the beauty of playing on a thin reed is that they will be easy to play.
a 1.5 for the beginner is good. as you get a little more experience and move on to a 2 you will
be able to develop your tone to sound stronger than when you played the thinner reeds.
this should be a progression and so jumping to a 3 with little experience may make playing harder than it needs to be
and your tone development won’t progress as in the other way.

#3 green java. All day: all the way !! Take it easy jak

3 is considered a medium. but there are no benefits of playing a strong reed if they’re too hard for you to play.
everyone is different and so we make the adjustments as necessary…you can’t start on a 3. you start on a 1 or 1.5
after a while as your tone gets stronger you jump up to the next size and play that for a while. if you jump up again and it’s too hard to play you stick to what you had, but if the new stronger six is just a little stiff and you’re finding your tone is bigger then you stick to that for a while and it gradually becomes normal. this is how we progress with getting a bigger, stronger tone. BUT, some people can do this on a 2 or 2.5 reed…. I think Plas Johnson, most famous for the original Pink Panther recording, plays on a 1.5 or 2.
I’ve been playing for over 30 years and play a 3, if I get a 3.5 it’s just way too hard.
it’s different for everyone and playing on a harder reed doesn’t mean anything