the steps. So you’re paying for the time someone else spends on processing the cane.

A lot of professionals don’t process their own cane completely through because of these time constraints. But they also have more money to waste on it, or underlings to do it for them. I’m not kidding about underlings. Some are principle players who make their seconds process or even make them reeds. Others are professors at universities and have their grad students or even undergrads make the reeds. And usually without pay. Oh, they might pay for the supplies, but not the time spent. I wouldn’t mind making reeds for other people, but you better believe I’m going to charge you for it. I’d rather go back to working at the law firm than give my reeds away for free to people who are too lazy to be bothered.

Anyways – I’m trying to figure out what would really be a good use of my money (aka debt) and time. Buying partially processed cane saves time, but I’m not in control of the cane the whole time. I don’t know what its been through. Which yes – that makes a difference. If I wasn’t going into performance, I wouldn’t even dream about spending that much money on all those machines. But in the long run, probably five years or less, the money I’ll save will pay for the machines. Especially if I start selling my reeds. Oh, by the way – just because I’ve gone through all those steps, that doesn’t mean I’ll actually get a reed that works properly at the end of the road. There are so many things that could go wrong, and young reed-makers make many mistakes along the way. A famous oboist once said, “You won’t have a chance of making a good reed until you have filled a laundry basket with bad ones.” Think how small oboe reeds are (check out the picture). Now picture a laundry basket. That’s a lot of reeds. I think mine is almost three-quarters of the way full. This is why oboist are so neurotic, and have the highest rate of stroke and suicide of all musicians.

All this is why I’m wide awake at this hour, sharpening razor blades.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long
And wouldn’t it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong

You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
After having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through

The happy times together we’ve been spending
I wish that every kiss was never ending
Oh Wouldn’t it be nice

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do
We could be married
And then we’d be happy

Wouldn’t it be nice

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Oh, wouldn’t it be nice

Good night my baby
Sleep tight my baby

Wouldn’t It Be Nice ~ The Beach Boys