The importance of organizing and rotating your reeds.

It’s important to have a system where your reeds are easily identifiable individually. If you have a way of being able to differentiate between each reed it allows you to keep track of which one you played yesterday and which one you need to play today etc.

This also helps you keep track of which reed is harder or softer and every reeds different characteristics. It’s important to know your reeds intimately like this because each reed has a purpose. While one reed might be better for more sensitive playing in a chamber setting, another harder reed might be more appropriate for playing in a large ensemble where you need to project. Organizing your reeds also helps you keep track of your reeds so that you can rotate them.

Rotating your reeds is important because your reeds need time to dry out properly and rest in between practice days. A good way to do this is to have say 8 reeds which you split over four days of playing. That’s two reeds per day over four days. Rotating your reeds like this will make them last much longer and they will be more stable and change less over their playing life.