Reed (mouthpiece)

A reed (or lamella) is a thin strip of material that vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument.

Most woodwind instrument reeds are made from Arundo donax ("Giant cane") or synthetic material.

The cane used to make reeds for single-reed instruments is grown in the southern coastal regions of France and Spain and, in the last 30 years, in the Cuyo area of Argentina.

Arundo donax cane is collected, dried, processed, cut to manageable sizes, and separated into various diameters.

[3] The split pieces are gouged by machine to remove many layers and drastically decrease thickness, which eases the scraping process for the reed-maker.

Examples of this include an archetypal instrument from India, the shehnai, as well as the pi from Thailand, and the Cambodian sralai.

The ancient bullroarer is an unframed free reed made of a stone or wood board tied to a rope that is swung around through the air to make a whistling sound.

Another primitive unframed free-reed instrument is the leaf (the bilu), used in some traditional Chinese music ensembles.

[8] The dizi, a Chinese transverse flute, has a distinctive kind of reed (a di mo), which is made from a paper-like bamboo membrane.

Musicians originally crafted reeds from cane using simple tools, a time-consuming and painstaking process.

Today, nearly all single-reed instrument players buy manufactured reeds, though many adjust them by shaving or sanding.

Musical theatre orchestras call for woodwind players to each play several different instruments from the single-reed, flute, and double-reed families.

An individual part may call for only one or two instruments, or many more (the "Reed 3" part in Bernstein's West Side Story calls for piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor and baritone saxophones).