My Reedmaking Journey

That’s me around the time I started making reeds. I was sixteen, and I had no idea where life, let alone my reed making journey, would take me, but I’m so fortunate to be where I am today.

I got a different start to reeds than many do. I was at an honor band clinic and one of the clinicians said to the entire ensemble “double reed players, if you’re not already making your own reeds, you’re behind.” I was a sophomore and didn’t have a private teacher at the time, nor did I have any idea how someone makes a reed, but I absolutely loathed the idea of “being behind”, so I turned to the internet.

Unguided by any professionals, I started looking for the process on how to make reeds, and I stumbled on Eryn Oft’s YouTube channel. She has a bunch of really awesome videos on how to make reeds from start to finish. I did some more studying and eventually asked my mom for “a loan” to buy a tool kit and some GSP, and I made my very first reed.

And it was awful, but I liked it better than any other reed I had ever played on, partly because it was MINE. I made the sound happen not just with my air and wiggling my fingers, but I created the thing the vibrated to make the bassoon sound. I was hooked.

I learned a couple of months later from a teacher I took a handful of lessons with that you’re actually supposed to take cane off when you scrape, and all I was doing in my overly careful ways was taking the top layer of gunk off the cane 🤦🏼‍♀️. No one up until that point had ever showed me what scraping a reed would look like, just the outcomes. That was the first lesson of MANY that I learned to correct my mistakes.

Now, I wouldn’t recommend the way I started making reeds to anyone else even though the internet has had more reed making tutorials than ever in the recent years, but I’ve been able to correct many mistakes in my journey. I think I’ve amassed enough mistakes in reed making to last me the rest of my life, but that’s okay, because that’s how we learn! I’ve always lived by the idea that you just need to make a lot of reeds. Some are gonna be real junkers, but I bet you learned something from that reed whether it was a mistake you made or just how the cane is and you can take that new knowledge on to more reeds and hone your craft.

Part of what draws me to bassoon and reed making is the constant learning aspect. We’re never done, and you can look at that gloomily or take the fact head on and find joy in always being able to learn something new. I'm honored that my journey has allowed me to make reeds for not only myself, but for others. I hope with every reed that I send out, some of that joy of mine leeches into it and spreads around a bit more.

As always, thanks for “reeding” and happy bassooning!