WELCOME!

I was always good at making oboe reeds, perhaps by necessity. I remember my first oboe teacher trying to coax me into giving her one of my reeds. I often made my reed an hour before the jury or concert. I have helped former teachers and professional reedmakers analyze and improve their reeds.

The first time I encountered any unusual difficulty was upon moving to sea level. I did not anticipate the effect the change in altitude had on my reeds. I sought guidance from several teachers who were helpful, yet none pinpointed the root cause of my frustration with reeds. Eventually, I adapted to sea level and began to make reeds that seemed okay to me — though I was not exactly sure, at the time, what I did differently.

I worked for one of the best and earliest small reedmaking companies for a few years. I scraped 100–200 reeds per week and received instruction and feedback on my work. I am certain this contributed to my skill growth.

I began teaching oboe and reedmaking in my late teens, shortly after winning my first professional orchestral position. I realized the standard reedmaking texts were failing my students. Some students followed the instructions literally: scraping the tip "as thin as possible" resulted in removing the entire cane portion from the staple on the first scrape. The illustrations were not drawn from the perspective of the reedmaker, nor to scale, and confused the students. Surprisingly, some illustrations were not physically possible! There was no comprehensive guidance on finishing reeds or gouger adjustment. At one point 60% of my students were left-handed, and there were no texts devoted to teaching them.

Some students purchased reeds with a wide range of quality and serviceability. Some reeds were so stiff that even an athletic, largely-built swimmer could not sustain a note for more than a few seconds without turning red and getting dizzy. Other reeds had lovely tones and were so unstable and flat that they hindered progress on the oboe. I did not want to spend valuable lesson time adjusting these reeds. I thought the ideal course of action was their becoming self-sufficient reedmakers — or at least able to adjust purchased reeds.