Zero to Reedmaker

When you don’t have reed making skills, you don’t have CONTROL.  

You are POWERLESS to react when the weather changes, when your supplier goes on vacation, or when that LAST GOOD REED in your case abruptly cracks or dies.

You can stare at a reed for hours, WONDERING what to do to fix it, WORRYING about how long it might take you to make the next one, and AVOIDING the whole situation out of dread. 

Imagine what it would feel like…

• If you felt confident making oboe reeds  

• If you could adjust reeds easily as the venue, weather, or your needs dictated

• If you could make music instead of FIGHTING the instrument and the reeds.  

• If you could TRUST that your reed case would stay in flow

• If you could buy shaped cane for a few dollars a pop instead of finished reeds for dozens

• If you could leave your scarcity mindset behind, KNOWING that you had the skills to renew your reed case. 

• If you could play on your good reeds all the time, knowing that reeds are a renewable resource

• If you knew how to experiment to get the results you wanted

“Just wanted to say that I played a full rehearsal on one of my own reeds! I honestly thought at best I’d be adjusting reeds better after a couple of months at this and am so grateful that I’ve surpassed that! Truly a Zero to Reedmaker experience!” — Trisha Starks

With your reedmaking skills in place, you are LIBERATED.  You can have control over the sound you make and the ease with which you produce it.  You can go to rehearsal KNOWING that something in your case will work, and that if it doesn’t you can fix it.  You can add five new reeds to your case in a weekend to break in at will.  You can FREELY sacrifice a reed that is underperforming – because you don’t NEED it to get you through the week.  

Zero To Reedmaker helps oboists to easily make playable American Scrape reeds.  I’ll DEMYSTIFY the process and help you through each step. 

 I’ll share all course materials to you upfront, so you can set your own pace through the course.   You can ask questions in the Facebook group, and I’ll respond! 

If you need more support, I encourage you to add Reed Club. You can get your REAL questions answered, be in community with other reedmakers, and have me look at your scrape, listen to your crow, and help you to achieve your reedmaking goals!   Reed Club meets Monday evenings at 6pm EST.

Optional: Adding a batch of consistent cane and staples gives you a comfortable margin to work through mistakes. 

At the end of this session, you should be able to make a playing reed from shaped cane in under 30 minutes – perhaps well under – and adjust it to your comfort.

[This course] was just what I needed. I had some reed skills but I couldn’t easily make a consistently great reed. It identified the problems I was having so I could not waste time and money beating my head against the wall. I can look at the reed and figure out what I need to do to make it work or [quickly decide] that it is never going to work. — Anne Sneller

What I’ve created is not available anywhere else. I have been teaching people to make reeds for YEARS, with my Five Minute Reedmaker video series, my summer Oboe Reed Boot Camp, and in my weekly online Reed Club.  

In Zero to Reedmaker, I’ll teach you reed anatomy, knife skills, construction, and finishing, so that you can QUICKLY construct a reed, assess its potential, and finish it to your own specifications.  You can take charge of your oboe destiny! 

Thank you for putting together such a wonderful workshop so far! To my surprise, I’m getting much more out of this experience than I ever had with in person teaching. The combination of having your youtube videos as guidance, having a regular session to meet and hold each other accountable, and having a separate screen where we can really watch the reed making in detail is invaluable. Compared with having a teacher come by and watch what you’re doing and walking away in one very long session, this is much more useful. I’m really glad I signed up, it is so valuable.  — Kristine Austria Sanchez  (on an earlier, LIVE version of the course. Add Reed Club to access live support!)

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Zero to Reedmaker is an online course, combining video lessons with a supportive facebook group. You’ll experience:

• High quality, clearly filmed videos of all techniques, available to watch and rewatch

• Checklists, diagrams, and written directions

• Private, warm Facebook group.  Safely post your questions, your reed photos, your videos trying things out

• Access to my quarter century of experience as a professional orchestral oboist, soloist, reedmaker, and teacher

Optional add-on: Six weekly live Reed Club sessions in real time on Zoom

The experience was very worthwhile and I would highly recommend it regardless of previous experience. Everyone in the class improved their reed making skills whether they started out with previous experience, or like me, a true zero. Oboists are supportive and persistent people and it was great to be in such a cohort. Jennet is a most patient and optimistic teacher who provides a very supportive environment. I exceeded my expectations, went from zero to reed maker, and discovered that I actually liked the craft!

— Natalie Fulwider

ZERO TO REEDMAKER is now evergreen, available at any time.  This program could be a good fit for you if:

• You cannot currently make a reed

• You want to take more CONTROL over your reed life

• Commercially made reeds are too inconsistent and limiting for you

• You have ever been frustrated by the lack of options in your reed case

• You’ve tried to teach yourself reedmaking and been stymied by the complexity of the task

• You have traumatic memories of reedmaking from the past and need a reframe

• You know your reeds could be better, but you just don’t know where to scrape!

• You want to make MORE reeds and have the mystery removed so you KNOW what to do in every situation

• You KNOW you could be playing better and more musically if you could just get some of the STRUGGLE out of the way

If this speaks to you, I invite you to enroll in Zero to Reedmaker now! 

I really enjoyed the class and finally have the confidence to make and play my own reeds. I made the commitment to play on my own reeds this summer during the class and have stuck to that pledge.  They are not all wonderful reeds but I’ve been successful with enough of them to practice, play and perform happily!  I’ve also got a reed rack with many reeds in various stages of completion.  This is a skill that I’m definitely still honing, but have gained so much knowledge and technique from the classes. Thank you! I’m spreading the word about the value of your courses and what an exceptional educator you are!  — Nancy Peppercorn