Klarinet Archive - Posting 000164.txt from 1995/04

From: Neil Leupold <Neil_Leupold@-----.COM>
Subj: RE>Fast Tongue
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 21:42:19 -0400

intouch Reply 4/11/95
Subject:RE>Fast Tongue 6:23 PM
Michelle wrote:

"Does anyone have any ideas as to how to learn to use this to the best of my
ability?? It is extremely frustrating when I attempt to tongue fast triplets
and end up with12 notes per beat!!"

Michelle, you need to make friends with your metronome and use it to cure this
"problem". It takes patience and physical relaxation to tame an out-of-control
tongue. Set the metronome at a slow speed, like 60, and pick a note to
practice on (a throat-D is usually pretty good for this). Begin by tonguing
16th notes at this tempo on your D for a given number of 4/4 bars, say 5 of
them (that's 20 seconds long, so you should be able to maintain support for the
duration of the exercise). Repeat the exercise, playing 5 - 4/4 bars on D at
60 beats per minute - say, five times. Then, just move the metronome up one
click, to 63, and do it all again. Continue to repeat the exercise at each new
gradation of the metronome until you've progressed from your original tempo to
TWICE the speed of your original tempo (120 beats per minute).

You're right, a fast tongue which can't be controlled is quite useless. I had
the same problem during the single semester I spent at Eastman. But if what
you say is true, and you have no problem articulating at rapid speeds (by
rapid, I mean that you can set the metronome at, say, 132 or higher, and
sustain a string of 16th notes without faltering in quality or consistency),
then you may very well be one of us gifted people who was born with a
snake-tongue. Dave Neuman of the San Francisco Symphony is reputed to be able
to single-tongue at 16th's in excess of 176 on the metronome!

Make your metronome your ally and develop a comfortability with articulation at
ALL tempi by using gradual studies such as the one I've described above. You
will want to move to scales, arpeggios, and passages in the orchestra
literature using the same technique: the gradual progression from a
deliberately slow tempo, one click at a time, through the mid-range tempo, up
to the fastest that it can be played. To test your ability, do some workouts
on Mendelssohn's Scherzo or the rapid 16th-note quadruplets in Beethoven's 4th.

- Neil