Cool – can’t wait to hear what it sounds like – give us a run up and down through some scales so we can hear the notes!
In terms of middle D, my middle D always sounded a bit different to the C#, its that point where the octave key comes
into play, but doing slow long tone chromatic exercises between middle B & F for me has smooothed it out, you have to work the
embouchure a lot !
As for Altissimo – altissimo will be Hit & Miss if you haven’t got the correct reed! Players on youtube will confirm this.
You need a reed with a good string Tip! Soft Soggy Reed Tips are useless!
When you get new reeds, lay them all out, and compare all the Tips by looking at them!
The best Reeds are the ones with lots of fibres in the Tips! ie lots of dark area lines running through the tip to the end!
In some cases players go up a reed strength to get a firmer tip – for altissimo you need a tip that vibrates very very fast,
you want achieve this with soft soggy tips!