Easy Lig: The story of an innovation for the clarinet
A difficulty observed among students
Five years ago, Philippe, a clarinet teacher in southern France, regularly noticed a recurring difficulty among his beginner students: positioning the reed precisely on the mouthpiece.
Poorly centered, displaced or sometimes broken reeds make learning unnecessarily difficult and can also affect response and sound quality.
This observation led to an idea: to design a ligature capable of simplifying reed mounting and making its positioning precise and repeatable, without compromising the musical qualities sought by clarinetists.
A project with both educational and musical goals
Bernard, a passionate amateur clarinetist and long-time musical partner, joined the project.
Very quickly, the objective went beyond ease of mounting alone. Easy Lig needed to be simple enough to support a beginner, while also offering playing sensations and sound quality capable of satisfying experienced musicians.
Meeting an engineer-designer who is also a musician marked a decisive step. The team brought together three complementary approaches: teaching experience, musical practice and technical expertise.
Five years of research into mounting… and sound
Over nearly five years, numerous prototypes were designed, tested, modified and compared.
A significant part of the development focused on the acoustic behaviour of the ligature. The goal was ambitious: to achieve the ease of mounting unique to Easy Lig while aiming for sound quality comparable with the best ligatures on the market.
The tests focused in particular on:
- freedom of reed vibration;
- ease of response;
- low blowing resistance;
- precision of articulation;
- sound stability;
- the behaviour of the ligature with different mouthpieces and reeds;
- precise and repeatable reed positioning.
Each change to the centering system, the shape of the ligature or its tightening was therefore assessed not only for ease of use, but also for its musical and acoustic effects.
A ligature designed for all clarinetists
These years of development led to Easy Lig: a ligature combining guided reed centering, fast mounting, repeatable positioning and musical qualities.
Today it is intended for students and beginners as well as amateurs, teachers and experienced clarinetists.
The experience gained with young musicians remains at the origin of the project, but Easy Lig was never designed simply as a learning ligature: its acoustic development was specifically carried out so that it could also meet the expectations of demanding musicians.
Easy Lig is therefore a French innovation, made in Europe and assembled in France.
The Easy Lig team