Resilience

By “resilience,” Lou meant the amount of “spring” in the reed.  That is, for two reeds with the same size tip opening, which reed requires more pressure to close the tip with your fingers? How quickly and forcefully does it spring back open when you release your fingers?  Two reeds with the same size tip opening can have radically different amounts of resilience.  Lou also called this “aperture strength.”  You may prefer reeds with greater or lesser resilience – more or less aperture strength – depending on your embouchure and other physical factors.

Resilience . . .

• Determines the required embouchure. For example, if you prefer a relatively open tip aperture, which requires a stronger embouchure, you can build a reed with less resilience, which will allow you to use your embouchure more easily to close the aperture when desired. By contrast, if you prefer a relatively closed tip aperture, which requires less embouchure strength, you can build a reed will stronger resilience, so that the tip aperture will retain its (narrow) opening with greater strength.

• Affects responsiveness to air

• Affects articulation

• Enhances ability to build for a sound with more presence or depth as desired (see the page on Tube Settings)

• Enhances ability to trim for color

• Resilience differs based on shape, gouge, and “fulcrum” settings