1. When a reed is "too hard", then I advise firstly to scrape evenly across the width at the back near the first wire (with a reed knife, file, or sand paper, as per personal preference!). That should improve the response (attack) in the low register.
If the reed is still too hard, then one can cautiously work one’s way forward. The middle region, the so-called “heart” of the reed (depicted here with light pencil markings) needs to be treated with care, but does not need to be spared completely: Otherwise it may happen that the sides are already paper thin, while the reed is in fact still to hard and continues to sound terrible. Thus scour away at the heart! It will tolerate more than one thinks. Ideally, there should be a gradual tapering in the thickness of the reed, going from inside to outside and from back to front – without any steps!

2. Now the reed must already be significantly more playable. Always be careful when working on the tip of the reed! Here too, one needs to initially incorporate the heart. Then one just needs to lightly sand the sides. Working on the proximal third of the reed improves both the response and the pianissimos. Danger: The tone becomes progressively brighter, and when one removes too much cane in the front, the pitch drops in the middle register (especially the e and f), and the intonation becomes unstable.

3. Scraping the foremost millimeter of the reed (picture on left side), near the opening, can be very effective in brighteing the tone and improving the pianissimo attacks. Beware: Danger, see above! By scraping lightly over the sides (picture on right side), one may cause the sound to become darker.

4. When the reed is too soft, it can easily be saved by cutting the utmost tip about 1/4 or 1/2 mm with good quality garden scissors.