Clarinet Reeds
Definitive Instruction in an Elusive Art

by

Charles Stier
(with Charles Mansfield)

An illustrated and practical approach
to the step-by-step details of reed selection and adjustment

Click to read

© 1991 Charles Stier

"Charles Stier's Clarinet Reeds--Definitive Instruction in an Elusive Art, approaches its subject with a fresh and unusually successful attempt at discussing and quantifying the essential qualities of a good reed. Stier does not get bogged down in the minutiae of measurements, nor in the deatials of charts on playing characteristics and adjustments. Instead his approach starts with the player's impression of a reed's musical potential (how it sounds), and then leads towards the outer playing characteristics (how it feels). Along the way he addresses various aspects of a good reed--tone, pitch, flexibility, articulation, legato--and provides easily grasped adjustment solutions to provide the optimum balance.

Stier's lucid prose serves him well for making effective explanations, laying out a philosophical approach to the variations in reeds, and establishing an approach to selection and adjustment. The general approach shows a great deal of common sense. Most of the illustrations of the component parts of the reed and its areas of adjustment are well done."

-- The Clarinet, May/June 1991