Revisiting the Legere reeds

Oboe 101: Should you try Legere reeds?

Since the start of the year I played 2 concerts with completely new-to-me repertoire (Verdi’s Requiem, and Wind Ensemble arrangements of Borodin Symphony 3 and The Magic Flute), and started really making reeds and practicing in earnest for two upcoming auditions. No, of course they don’t overlap much in terms of repertoire. Yes, one is principal and the other is second oboe. What can I say, I’m ambitious! Or crazy! Who can tell?! 

Last Thursday I gave a clinic “Switching to Oboe: Getting A Good Start” at the California All State Music Educator Conference (CASMEC). Welcome to any new subscribers who have joined since last week! 

I’ve also learned that my proposal for the 3rd year in a row of hosting an oboe teacher conversation at the International Double Reed Society’s (IDRS) summer conference has been accepted!! I’m so excited to be joined by four fabulous educators to address “Finding Balance in Your Studio” at Miami University of Ohio. 

Finally, and perhaps the most exciting, I’ve hired another teacher into my studio and started onboarding new students for him! 

So, it’s been a big year for me and January isn’t even done yet. But less just about me, and more about a Legere update! 

Legere American Scrape Reed Update

Back in August I shared with you that I purchased and had been using one of the new Legere American Scrape reeds at the IDRS conference in July. I found it continuously flat, but easy to pick up and just play to demonstrate for students. I used it through the first week-ish of September, then switched back to cane reeds because they were just so much better. 

After I last wrote about the Legere reed, I realized that it was becoming really resistant. I don’t think I knew or tested to be sure that there was a leak, but it turned out that once I wrapped nearly the whole reed with teflon tape it was much nicer to play on. The implication being that the reed sprung a leak somewhere in the sides. Most of the time when I finished using the reed I swabbed it with a pipe cleaner, which could possibly have contributed to a leak developing.

Additionally, when I took the reed out in December, there was a weird/gross film on the inside that prevented me from playing. I had to put the reed in my water cup, then use a pipe cleaner to clean the inside of it before it would play. It’s possible that I didn’t swab it out after the last use, but still an interesting element to notice. 

Student case study: adult student

One of my adult students purchased two medium-soft Legeres sometime in the Fall (maybe early October?) in the hopes that they would be more consistent than the cane reeds that they’d been using up until that point. Unfortunately they found the medium softs to be just a bit flat, just like I found the mediums to be, and no amount of squeezing the reed helped the reeds to come up in pitch. I believe that they retired the reeds and only use them in situations where they won’t be thinking about pitch at all. 

Student case study: child student

The parents of one of my middle school students saw the Black Friday sale on Legere reeds and bought one for their child. This was an interesting choice for the student - we had been working on playing in tune and expanding their control of their dynamics with cane reeds, and at first it seemed easier for them to achieve the results we wanted on the medium-soft Legere reed. 

After a few lessons, though, I noticed that the student was still squeezing the reed with their lips, AND had started pushing the reed pretty far into their mouth. The pitch was middling - not consistently controlled - and the dynamic control was less consistent than before. BUT we were in the middle of December, and their band doesn’t stress tuning very much yet, so it wasn’t an urgent issue. 

At our last lesson  of the year, they complained that the Legere reed was really hard to play, so I sent the parents a how-to-fix-leaks email. In their first lesson of the year they were back to playing cane reeds and I realized just how detrimental to their embouchure the Legere reed had been: we had to work really hard to put much less reed in the mouth. Likewise, the tendency to press on the reed had been practiced for a month or more, so we’re working again on not pressing the reed with the lips. 

Do I recommend the Legere reed? 

In short, no. I think it’s a fine tool for teaching or playing outside, especially in a situation where it doesn’t matter whether you play in tune or not. I think it’s a fine tool to use for instrument trials, assuming that the reed doesn’t spring a leak and is rinsed clean after each use. 

For someone playing regularly in situations where it matters that you play in tune, please don’t waste your money.