Reed Organ

Any links below to external sites are offered for your convenience but the Musical Museum neither endorses the sites nor vouches for the accuracy of their content.

A keyboard instrument in which the sound is produced by passing air over flexible metal reeds, each tuned to vibrate at a specific pitch. In this respect it resembled a harmonica (mouth organ), accordion or concertina.

The reed is mounted in an opening such that the passage of air when the appropriate key is depressed on the keyboard causes the reed to vibrate. In a reed organ, the air movement is caused by suction usually created by foot pedals, whilst a Harmonium is activated by air pressure rather than suction.