 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Lindsay S.
Date: 2000-12-14 23:22
Hi everyone,
My name is Lindsay and this is the first time I've posted on this board, but it's been really helpful. I play clarinet in high school and I started when I was in 5th grade, I've never had any private lessons or anything. My band director recently told me that I cannot tounge properly, that I'm hardly doing it at all and just using my throat to articulate. He said it's something that can be remedied quickly and that he'd help me with it---does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Have you had these problems? What can I do? Please help, thanks!
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Author: Jodi
Date: 2000-12-15 00:40
I went through elementary, junior high AND high school tongueing incorrectly and it wasn't until I was in my second semester of college that anyone finally called me on it. (I was using my jaw and lip instead of my tongue.)
I started by just doing a little at a time. It's the trick of getting used to it. You want to touch the tip of your tongue to the tip of your reed. The reason I never did this was because it sounded weird to me- spitty. I have discovered from teaching countless students that tonguing is one of those things that people either get right off, or have to work hard for. There doesn't seem to be an in-between.
I believe I started with just trying to tongue quarter notes on a scale. The higher up you go, the harder it gets, but it will get easier with practice!!
Learning tonguing was one of THE most frustrating things I ever had to do. To be honest, I ended up in tears on more than one occasion, but it finally clicked. I think that if I can learn it, just about anyone can.
One thing I have students do it tongue an open G while holding one hand up to their throat. If you are using your throat to articulate, you will be able to feel the vibration. When tonguing properly, there should be very very little movement in the throat at all- it should ONLY be the tongue that moves.
Practice saying dah dah dah dah dah over and over again. That will also put the tongue in the correct position. Then, when you play, do the same thing without vocalizing it. That seems to work for some people too.
Best of luck to- I hope it all goes well!!
Take care,
Jodi
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Author: ron b
Date: 2000-12-15 02:21
Hi, Lindsay.
Glad you posted. That's a good question of ongoing interest to all of us. We've all had these problems, or similar ones, and have found many ways, depending what you're doing 'wrong', to remedy them.
Now, you say, "He said it's something that can be remedied quickly and that he'd help me with it--- ". I'd like to know a little more detail - about what you are or aren't doing that's causing a 'problem' that's been going on for four or five years. Didn't anyone ever mention it before? Were you aware of it and just let it go?
You'll probably know better how to describe what your particular problem is *after* your director helps you with it. There are teachers who frequent this board and I'm sure they're always looking for tips about what works for someone else. Hope you get this straightened out soon.
My own 'bad habits' were (and still are often pointed out by a fellow horn player. If they hadn't said something I'd still be playing the same old way. Now, I don't know whether any of the suggestions made a big improvement or not. It made playing a lot easier and a lot more fun, though. Don't forget to thank those who come into your life and help out. Then pass it on.
Best wishes.
ron b
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-12-15 03:35
I'm kinda in the same boat as Jodi. I learned wrong and had a heck of a time doing it correctly at first. I'll put it to you the way my instructor told me. Your tongue is a muscle and like any other muscle, it has to be trained and exercised for a given function. The problem with clarineting is, you're training that tongue to do something it wasn't originaly designed to do, so it will feel very strange at first. It just takes practice.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-12-15 15:44
Lindsay -
Bob Lowrey, who was an excellent player and a well known clinician way back when I was in high school, showed me a great exercise.
Play a secure note (say, D below the staff), starting it mezzo forte with the breath.
Then, move the tip of your tongue up and slightly forward as if saying the syllable LA, LA, LA, but do not let your tongue touch the reed. You want to just barely miss.
Move the syllable forward gradually, so that you brush the tip of the reed only for an instant, producing the smallest possible "tic" in the sound. Don't make any change at all in your blowing.
Work on this until you can do it consistently and evenly. Then move to scales, beginning slowly and working the speed up gradually. The feeling should be that of your tongue sweeping - almost bouncing - across the reed, but never stopping. Also, the sound never stops.
Once you get this extremely light action under control, it's easy to make it more forceful.
Equally important, you teach yourself to play with a continuous tone, which is interrupted by the tongue, without interrupting the effort of moving the air stream. This avoids the problems that come when you thing of the tongue as what starts the tone, rather than stopping it.
It will probably take you a week or so to learn this, and it's much easier if you have a teacher listening to you, or even your band director, who will I know be very pleased if you ask for help and show that you're trying hard.
Keep at it. Everything you learn makes it more fun.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Yusuf Zaid
Date: 2000-12-15 19:22
I think Ken's method sounds very good. I think I will give it a go as my tonguing isn't a lot to write home about either.
Here is a way that I was told that I am using at present. It works when I am concentrating on tonguing alone. It's when I am practicing my studies that the concentration slips and so does my tongue. Practice makes perfect they say. Anyway here is the method I was told. Give it a try, though Ken's way sounds better:-
To start, blow air GENTLY down the instrument and make the sound of the sea. As you blow GENTLY take the tongue on and off the TIP of the reed but NEVER stop the air going through. Play any note, hold it and take the tongue gently on and off the reed. NEVER stop the air going through. Tongue off / tongue on (sound of the sea) / tongue off.
Now play a series of notes placing the tongue on between notes.
Now practice staccato notes - short notes using the same technique.
Whenever you use your tongue now, think of putting the tongue on AFTER the note, rather than starting the note with the tongue.
Good luck Lindsay, whatever method you use, and let us know how you are getting on.
Yusuf
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Author: Bob Curtis
Date: 2000-12-15 20:41
Lindsay -
I believe Ken Shaw is on the right track. Getting rid of a BAD HABIT is the hardest part, and tounging, like everything else you learn on the clarinet, is a habit (or series of habits - good or bad). By establishing GOOD HABITS it becomes much easier. I use the same method but say "Ta - Ta" instead. Go slowly, change the old into the NEW and practice slowly. You have to undo what you have been doing for a long period of time. It isn't going to be easy, but you can do it IF YOU WANT TO!!!
Best of luck in you redirected efforts!!!
Bob Curtis
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