Materials
Most reeds for woodwind instruments are made from cane, but synthetic reeds are used by a small number of clarinetists, saxophonists, and double reed players, as well as by bagpipers. Synthetic reeds are generally more durable than their natural counterparts and do not need to be moistened prior to playing. Many players consider them to have inferior tone quality.
Recent developments in synthetic reed technology have produced reeds made from synthetic polymer compounds, and as technology in this area has progressed, synthetic reeds have gained more acceptance. Synthetic reeds are useful when the instrument is played intermittently with long breaks in between, during which time a natural reed might become dry.
The dizi, a Chinese transverse flute, has a distinctive kind of reed (a di mo), which is made from a paper-like bamboo membrane.
Read more about this topic: Reed (instrument)
Famous quotes containing the word materials:
“Kicking his mother until she let go of his soul
Has given his a healthy appetite: clearly, her role
In the New Order must be
To supply and deliver his raw materials free;”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“The competent leader of men cares little for the niceties of other peoples’ characters: he cares much—everything—for the exterior uses to which they may be put.... These are men to be moved. How should he move them? He supplies the power; others simply the materials on which that power operates.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Though the hen should sit all day, she could lay only one egg, and, besides, would not have picked up materials for another.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)