KEVY BAILEY, MUSIC EDUCATOR
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What To Do With All Those Old Reeds! (Part 2!)

5/22/2013

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What to do indeed?  It seems that there are far more reeds in the world than there are ideas on what to make of them once their playing days are over.  Staying right on target with this ratio, I have managed to summon...wait for it...two such ideas for today's entry.  All this genius is exhausting, please somebody stop me.
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1. Leave cryptic messages for your roommates.
Nothing says I love you and thank you for not changing the toilet paper roll again like a warning of impending doom via the floor between the bathroom and bedroom.  Using 5-10 reeds per letter, you can make lengthier and more elaborate threats the longer you play clarinet!  If that's not incentive to stick with it, well then...

Option #2
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In case it's a straight-to-the-kitchen kind of day; head them off  at the doorway with a friendly greeting!
Option #3
 If neither of those produce the desired reaction...bring out the big guns and hit 'em with the mother-ship of all creepy statements!
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Yeah Game of Thrones! All reeds too, must die. Which they do.

But what about reed cases?  The Rico Reserve Classics should have the #5 recycling symbol on their reed cases.  (I say should, because I've noticed in looking through my pile that some of them have it and some don't.)  If your county recycles #1-7 plastics you can throw those in with your water bottles and milk cartons!
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Kudos to Rico for trying to be earth friendly. The purple box is made from recycled material and can be recycled again. Throw it in with mixed paper or boxboard, whichever your facility specifies.
For those pesky Vandoren cases, and any Rico cases without the recycling label, my only clear option is to revert to a middle-school like state and...
PictureNot the curtains I speak of. Just wait...
2. Make reed case "bead" curtains!
My great-grandmother left in my possession a giant box of thirty-nine-cent yarn from the Great Depression.  However, some of the colors are less than desirable to be seen in public.

Exhibit A: the barf scarf.  Yea.
Solution?  Use more attractive yarn for hats and scarves.  Use vomit colored yarn for stringing plastic reed cases!
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Tada!
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I caved and added a touch of purple. I'm not completely devoid of taste.
Pros:
  •  Easy to assemble due to lightness and that clingy inside part that can shred a reed to bits during extraction but holds onto yarn like a dream!
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Cons:
  • Color options are...limited, so to speak.  
  • May evoke the "What the...?" response. 
  •  You may compulsively feel the need to make apologetic justifications to your roommates for their existence. 
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Confrontations are for losers.

It could be that at this point you're chuckling to yourself at the absurdity of it all.  You're happy that I did it for your amusement, but there's no way you'd ever actually stoop to this level.  That's fine.  Just bask in your content state of denial.  One day two years from now, you'll be cleaning out drawers and come upon that faithful pile of discarded plastic and arundo donax.  Your subconscious mind remembers everything that you ever see, hear, and read, so what do you think will be the first idea to pop into your head?  

Darn that sneaky power of the human mind!  

Happy messaging/curtain making!  And remember, having a social life is only as important as you make it.
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    Blogging about reeds? I must be MAD!

    .Here are some tools and tips of the clarinet and reed trade for younger players to supplement the musical education received from band directors and music teachers. I've tailored these methods (used by professional clarinet players!) to be accessible and user-friendly for the beginner to intermediate clarinet reed-hater.

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