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Clarinet ReedsHow to pick them and prepare them for playing

written by Sergeant First Class Tim Bradley, The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Band

You just opened a new box of reeds. What do you do now? Do you just slap on the first reed you find? Many clarinet players will say yes; sometimesthat is a necessity. However, if you want to get the best sound from your instrument, it is essential that you select the best reeds and prepare themproperly.

The reed should fit the mouthpiece properly. Fortunately, most major reed manufacturers make their reeds to fit the majority of mainstreammouthpieces. If your reed doesn't properly fit your mouthpiece, the easy thing to do is to discard that reed. There are ways to make the reed fit, but we'llleave that for another discussion for now.

Figure 1General names for parts of the reed

When you open the new box of reeds, check the reeds and make sure they follow some basic requirements:

1. The reed fits the mouthpiece. You can check this by placing the reed on the mouthpiece and seeing if there are any gaps between the side ofthe reed and the mouthpiece. The only gap you should have is at the tip of the mouthpiece and reed.

2. The reed tip must be the same curvature as the mouthpiece. This can be done on the mouthpiece as well. Some people will trim the tip of thereed to make the reed fit the curvature of the mouthpiece.

3. The reed rails, viewed from the butt end, must be the same height. Take the reed and look at it from the butt end. If the rails are not the sameheight, there is still a chance that the reed is usable, with modification.

4. The bark is shiny and golden. It may or may not have brown or gray spots. These spots are natural pigmentation of the wood.5. The wood is creamy yellow. If the reed is green, it is too new. If it is brown, it is too old.6. The grain should be evenly spaced. If the grain is bunched to one side, avoid that reed. If it is bunched in the middle, that reed is still usable.7. The heart of the reed should show an inverted "U" shape.8. No chips or splits

Figure 2Visual characteristics

Now that you have chosen some reed, you need to prepare it for playing. This takes a few days to accomplish. You will need a small piece of acrylicplastic (Plexiglas) on which to store your reed.

1. Soak your reed in water for about 10 minutes. Then put the reed in your mouth to coat it with saliva in preparation for playing. Play the reed forjust a few minutes in the low and middle registers. If you just play in the upper registers, the whole reed will not get the vibration it needs. Storeyour reed with the bottom up.

2. The next day, soak your reed for about 10 minutes. Coat the reed with saliva. Play the reed for a few minutes longer than the previous day, andextend the playing range, without going too high (altissimo). Test for intonation of octaves and perfect intervals. Test for articulation,responsiveness and reed strength. Store your reed with the bottom up.

3. The next day, soak your reed for about 10 minutes and coat with saliva. Play the reed briefly. Polish your reed with a clean, flat piece of paper. Check for a uniform gloss. Play the reed again after polishing. Coat reed with saliva and store reed with the bottom up.

4. The final day, soak your reed for about 10 minutes and coat with saliva. Play the reed for a few minutes. If the reed is playing well and hasbeen polished uniformly, play on it for another 15 minutes. Sand and polish, if necessary and then play again for a few minutes. If you need tosand the reeds, us 400 or 600 wet or dry sandpaper. Sand and polish, alternately, until the table (bottom side) is flat and uniformly glossy. It isimportant to make sure your reed is not warped. (To check for warpage, place your reed, bottom side down, on a flat piece of glass. Place twofingers on the edges of the bark or stock. If you can wiggle the reed from side to side, your reed is warped and needs to be sanded.) Store yourreed in your reed holder; it is ready for playing.

Your reed is ready to be played. However, it might not meet your specifications for a truly good sound. You will need to make some adjustments afterpreparing your reed for playing. You need to test your reed for responsiveness and balance.

preparing your reed for playing. You need to test your reed for responsiveness and balance.

The test for responsiveness is pretty simple to determine; just ask yourself after playing on the reed, how easy or difficult it was to get the reed to vibrate. Do this test on the initial attack as well as subsequent and varying articulations. After several playings, response comparisons should be madebetween ranges using the three octaves of g - lowest g, open g, and second register g. If any note seems more resistant than the others, the reedshould be scraped or sanded in the appropriate areas shown in figure 3.

Figure 3

Next, check the balance of the reed. Do this by rotating the mouthpiece, slightly, to one side and then the other, while playing an open "g". If the force tomake a sound differs from one side to the other, then the reed is out of balance. Scrape or sand away a bit of the side, from the tip area that is moreresistant, as seen in figure 4. Do not scrape too much; otherwise you will overcorrect the balance problem or make the reed unusable.

Figure 4

References:

Armato, Ben (1996). Perfect A Reed - and Beyond.Kirck, George T (1983). The Reed Guide. Decatur, IL: Reed-mate Co.Stubbins, William (1965). The Art of Clarinetistry. Ann Arbor, MI.

Special thanks to Mr. John Anderson, professor of clarinet at the University of Minnesota for the images provided and some content to this document.

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This page was last updated: September 15, 2011