How does the clarinet produce sound?    In the last slide, we briefly covered what a sound wave was. Sound is simply a pressure wave, regions of high pressure follow regions of low pressure. But how exactly does a clarinet produce sound? As I just mentioned, sound is caused by changes in pressure. In order to disturb the air to produce this sound, something has to vibrate. The exact method that instruments use to produce sound waves varies from instrument to instrument. For instance, Trumpet players vibrate their lips to produce sound. In order to produce sound on the clarinet, clarinet players use a thin wooden stick called a reed. http://www.eatonclarinets.freeserve.co.uk/   What happens is this, the clarinetist blows air and makes a region of high pressure on one side of the reed. The change in pressure causes the reed to want to vibrate disturbing the air inside the instrument creating a sound wave.