You have probably heard people discuss the different acoustical aspects of a room- this room is dry or this room is resonant- and shared ways to perform to that space. Have you ever wondered how the room affects your reed and the way your reed feels in performance? I am going to offer an observation, not based on any scientific data, but on lots of personal experience.
I play in an orchestra that does the same concert three times in one weekend at three different venues. When we get to the next venue and I make an observation about how the reed I used yesterday feels very differently, the other bassoonist would invariably offer a weather related reason regarding things like humidity and barometric pressure. That’s fair and it surely has some effect on the change, but I think there is more to it.
I first started noticing this trend while playing contra bassoon. I was performing a piece that needed a reed that was solid and could land a punch but easy enough to speak quickly. I sorted through my reeds at home and found the perfect one. A few hours later, when I got to the concert hall, my ‘perfect’ reed felt like a piece of tissue paper. The reed that I was unable to play because it was too hard to speak was now the responsive reed that felt ‘perfect’ in the hall. The differences are much greater with a larger reed and I have found that I need to come to rehearsals with several different strength reeds and find the one that fits the room.
I decided that I wasn’t losing my mind or being overly sensitive when I was at a rehearsal in a pit. Just before leaving to head to rehearsal, I had been adjusting reeds and had favored one that was nicely responsive. Only an hour later, I pulled out that reed and began warming up in the performance space. “Ugh, this feels like a stuffy sock,” I exclaim. “Mine too,” responds the oboe player. We both shared how great the reeds felt at home, but in this space, they were horrible.
Is it a difference in humidity due to temperature control of the room? Do the acoustical aspects of the room account for the difference? I don’t have the answer for that, and I am sure you can find a lot of people that will offer you a concrete explanation. What I do know is not every reed feels the same in every space, for whatever reason! This is why reed players carry multiple reeds- because you don’t know which one will work on which day in which space. I test the reeds I sell in multiple settings to find their greatest stability. How do the reeds in your box stand up to the different performing spaces in which you play? Take the time to learn the preferences of your varying reeds and you may be spared playing on a not ideal reed or giving up prematurely on a reed that still has life left in it.