Reeds

Well because last time I talked a lot about different instruments and how they made the sounds we identify them by I thought I would tell everyone here the difference between the wind instruments. There are two main subcategories when looking at standard orchestral instruments that you blow air through to create sound and they are the Reed instruments (or woodwinds-though there are flutes which use mouth/blow holes instead) and the Brass instruments.

Today I will be talking about the Reed instruments and we will  be ignoring the flutes for the time being (they got a lot of attention last post). Now before I start I must divide the topic once more into two subcategories that we are going to classify as Single Reeds and Double Reeds (there are also Free Reeds but we are not going to explore those at the moment).

Single Reeds:

Examples of single reed instruments are clarinets and saxophones. These instruments use a flat, rectangular piece of wood (usually Cane but they can also be synthetic) in their mouthpiece. The mouthpiece is a conical type structure with one open side where the reed will be fastened by something called a ligature to cover the hole. The reed is actually only completely flat on the side that has to press up against the mouth piece. The other side of the reed starts thick and tapers off until it is very thin at the tip. When blowing into the instrument the player causes the reed to vibrate against the plastic (or wood) of the mouthpiece. This vibration is then carried through the horn and modified by the depressing of keys.

A single reed:

A ligature:

A reed fastened to a mouthpiece via ligature:


Double Reed:
A couple examples of common double reed instruments are the Bassoon and the Oboe. Double reeds do not use a mouth piece like the single reed instruments do. Instead of vibrating one reed off of the mouthpiece, instruments like the oboe and bassoon use two reeds that vibrate off of each other. Two reeds (usually made from Arundo donax cane) are fastened together at the bottom with an opening between the two reeds at the top to allow for air passage and vibration.

Frontal view of bassoon double reed:

Top view of an oboe double reed:

While either type of reed can be handmade most double reed players are much more strongly encouraged to carve their own reeds. The double reed instruments are also usually portrayed as much harder instruments to play.

Very Punny

"Carmen get it!" Bizet yelled as he pulled out his Chopin Liszt.