Talk:Wind instrument/Archive 1

Deleted references to woodwind reeds vibrating against each other or against the mouthpiece. I could be wrong, but I think the reeds are supposed to vibrate freely. If you blow through a saxophone mouthpiece in such a way that the reed hits the mouthpiece, it closes the air passage and the sound stops.--AMT

Hmm.. how does one account for single versus double reed instruments. They are two different classes of woodwinds. -- Fleeb

When you are playing a saxophone the reed vibrates such that it intermittently hits the mouthpiece closing off the air flow. It is this intermittent closing off of the air flow that stimulates the vibration of the column of air in the sax and produces the sound. If the reed is broken, or badly fitted so that it does not close off the air flow the sax doesn't work properly.

A similar thing happens with double reed instruments, except that it is the two reeds hitting each other that closes off the air flow. -- SMH