How to prepare saxophone and clarinet reeds | GRWM Reed Edition 

How do you prepare your reeds??? Leave your recommendations below!

Just started with my first reed😄👍 It was an okay looking one that came in an old reed box with a Dolnet Alto sax, I put it in a shot glass with tap water and mint mouth wash after rinsing it with liquid soap for about ten minutes then put it on wiped it against another reed to clean and smooth, just blowing warm air on the mouthpiece till a note comes out then on the neck till a sustainable note comes out....worked. 😄👍 smooth jazz here we come

Notes: -soak 3 min -take out and lay flat -seal bottom 9 x -dip finger in water and seal top 9 x -dip in water one more time -seal test

When the student is ready, the teacher appears! DeMarius, I thank you so much for this helpful video as I am just beginning to get my embouchure back in working order. I just happened to have a brand new box of Java alto sax 2 1/2 reeds, so I watched your video three times and followed along and prepped the reeds. I was surprised that only three of the 10 met your standards and have no bark on the thicker part of the reed! But those three reeds sure got a nice sound when I got everything lined up just right. Thanks so much for your joy, as well as your intelligent, clear descriptions of your process. Take good care, wherever you are.

So great to find someone who explains everything nice, simple and straightforward. Thankyou.

Thanks young King! Very helpful for me as my son (11) just got his sax 2 days ago.

Try and get a Legere Signature Reed. They are the best of the best. You don't need to worry about the weather, preparing the reed, or any of that. Just put it on and play and it's ready to go everytime!

Hey man just a high school sax player, I wanted to say your work is amazing and I really appreciate your videos you’re shredding man on the lick videos specifically. Sounds good!

Not really related to reeds but definitely relevant to the instrument itself. I played the clarinet in high school and I’m getting back into playing again after years of being out of practice. When I was in high school I used cigarette paper (for RYO) to soak up any condensation under the keys and the keypads of my clarinet after playing, where my cleaner couldn’t quite get into (slide a piece of cigarette paper under the keys, gently press the keys down a few times over the paper and the paper will soak the moisture up. Discard the used paper). It was a little trick my teacher taught me and it works well.

Same process as yours, plus I test the balance of both sides by turning the mouthpiece on an angle, both sides. I work on the duller side until the reed is balanced. Thanks for your informative posts!

Thanks God you forgat ypur reedgeek man , we couldnt learn that old school way , i like it and gave up to have a reed geek. Thanks for the video .

I use a similar technique. I soak a little longer, usually flipping the reed over (~3-4 min each side). I use this time to work on ear training or piano :)

For my clarinet reeds, I do pretty much the same as you, minus looking for the oval

This is good information. Thank you. I did not know about checking for bark.

I use 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper for all my reeds, including bassoon.

Getting back into it man. I love it! Love to play Jazz since high school. Keep up the good work;)

WTH ?? Boy I am glad I came across you. I had no idea do did that to a reed, thought sticking it your mouth for a minute was good enough. Geez I can hardly wait to try this out I take it you only do this the first time you use the reed. After that how do you get it wet and how long do you soak it for ha ha. That is what I searched for and found YOU.Subbed and hit the alarm thank you so much. BTW I have a clarinet

I play clarinet have for only three years so dont know much but i have had a lot of trouble with reed water absorption so for anyone trying to start clarinet and your reeds feel dry or water logged you might want to just get a new reed (NOT ALWAYS THOUGH) I know that this sounds obvious but when i started clarinet i was extremely hesitant to throw out old or bad reeds.

Watching because I started a job rough and smooth wheeling reeds in a little family business in San Marcos,,I need to see what the musicians want from them since I love music so much. I’m obsessed with giving the best range . So I’m soaking up everything I can . It’s really interesting to hear your points. If you can give me any bullet points of things you like to see /hear and things you hate to see on the reeds I would be great full ,

I just got my clarinet today and I didn’t know how to put it together. The thing was kind of confusing the directions but I got it. I finally went into the Internet and see how they do it and when we did it, we will figure it out how to put all the whole clarinet together ummm… I was starting to wonder whether I had purchased said instrument that was going to be too hard for me, but it turned out OK right now I’m watching the RU-vid on your instructions of the read and another for beginners how to blow air I don’t know how to blow air I was holding the top wrong didn’t know how to put the the silver thing that goes on the mouthpiece, but and then I tried to talk to blow out and I couldn’t do it. I was like almost fainted. But I finally did some noise and it hurt my ear so I had to figure out how to do my mouth and what works for me.

Excellent, real, thank you.

Good video, thanks for making it!

Very Interesting!

I got the same saxophone stand

i tried that, it just does not work for me. i just put a dry reed and it works all the time.

What brand of saxophone are you using

How long do you soak them?

Tysm

I also make reeds but different material not from bamboo different material 🙏

You're so funny

Why do you soak both ends of the reed separately? Why don't you just put the whole thing underwater?

Huh vodka in the microwave sounds unusual

Please! In spanish :(

We don't.

I listened. But you speak mostly about yourself. Just count the number of times you use the word "I". It's unbelievable. I wanted to hear about saxophone reeds.