The Saxophone Reed: The Advanced Art of Adjusting Single Reeds Paperback – December 31, 2014

Information about reeds is usually jealously guarded by experienced sax players. Check out Russell's book on Bird and Porter's book on Lester Young. Also check out "The Devil's Horn" about how it all starts with that vibrating piece of cane. Reed modification should be a very serious matter for the thinking player. This book is therefore an unbelievably generous endowment from Mr. Reed to us unwashed and unworthy hordes. The amount of information in this book about an otherwise extremely obscure subject inspires awe and gratitude. Thank you, Master Reed.

For saxophonists most information on reeds and their adjustment is sketchy and apocryphal at best. Stories that don’t make sense passed on from teacher to student over generations with no logical, empirical, or scientific process or studies to show why something works. As someone who has two degrees in saxophone performance I’ve had many teachers that have said different and often conflicting things about the adjustment of reeds. Each is convinced that they are correct beyond the shadow of a doubt but no one can prove why.The best thing about this book is the highly logical, detailed and exhaustive amount of information and technique that Reed applies to the subject of reed adjustment. He goes into a stunning amount of detail on why and how reeds warp, the different kinds of warping, and what to do about it. He explains what tools you need to get the job done and how to use them correctly. He also has developed some incredibly exacting methods for the measurement micro-adjustment of reeds on top of a clearly effective empirical method. Here finally is some more concrete evidence of the aspects of reed adjustment that actually work. Many of my own adjustments using his empirical method have been very successful.Unfortunately this book is very poorly organized. The method of writing and organization of chapters is such that any beginning or novice saxophonist would be easily put off from reading it. Only a very dedicated/obsessed saxophonist would be able to get through a book like this. There is no glossary or index, which is necessary for the definition of terms and tools for those who have little familiarity with them, are learning English as a second language, and general clarity and organization of the book. There’s also an entire biography section and photo gallery at the end that seems a bit self-indulgent. I would have much preferred pictures of the process and tools than copies of people’s fan mail.I understand that these criticisms are very harsh, but all of these things need to be addressed if saxophonists are going to finally have definitive literature to help them in their struggle with producing better reeds. Once that is done, this will be a five star book, easily.

Solved a problem for me that I have found no where else.

This has made my reeds much more constant and dependable. It is a bit of a struggle to read through, but really easy to implement.

The most thorough treatise on the subject that I have seen in 50 yrs. There is information in here that 95% of saxophonists don't know.