Cut the tips on my brand new contra reeds that I made over the weekend and they worked!! They’re a little wonky in the pitch, but so much better than what I expected that I still feel like strutting. Go, me. 

Former declaration of loyalty to the 8 year old reed is hereby rescinded. Albion reed for muchos smackeroos turned out to be much nicer than the old one once I cut the tip. Old reed on recording sounds like one big raspberry. New Albion actually has tone.

Bought Susan Nigro’s Bass Nightingale off of iTunes. She is incredible. Contra playing like I’ve never heard. Average person could go to her concert and not spend the whole time snickering about a big flappy farty instrument blurting around on the stage. Disappointed to see that there are no liner notes attached.

Here’s a troubling revelation: my eight year old contra bassoon reed from college still works. The troubling aspect of this is that it works BETTER than the Albion Silver Professional reed that I just bought from Forrests for 30 smackeroos. Wish I knew what brand it was and even more, I wish I had found it before shelling out all that cash for a reed I don’t like. At least now I know what measurements to follow for the reed blanks waiting at my desk. Hard to know what’s going to work best when you’re borrowing an unfamiliar instrument that you can’t take home with you.