Buying reeds for a single reed instrument can be really confusing – there are so many different makes of reed, and even within one make there can be a huge amount of choice! It’s especially difficult when the reeds all have different names that don’t necessarily describe the style of playing they’re designed for. I did some investigating on this topic and put together a list of which reeds are intended for which styles of playing (classical, jazz etc.).
The first thing to remember when trying to identify a reed for a particular playing style is that the standard reed a company produces will almost certainly be designed for classical playing. Vandoren reeds are a good example of this – their standard blue reeds are designed for classical playing, and the Vandoren Java, for example, is designed for jazz players.
I’m going to go through two different reed-making companies and talk about the different reeds they offer. I have focused on the two most common brands – once you’ve got your head round these you’ll be able to apply your knowledge to other brands if you still want to try more reeds! The two brands I’m going to talk about are Vandoren and D’addario.
Vandoren reeds
My go-to choice for single reeds is always Vandoren. They have a huge range of options so there’s pretty much always going to be a type of reed you like. Their standard range of options and the instruments they are available on are as follows:
- Traditional – Soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass and sopranino sax, Bb, Eb, bass, alto, Ab and contrabass clarinet
- V12 – Soprano, alto and tenor sax, Bb, Eb and bass clarinet
- V16 – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax
- V21 – Soprano, alto and tenor sax, Bb, Eb and bass clarinet
- Java – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax
- Java Red – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax
- ZZ – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax
Let’s talk a bit about each one. If you don’t know all of the terms I use, they’re defined in one of my other articles here.
Traditional: The traditional Vandoren reed is designed for classical playing. It has a thin blank, thin tip, a thick heart and is filed. This is also a good reed for beginners as it will give you a more consistent sound that is easier to control than some of the other Vandoren reeds.
V12: The V12 is quite subtly different to the traditional reed and starts from a thicker blank. The vamp is slightly longer but the taper itself is a traditional taper. This gives a reed that is more flexible than the traditional, with a richer sound. The tip is also thicker, giving a heavier articulation. This is an unfiled reed, which adds some extra resistance.
The V12 is still more of a classical reed, but for those who like a bit less of a straight edge to their playing. This is usually my reed of choice, as a lot of my playing is as a pit band musician, where you often need to be able to adapt your sound to both classical and taditional jazz styles and I think this reed is a nice middle ground.
V16: This reed was originally designed specifically for an American jazz style of playing. This reed has a thicker tip than both the traditional and V12 reeds, giving it a heavy, percussive articulation. This reed also has a longer vamp, making it more flexible than a traditional reed. It has a medium-thick heart, and this coupled with the long vamp makes for a pretty flexible jazzy reed with plenty of overtones.
V21: This is designed to be a middle ground reed that allows the player maximum flexibility. It has a very thick blank but the taper is the same as the V12. This leaves a reed with the easy response and projection of a jazz reed but also the focus and precise articulation that is more prominent in classical playing. A good reed if you will be switching between different styles of playing often.
Java (green): This is the classic jazz reed – thick-tipped with a thin heart and a long vamp area. This creates a very large, flexible vibrating surface, resulting in a very bright and responsive sound. The reed is unfiled, adding some resistance and giving the player a bit more control over the sound. This was the first of Vandoren’s jazz reeds to be developed and is still the one lots of jazz players will pick.
Java Red: The java red is also one of Vandoren’s popular jazz reeds. It has a thicker heart than the standard java. It is also made from smaller diameter cane – this means that the centre of the reed is thicker than the outside edges (this is true of all reeds but the difference is bigger on the java red). As the vamp length is the same, it maintains the same flexibility as the java but the thicker heart gives more stability.
The thick heart also gives the sound more body and the thinnish tip allows for a more precise articulation. This is also a filed reed, lessening the resistance caused by the thickness of the heart and helping with the precision in the attack of the notes.
ZZ: The ZZ is the newest of Vandoren’s jazz range of reeds. It has a medium-thick heart and the vamp profile of a V16. The taper is the same as the java reed, giving it more flexibility than a V16 and it has quite a rounded tip, giving a quick response. The sound has a lot of colour and is a little less bright than the other jazz reeds. It is more precise and responsive – more of a toned-down jazz reed.
Those are the standard Vandoren reeds available. It’s worth pointing out that there aren’t really any jazz reeds available for the clarinet from Vandoren – the closest is the V21 which is designed to be an all-rounder. I think this is because the clarinet is generally used more in classical music but it seems a strange gap to have as there is plenty of jazz music around for clarinet.
