If you’ve been playing a reed instrument for quite a few years, you might think you start to notice trends between the time of year, i.e. the season, and how well the reeds play. I’ve found this before and thought it was probably just a coincidence. I decided to look into it and see if there was any science behind it and found some interesting points.
Cane reeds are affected by moisture and temperature, so they can often play better in different climates. Usually, a reed will be more responsive in humid weather because it’ll become softer. In winter, reeds tend to dry out, so a lower strength might be needed.
Playing a reed instrument can be difficult in extreme temperatures. Reeds can be temperamental in any conditions, and sometimes you’ll get them out and they just won’t play. There are physical reasons for this, which I’ll talk about below and give some tips for things you can do to prepare for different weather conditions. First, I’ll talk about how moisture affects reeds.
How does moisture affect reeds?
We know that sometimes reeds play better than others and that this can depend on the climate. The main issue reeds have is with the amount of moisture in the air. Moisture softens reeds, which has a similar effect to warming them up ready to play, so you can often find they’re much better in warmer weather. If you try to think back, you might be able to pinpoint a time that you’ve had a reed suddenly play with a brilliant tone. This is likely to be on quite a hot day.
In winter, the weather tends to be much drier. In this case, you’ll often find that your reeds will dry out and become very brittle. They don’t tend to be as responsive as in warm weather. This can be quite off-putting, especially if you’ve been used to playing your reeds in a hot climate and changed quite suddenly to playing in a cold climate. You might think the reed has worn out, but it could just be the conditions.
It’s important to be aware of this, but it’s true that in most conditions, this won’t be a big issue. You almost certainly won’t be able to tell day to day a difference in your reeds with the temperature. It will only be on a really hot or a really cold day that it might hit you that something has changed. Playing a bad reed can really mess up a performance, so you really need to be aware of it and think about prevention strategies.
How does weather affect reed strength?
You are likely to find that in warmer weather, your reed feels easier to play. This is because it becomes more flexible with the increased water content. A more flexible reed equates of the same shape equates to a lower strength reed. Therefore, in summer, the reed strength tends to be lower.
You might need to compensate for this. If you tend to play quite hard reeds, then in summer, you might not find too much of a problem, as they’ll warm up and have a bit less resistance. You might even find that it’s nice not to have to overcome quite so much resistance for a bit.
If you normally play your reeds quite soft, however, you might find that in summer they’re just too weak for you. If you bought a reed when it was fairly cold and you chose it to be quite flexible and responsive, it’s quite likely that in warmer weather it’ll just become too responsive and you’ll lose control of the sound. On the other hand, if you play hard reeds, then in winter, you might struggle to get much sound out of them at all.
How can I account for the effect of weather on reeds?
Some players will account for the climate by having different reeds for different weather conditions. For example, you might have summer reeds, which are half a reed strength higher (i.e. if you normally have a 3 you might increase to 3.5) and winter reeds which a half a strength lower. This can help a lot if you’re playing in a quickly changing climate.
You could also try soaking a reed before you play it in the winter. This needs to be done very carefully with single reeds, as they’re so thin at the tip than soaking them for more than a few minutes can end up doing more harm than good. Most double reed players will soak their reeds every time they’re going to play because double reeds have a lot more resistance in general than single reeds.
If you find that this is an issue that’s really bothering you and you have a bit of money to spare, there is another option. You could get yourself a temperature controlled case for your reeds, or even for your instrument itself and keep the reeds inside the temperature controlled part. This will solve your problem but can be pretty expensive (around £40 for a reed case or at least £300 for an instrument case, depending on its size). Remember if you’re playing for a long time you might start to lose the advantage of these cases.
Can temperature control be a problem indoors?
In general, controlling the temperature and humidity of yours reeds indoors is usually less difficult. The temperatures inside will naturally be less extreme than the temperatures outside, which tends to mean that reeds cope much better. Many reed players find outdoor playing quite difficult, and this is often related to the temperature of their environment.
One thing that can be an issue for reeds indoors, though, is air conditioning. As I’ve said above, reeds play better when they have some moisture in them. When allowed to dry out they become hard and unresponsive. An air conditioned environment is a dry environment (this is why air conditioning can exacerbate a cough), therefore it’s not a good environment for reed instruments. While it might be a nice environment for the players themselves, it won’t do their reeds any good.
Summary
To sum up this post, I’d say it’s important to be aware of the physical changes your reeds undergo in extreme weather conditions. If the conditions aren’t too extreme you’re unlikely to notice the changes too much but it’s something to be aware of. The easiest option is to buy higher strength reeds for the summer and lower strength for the winter. If you want to take it a step further you can buy humidity controlled cases.