CLARINET REED PLACEMENT
FOR PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE
by Tom Ridenour

One of the best ways to help your reeds play better is to take the care to place them properly on your mouthpiece.  Correct reed placement can make a dramatic difference in how your reeds play, sound and respond.  Here are some rules which will help you find the best place for your reed.

1.  If the reed plays with too little resistance you can move it slightly higher on the mouthpiece and retest.

2.  If the reed is too hard to blow moving it down on the mouthpiece can make it easier to play.

3.  However, if  tone is  unclear, unresponsive and fuzzy the reed may be unbalanced.  If the reed is only slightly unbalanced you can "correct" the problem by placing the reed on the mouthpiece in just the right place.

Here is how to determine the best place.

THE SIDE TO SIDE TEST

The basis for determining the best place is the Side to Side Test. Learning how to perform this test is essential  if you are to find the best place for your reed on the mouthpiece. The test is simple, but most players find they have to practice quite a bit before they can perform the test with security. 

Here is  how to do the test:

1.  Place a reed straight up on the mouthpiece.  Make sure the bark end and the tip end of the reed are in line and straight on the mouthpiece.

2.  Play the reed for a few moments.

3. Once you have played the reed rotate the mouthpiece and clarinet counterclockwise in your mouth  so that you have pressure on the left side of the reed and no pressure on the right side.  (This means the left side will not be able to vibrate and only  the right side will be free to respond).  Next, on an open "G",  blow a burst of air into the clarinet (Sfz>P).  Feel the resistance and listen how the right side "rings" or decays.

4.  Reverse this procedure so that you now perform the same test on the left side while you damp the right side.  Always listen to how the side rings or decays (Sfz>P).

5.  If one side blows harder and does not ring as well as the other,  the reed is not in the best place on the mouthpiece.  Move the reed away  from the hard side slightly and retest.  (For example, if the left side is hard and less resonant than the right side, you will tilt the reed a small amount to the right of center and retest.  Tilt the reed to the left if the right side is hard).

6.  Once you have moved the reed and retested you should hear and feel that the sides are blowing and ringing more the same.  If the reed plays the same on both sides in the new position take a pencil and mark the reed at the beginning of the profile with a small arrow indicating which way to tilt the reed for best response.

It might be that the sides are so uneven that moving the reed from side to side still does not make the reed play as it should; with equal resistance and resonance on both sides.  This will  probably mean that the reed needs to actually be thinned on the rails and near the tip of the harder side and retested.

The goal, of course,  is to play a balanced reed. Balanced reeds make performance infinitely easier, as well as more secure and satisfactory.   By balanced we mean simply that the  reed  plays on a particular mouthpiece with the response and  resonance decay on both left and right corners or "ears" of the reed and that the composite resistance of the reed and mouthpiece are comfortable to blow

The Side to Side test described above is the primary test used for both adjusting reeds and reed placement.  Mastering this test will enable you to fix your reeds more effectively as well as find the best placement for them in practice and performance.