D’addario reeds
D’addario reeds are another very popular make. They now own the Rico brand, which you might be more familiar with but they still stock the Rico reeds as well as a few others. D’addario have a bigger range of clarinet reeds than Vandoren do and more of their reeds are classical than jazz. Let’s start by listing the options and the instruments they’re available for:
- Rico – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax, Bb, Eb, alto, bass and contrabass clarinet
- Royal – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax, Bb, Eb, alto and bass clarinet
- La Voz – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax, Bb and bass clarinet
- Hemke – Soprano, alto tenor and baritone sax
- Mitchell Luri (standard and premium) – Bb clarinet
- Reserve (evolution and classic models also available for Bb clarinet) – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax, Bb, Eb and bass clarinet
- Select jazz (filed and unfiled) – Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax
I’ll now go through these are talk about the styles they’re intended for.
Rico: This reed is designed for an easy response. It’s made from the most flexible of the canes used in reed-making, meaning it doesn’t have a lot of resistance. It also has a thin heart that helps to make the response even easier. The reed is unfiled, making the sound more powerful.
The Rico is designed as more of a beginner reed and therefore it doesn’t really have a particular playing style it’s suitable for. Having said that, it’s probably more like a classical reed than jazz, from its sound quality.
Royal: The Royal (this used to be the Rico Royal) is similar in cut and response to the traditional Vandoren and is basically the D’addario equivalent. It has a thicker heart than the Rico and a thin tip, giving a more even response with a bit more resistance. This is a filed reed, giving it a bit more clarity. It’s a typically classical reed.
La Voz: This is made from very strong cane, giving a powerful sound with some resistance. It has quite a thin heart and fairly small taper, making it very flexible. It has a thicker blank than the Rico but a similar profile. It is more suited to a jazz playing style but is also known for its versatility. Like the Rico, it’s also unfiled, adding some more resistance, so these reeds tend to play fairly hard.
Hemke: This is a more traditional reed with a thin tip for a quick response and crisp articulation. The short vamp means a steeper taper, giving a darker tone, although it retains a lot of vibrance. The reeds are filed for a cleaner sound. Hemke reeds will typically be used by either classical players or traditional jazz players, similar to the Vandoren V12.
Mitchell Lurie: These are classical clarinet reeds with a thin tip and thick heart, giving plenty of resistance coupled with an easy response and clean articulation. They are known for being very consistently made, so good value for money as you probably won’t waste a lot of them.
There’s also a premium version made of a higher quality cane, which should give even more consistency and a great response. The standard version is unfiled, whereas the premium is filed, giving it a more refined sound quality.
Reserve: The standard reserve for clarinet is a very traditional reed. It has a short vamp, which gives a very even response, a medium-to-thin tip for a good articulation and a medium thickness in the blank. The corners are rounded, which adds some warmth to the tone. This combination provides a very focused, classical sound.
The reserve classic has a thicker blank and a longer vamp, giving more depth of tone and flexibility. The tip is thicker but the corners are squared, which allows the response to stay quick while also providing some attack to the articulation. The reserve evolution has a thicker blank again, adding more depth to the sound and this reed is unfiled, unlike the others, giving it a more biting tone.
The sax version of the reserve range is different again. This has a long vamp for flexibility and a slow taper that gives a wide dynamic range. It has a medium tip thickness with good articulation and is filed, with a rich tone.
Select jazz: This is D’addario’s main contender for a jazz reed. It has a long vamp, giving it great projection, a thick blank and a medium thick heart. The tip, isn’t as thick as is sometimes seen for a jazz reed, allowing for a crisper articulation. The reeds are available in both filed and unfiled – the filed produces a brighter sound but requires more control than the unfiled, which has the added resistance of an unfiled reed.
It’s important to remember that you should also match your reed with your mouthpiece – a classical mouthpiece is unlikely to be a good match for a jazz reed, because the shape won’t match and the resonance is likely to be affected. The best thing to do is to try your mouthpiece with a range of different reeds and see which you like best.
There are plenty of other reeds you can buy that aren’t listed here but these are a good place to start. If you play more than one single reed instrument, you might prefer different reeds for different ones. The style of playing you’re planning should give you an indication of where to start with your reed choices but it’s important to try out as many as you can and find which is your favourite.