Ligature (musical instrument)

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Two clarinet mouthpieces with ligatures. On the left, a well-used silver Vandoren Optimum ligature (with interchangeable plates), and on the right, a well-used naugahyde Rovner wrap-around ligature. Both are displayed without reeds.

A ligature is a device which holds a reed on to the mouthpiece of some woodwind instruments such as the saxophone and clarinet. On early clarinets the reed was instead secured by wrapping it with string, and this method is still preferred by most German clarinetists. Modern German mouthpieces have a groove cut into the outside of the mouthpiece to facilitate wrapping with a string ligature.

Ligatures are most commonly made out of metal, such as brass, and can be plated in nickel, silver, gold, rhodium, etc. Some players feel that a ligature plated with an exotic metal sounds better than a plain brass one. The more a ligature comes in contact with the reed, the "darker" the sound is. The less it comes into contact with the reed, the "lighter" the sound is.

Ligatures are also made out of wire, wire mesh, plastic, naugahyde, string, or leather. Dozens of styles and materials of ligatures are available today.