Personally, I really don't know much about sax reeds, but I do know it is very crucial to whether you know what the right reed is!
I do know buying plastic/or Synthetic reeds for marching season is probaly the best to go. They may cost more money, but much cheaper on the long run. They aren't effected by the weather and don't crack as easily. Don't use these for concert season.
RICO, I don't recommend at all. They tend to run softer than Vandoren's, so if you can only afford RICO's I suggest you to go up a size if you are used to Vandoren. They also don't vibrate as good as some reeds.
Flavored Reeds, yes, there are flavored reeds. They may seem interesting and fun to suck on, but they do lose their taste and are expensive. They are not very reliable, so if you buy these, I hope you aren't trying to compete for a chair test in them or even performing in them. They don't produce the best sound quality.
Any Type of Vandoren, I personally love the V-12, I have failed to use their newest one yet though. They are reliable..and do produce a good sound.
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Remember though people, by a reed brush..and you may seem embarrased to ask people who work at Brook Mays or Strait Music, but you are allowed to pick out what reeds you want to buy. How to find the best one? Well, I shall tell you what I know.
1)Know what type of tip opening it has; a long facing or a short facing.
Long facing= stronger reed
Short facing= softer reed
(I personally don't know why this is, I just know it.)
2) Know whether if it is a open mouthpiece or closed mouthpeice.
Open= Softer reed
Closed= stonger reed
However, I do know why for this. If it is closed and the reed is strong..It doesn't tend to stick to the mouth peice when it vibrates. It takes a natural vibration, which allows sound to come out. Have you notice if you use soft reeds sometimes sound doesn't come out? Well, now you know. Open mouth peice? Well, softer reeds are more flexible and well, bend to allow vibration to happen. Hard reeds won't bend like this; making it harder to blow and giving a reedy sound. Thus, this is why it is important to know why you have to use a certain size. However, I am assuming you have a well developed ambusure(sp?) too.
You have no idea how many people have come up to me and say... "Guess what Megan!!? I am on a 4!!"... I just kind of role my eyes.. because you do realize that the size of the reed shows nothing on how of the playing.
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3) Once you have figured out what size is perfect.. You need to know what the reed should look like. You want it to be a golden brown color with tiny brown specks. This tells you that the size of the reed is the correct size and the cane was cut at the right time. If you see a reed that is covered in brown spots, you might as well be playing on a four. This means that the cane was cut too late. There are cases when a reed has a green tint to it, which you never want to play on.. Who knows what this reed can do?!!! This of course meens, it was cut too early.
4) No you got the color right.. You will want to see if the reed will vibrate correctly. Hold it up to the light. You will see a thin area that kind of looks like a curve. Make sure there are no little strait lines going though that.. You want to see a uniform thing of strait lines. This tells you if the reed will sqeek easily. If there aren't any...Then that reed is good. If there is, there are some cases where it can easily be shaven off with sand paper or even just a simple reed shaver will do. Again, if this makes no sense, I suggest you ask your band director because it seems to make sense to me.
5) Prepare the reed. Make sure you have reed carver/shaver/shaper...or whatever you would like to call it. It usually takes me 2 hours to prepare my reed. Never touch the heart of the reed. That's a no no!! There are areas of a reed that you shave that will give you a darker sound..and areas that will give you a bright sound. I can't techinally show you on the internet.
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Well, that's all I have to say. Ligatures do make an important role on your sound too, but I won't get into that.. unless you want me to.
Wow, that was a lot to say.
