This is how reeDminder works, in full — the same help that ships inside the app.

If you already use it and something isn’t behaving the way you expected, the answer is probably here. If you’re deciding whether to install it, this is the whole app described plainly, so you can tell before you download whether it fits the way you actually rotate reeds.

Getting started

reeDminder keeps a record of which reed you played, when you played it, and how it went. Every other feature here is built on that one idea.

Enter your equipment first. Add the instruments you play and the reeds you own, and add mouthpieces too if you keep track of them. Every reed belongs to a reed class — a brand, cut and strength you buy more than once — so the app can group the reeds you own into the kinds of reed you buy.

Once your reeds are in, open Play to start a session. reeDminder suggests a reed, times what you play, and records the result against that reed.

Reed classes and reeds

A reed class is a kind of reed: the brand, the cut and the strength. An individual reed is one physical piece of cane from that class — the one sitting in your case with a number on it.

You do not add reeds one at a time. Tell the app how many reeds of a class you have and it creates them for you, numbered Reed #1, Reed #2 and so on, each carrying the brand, cut and strength from the class. Raise the count later and it adds more, continuing the numbering.

Grouping reeds this way lets the app compare like with like. Within a rotation set, reeDminder averages the ratings across the reeds in it, so you can see how a brand and strength is treating you rather than how one lucky reed did. Each reed counts once, however much you have played it.

Retiring a reed archives it rather than deleting it. Its sessions, notes and ratings stay in your history, though it stops counting toward the set average.

Rotation sets

A rotation set is the group of reeds you are actively playing. Rotating spreads playing time across several pieces of cane instead of concentrating it on one.

When you start a session, reeDminder suggests the next reed in your rotation. It works through the set in order, picking up from the reed you played last.

The suggestion is only a suggestion. Play whatever you like — the app records the reed you actually played, not the one it offered.

Retiring a reed records both the retirement and the arrival of its replacement, and both appear in History as part of that reed’s story.

Break-in cycles

A break-in cycle eases a reed into service: short playing times at first, increasing over several days, until it is ready for full sessions. You define the steps yourself — reeDminder does not ship a cycle to start from.

Break-in applies to a replacement reed. When you retire a reed, the one that takes its place starts at the beginning of the cycle. Reeds created when you first set up a rotation set, or when you raise its reed count, are treated as ready to play.

reeDminder tracks which step of the cycle a breaking-in reed is on and offers it as your next break-in, alongside your next reed. If no reed in the set is ready, it offers a breaking-in one rather than leave you with nothing.

If you would rather not break reeds in at all, the app’s Settings has a switch to skip it, and a replacement reed goes straight into the rotation.

Sessions, notes and ratings

Starting a session begins a timer against one reed. Ending it writes the elapsed time to that reed’s history.

While a session runs you can add a note, rate the reed out of ten, or make an audio recording. All three attach to the session, so a note written in the moment stays tied to the reed and to the day.

Sessions can be edited afterwards — the fix for a timer you forgot to stop, or for a session you started on the wrong reed. When changing the reed, the app offers the other active reeds in that rotation set.

When a reed declines

Every reed shows its average rating. Once it has been rated three times, it shows a second number as well: the average of its last three ratings.

The two move at different speeds, and that is the point. A reed with twenty good sessions behind it has a lifetime average that barely shifts when it starts to go — but the trailing three drops straight away. The gap between them is the part worth reading.

Below three ratings there is no second number at all. The reed shows its average and how many times it has been rated, and nothing else.

It is a number, not an alarm. Nothing flashes and nothing warns you. The figure is there when you look at the reed.

Recordings

Recordings are made during a session and stored on your device. reeDminder never sends them anywhere — the app makes no network calls at all.

A rating tells you what you thought of a reed. A recording tells you what it sounded like, and a month later those are not always the same thing.

Recordings can be renamed, played back and deleted. Deleting one removes the audio file from the device as well as the entry.

Backing up your data

All of your data lives on your device. The app’s Settings has an Export button that packages your full history and every recording into a single backup file, then hands it to the share sheet.

From there it is yours to keep — save it to Files, a cloud drive, or anywhere else your device offers. Exporting is something you do, not something the app does: reeDminder never transmits anything and keeps no copy of your backup.

Restoring reads a backup file back in. It replaces everything currently in the app and it cannot be undone, so export what you have before you restore anything.

Still stuck?

If something here doesn’t match what you’re seeing, or the app is doing something this page doesn’t explain, get in touch. reeDminder keeps everything on your device and sends nothing back, so I can’t look at your reeds or see the error from my end — what you describe really is all I have to go on.