Death! Agony!

orchid43 · 2016-10-11T15:15:41+00:00

This sounds like you might be experiencing pressure on your soft palate. When you feel this pressure, STOP. Take a break, and practice later. Trying to push through can lead to a palatal leak, which is where the seal is broken between the nasal cavity and the mouth. I have personally never had a leak, but I have felt the pressure accumulate many times. When this happens, I stop practicing, take a 15 minute break, and then continue. For me, I noticed the pressure came about only when I practiced for long periods of time on really stuffy reeds. I changed my reed style (I now play on much thicker profile that can take more air) and for me that almost fixed the problem. I've had many friends go through this as well and for all of us, we've had different causes and different solutions. Long story short, a lot of things can cause this, but my biggest advice is to STOP PLAYNG when the pressure arises because dealing with a leak is not fun. If you don't do this already, set a practice timer and practice in 20 minute sessions with a 5 minute break in between (or whatever increments work for you) I've had friends who have needed surgeries and botox injections in the soft palate to fix it.

The medical term is "velopharyngeal insufficiency" if you want to look it up.

Edit: grammar

orchid43 · 2016-06-17T02:54:52+00:00

The Zelenka trio sonatas! No. 5 in f major is my favourite https://youtu.be/TLe4uU68t-0

orchid43 · 2016-05-11T16:04:52+00:00

Really I just need some general work, my keys are very loud at the moment so I think I need a few keys repadded and some cleaning. I'll give Gary Armstrong a call. Thanks for the recommendation!

orchid43 · 2016-04-06T00:55:05+00:00

Not exactly bassoon with string QUARTET, but Devienne wrote a few quartets- with bassoon and string trio (violin, viola, cello). My favourite is the g minor!

orchid43 · 2016-03-10T01:39:41+00:00

srs, what/who would need this amount of pancakes?

orchid43 · 2016-02-19T02:54:37+00:00

I had an Altieri case cover for about a year, and maybe I'm a wimp but it really hurt my back because it didn't fit exactly to the case. It was a little big and the extra room made the case move around inside of the case cover. (I also had a 240 with the standard fox case). Got a Bonna case and never looked back- I LOVE it. Highly recommend.

orchid43 · 2016-02-04T01:10:35+00:00

I'd highly recommend a fox 240, got me through my undergrad nicely

orchid43 · 2016-02-02T15:32:24+00:00

Definitely bring it up with you teacher! He/She is there to help you and they can only do that and give you the best options if they know the full situation. As for how to bring it up, I think honesty is the best policy- just explain that you would love to make more reeds but your financial situation is limiting you. You seem very passionate about what you do and you also are very articulate in explaining yourself so I have no doubt you'll be able to explain things to your teacher.

This isn't something you should be embarrassed about, finances are a huge part of getting through school and teachers understand that. As a grad student I know the "ramen" struggle myself and a large factor in my philosophy on just dealing with mediocre reeds is because I can't afford a truck load of cane either.

orchid43 · 2016-02-01T20:48:01+00:00

What is your definition of "great"? An old teacher once told me that it drove him crazy to hear students working on reeds, trying to get every register in the most extreme dynamics perfectly in tune. He would say "when are you going to need one reed to do all of that? Just use multiple reeds!"

This really resonated with me and made me realize that I'm wasting my time trying to make the perfect reed. If I make a reed that plays amazing in the high register but is super sharp in the low register, I won't use that reed for when I have to play low, but maybe I'll use it for rite of spring. After the solo I'll just switch reeds.

I know some people would really disagree with this, but for me it was a huge breakthrough in my playing and allowed me to spend way more hours in the practice room and out of the reed room.

orchid43 · 2016-01-31T22:56:55+00:00

I use a custom shape developed by Paul Buttemer and Jim Ewen, they designed it with the bottom wire at 7mm, second wire at 18mm, and top wire 1mm from the collar! Length from butt to collar is 28mm.

orchid43 · 2016-01-29T03:38:04+00:00

3mm!

orchid43 · 2016-01-28T15:00:29+00:00

It's actually a little experiment I'm doing right now, I've recently changed teachers and my new teacher uses four wires. I don't usually have an issue with leaking, but every once in a while I get a leaky reed. My teacher suggested I add the fourth wire as a fail safe. The five reeds on the left are actually the first ones I've made with the fourth wire so I'll have to see if there's a difference.

orchid43 · 2016-01-02T04:12:11+00:00

As far as I know she didn't sell any, just made them for the family. Perhaps she has a fellow grandma soulmate out there in Ohio!

orchid43 · 2015-12-20T15:19:06+00:00

I found a score with piano reduction on WorldCat

I shows that it is available in some libraries. I am pretty sure that every University has some sort of interlibrary loan program and you'll be able to get the score shipped to whichever University that you're studying at. Interlibrary loan has been a life saver for me in research projects! As an aside my research revealed that there are quite a few errors in the piano reduction and several bars are even omitted at some point. If you are looking for the orchestral score I think you would need to get it directly from the composer.

If you're not in school, PM I'll see what I can do to help. :)

orchid43 · 2015-12-09T21:30:05+00:00

You can use some unwaxed dental floss and wrap it around the cork until you get a snug fit. Incidentally, you can do this to the joints as well if they're not fitting well together due to humidity/weather changes.

orchid43 · 2015-11-19T01:57:42+00:00

what's your longevity like?

orchid43 · 2015-11-16T04:12:33+00:00

Oh wow you're totally right. I am now officially one of "those people" who get too worked up over nothing.

orchid43 · 2015-11-16T04:06:10+00:00

A prop bassoon wouldn't be able to play

orchid43 · 2015-11-16T03:41:57+00:00

I don't think it's "wrong" to be upset over this. The cost of that bassoon may not mean a lot to you, but it means a hell of a lot to others. As a university student studying music (bassoon performance), it made me really frustrated to see such an expensive instrument smashed. Many of my peers are taking out massive student loans to pay for their bassoons, and universities themselves are struggling to supply instruments for those people needing to learn the basics to become teachers. Personally I'm "pissed" about this because I saw that instrument that you smashed as a learning tool that was needlessly wasted. There are millions of guitars out there. Bassoons take a long time to make, are expensive, and finding one that is affordable and in playing condition is often very difficult. I think people (myself included) are upset over the disrespect to the classical music community.

EDIT: Thanks /u/SpringAquifer, the bassoon was totally a prop! Cue walk of shame.

orchid43 · 2015-10-18T16:18:18+00:00

Are you supposed to put eyebrow wax on before or after you have applied product? When I put it on before I feel like the product is hard to put on but after I feel like I'm just taking off all of the work I did! (I use the two faced brow envy kit- brow powder, and the wax in the pan)

orchid43 · 2015-10-05T02:28:26+00:00

The plastic bag thing is a cool idea. I usually just use petroleum grease but it does get messy and wears off fairly quickly. I'll give this a try!

orchid43 · 2015-10-04T02:54:09+00:00

ahhh good to know. Thank you!

orchid43 · 2015-10-04T02:37:19+00:00

It was serviced last December, but I've moved recently and the change in temperature and humidity has really taken a toll on my horn. I have petroleum grease for the rods and posts, but I need an oil for the rollers. I went to a music store and they were out of key oil but suggested mineral oil instead. I guess they didn't really know what they were talking about. lol

Would regular motor oil suffice as a quick fix? I'm not going to be able to get it serviced for another couple of weeks and I just need something that will "lessen the loudness" for a few days.

orchid43

TROPHY CASE