How to Select Reeds for the Clarinet

Ariana Lamon-Anderson shows how to play the clarinet and how to select reeds for the clarinet.

Hi, I’m Ariana, woodwind performer and instructor. Today, we’re talking about Clarinet basics. And now I’d like to talk to you about reeds. Reeds are the main source of tone production on the clarinet. They vibrate against the mouthpiece and that creates all those sound vibration that goes through the instrument. When you’re at the store buying reeds, you want to sure to be buying B-flat clarinet reeds. All other reeds are for other instruments and will therefore be the wrong size for your mouthpiece. There are many different brands of reeds that are usually stamped on the back. Brands usually aren't better or worse than the next, it’s just a different way of making them. The number at the bottom of the reed indicates the strength of the reed. The strength is the thickness measured by very specialized instruments. You can’t actually see the thickness but what it is, the thicker the reed is the harder it is to make it vibrate against the mouthpiece. I play on a size four reed. Some professionals play on strength as hard as a five and some professionals play on strengths such as a three. When you are first starting the Clarinet, I would recommend a two or two-and-a-half. What you’re doing is, you’re building muscles in your face to help support the reed and allow it to vibrate. It’s much like body building. So, you must start out with the weaker strength and move up. Once you’ve played on two or two-and-a-half for a while and its feeling pretty comfortable, then I would move up. A really good size of reed is between a three and four, that’s going to help the high notes be supported and come out on the instrument. Reeds only last as long as they look relatively smooth, no really bad discoloration. The moment when chips or cracks, you need to through it away because its no longer able to vibrate against the mouthpiece properly. For beginners, reeds tend to last a lot longer because you are not playing four, five hours a day. When you are playing four-five hours a day, you want to have several reeds as many as 12 or 16 that you rotate. As a beginner I would advice having two or three that will play at anytime because you don’t want to be sitting at home practicing or sitting in a band class and have your reed break and not have any backups. So, and also as far as strength, it’s not the better player that plays the stronger reed it’s whatever you’re comfortable with, whatever feels good to you. So, now that we’ve talked about reeds and we can play the instrument some. I’d like to talk about taking care of our instruments.