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Reed Work

There is no such thing as The One Perfect Reed. In the life of a clarinetist there are many performance venues, pieces of music, and equipment combinations that call for different kinds of reeds. The reed that feels vibrant and assertive for the Poulenc Sonata in a small recital hall might feel thin and soft when used to play Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony in a large concert hall. A clarinetist’s best weapon is a reed case full of well-adjusted reeds of varying “personalities.” When you know that you maintain a stock of healthy reeds in regular rotation, it can take away some of the anxiety many people feel about performing. The more reliable and responsive your reeds are, the more confident you will become as a performer.

 

To learn more about making your own reeds, watch the video below and visit the Precision Reed Products website.

 

What follows is a brief description of some of the basics that I introduce to students in their quest to becoming reed experts. These techniques can and should be used on ANY size clarinet reed.

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Equipment Needed

  • Beveled edge reed knife or ReedGeek

  • Small glass or Plexiglas plaque

  • B-flat clarinet reed clipper (also works on E-flat reeds)

  • Bass clarinet reed clipper (if needed)

  • Large piece of glass with finished edges. 220 and 400 grit sandpaper glued to the top surface

  • Small scraps of 220 and 400 grit sandpaper

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Curing and breaking in reeds

 

  • Soak the reeds for about 20 to 30 seconds in water.

  • Seal the reed to prevent future water-logging by placing the flat side on the glass and rubbing gently with the grain from the back of the vamp to the tip.

  • Play the reed for 1 minute in the middle and lower register (playing in the higher registers can over-stress a new reed).

  • Before putting the reed away in a proper case, wipe off all the excess moisture to avoid moldy grossness.

  • Repeat the above steps every day for five days doubling the playing time in each session so the reed is slowly broken in.

  • On day 6, before soaking the reed, sand the back lower half of the reed flat using your reed glass

  • Use a pencil or Sharpie to label the heel of the reed to help you keep track of each of your reeds.

 

Adjusting the reed

 

  • Finding the correct resistance:

    • Comfortably and without biting, play an open G down to C stepwise at pianissississimo. If the sound is fuzzy, unresponsive, and it is difficult to get a clear sound then the reed is too hard. Place the reed on your glass and gently sand the entire vamp with the grain using a small piece of 220 sandpaper. Sand evenly in small portions working from the back third, to the middle third, then towards the tip. Sand carefully to maintain the original slope and shape of the reed. Always sand with the grain!

    • Comfortably and without biting, play a G above the staff up to C stepwise at fortissimo. If the sound is thin, overly bright, and “spready,” then the reed is too soft and needs to be clipped. The reed clipper can be a handy tool, but beware of over-clipping. Reeds can be clipped any day of the process, but make sure that the clipping is always done early in the playing time. If you clip a reed after it has been tired out or over-played, it will be far too hard the next day.

 

  • Making the reed vibrate more efficiently:

    • Using the glass with sandpaper attached to it, sand the sides of the reed while holding it gently in the middle of the bark. Listen carefully to the pitch that the reed creates against the sandpaper. Pressing gently, sand until the pitches generated by each direction creates a Perfect 4th. This process should not result in a dramatic change in the overall shape of the reed. It should only make it slightly more V-shaped, however this change usually allows the reed to vibrate more efficiently and feel more responsive.

 

  • Balancing the reed:

    • Holding the reed under the light, gently flex the very tip of the reed to watch and feel for stiff spots. To take these spots down, place the reed on the reed plaque and use your knife to gently shave the cane away always moving with the grain. Alternate between flexing and shaving often keeping in mind that you can always take off more cane, but you cannot put it back on. 

    • Just like balancing the tip of the reed, you have to look for and even out stiff spots in the rails of the reed. To accomplish this, place the reed on the mouthpiece and play an open G with the mouthpiece turned to one side. This position will stop one side of the reed from vibrating so you are only using the opposite side to play. If the mouthpiece is turned to your left, you are testing the right side of the reed. If the mouthpiece is turned to your right, you are testing the left side. Usually one or both sides will be less resonant and vibrant. Take the reed off and gently flex down the sides of the reed to determine where the stiffness is located. Comparing one side to the other to make sure they both flex in the same way at the same places will help even things out. Using the reed knife, gently take off cane from the harder stiffer areas.

 

  • Small Changes:

    • Occasionally, the line between the bottom of the vamp and the top of bark can be a dramatic ridge in the cane. This ridge can act as a node and interfere with the free vibration of a reed. Placing the reed on the glass and gently sanding the ridge down will allow for a more freely vibrating reed. 

 

Reed Management

 

  • Always maintain at least 4 broken-in and adjusted reeds in rotation at a time. This means beginning work on new reeds BEFORE your current ones are dead. Consistently rotating new reeds in and old ones out guarantees that you always have a healthy stock of working reeds.

  • If you know you have an important performance coming up, start working on new reeds AT LEAST two weeks before. Once you have chosen performance reeds, save them carefully only playing them a little bit each day.

  • Set aside time dedicated to working on reeds separate from your practice time and pay attention to your quality of work. Concentration can start to falter after about 30 minutes of reed-work causing careless mistakes and hacked up reeds.

  • Always keep in mind that life is too short to waste your time on bad cane. If a reed just refuses to respond the way you want it to or still feels dead and dull after all adjustments have been made, get rid of it and move on.

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