Last week, I managed to fall on a hard linoleum floor and ended up with a lovely goose egg on the back of my head. Playing the oboe with a goose-egg is much like playing with a head-cold — the pressure is painful and every reed feels too hard. Ouch.

To counterbalance the pressure, I made all my reeds really light and easy to play without really blowing. Now that I’m healed, they feel like toothpicks!

Light reeds are easy in that they don’t require you to blow, but when you want to blow, they actually seem harder than beefier reeds. Back to the reed table!