Klarinet Archive - Posting 000333.txt from 1997/07

From: Karl Krelove <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Tonguing (AGAIN!)
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 21:27:44 -0400

At 06:05 PM 7/11/97 EDT, LicoriceStick2 wrote:
>... My problem is this: I think I have a big problem
>with my tonguing. This might sound weird, but I have a long tongue and I
>find it nearly impossible to tongue with the tip. I have to anchor my
>tongue behind my bottom teeth in order to articulate. Therefore, I am
>using the part of my tongue which is about two are three millimeters back
>from the tip, which isn't much, but it makes a big difference. I have
>tried to tongue with the tip of my tongue--however, it "tickles" for lack
>of a better term and I can't stand it. Any suggestions? Is anchor
>tonguing okay or should I just get used to the tickle? :-)
>
>
I'm not so sure as some modern players are that "anchor tonguing" is in
itself a bad thing. One of my first teachers (who was at the time the
Philadelphia Orchestra's bass clarinetist) taught me to tongue in a way
that was essentially anchor tonguing. It was definitely much farther back
on my tongue than any teacher I studied with later ever recommended. I can
only guess that his major teacher (his predecessor in the orchestra) either
taught that way or at least didn't object to it. It's much too long ago for
me to remember with any great detail, but I don't recall anything one way
or the other from those lessons about anchoring against the bottom teeth.
It seems like that's what ends up happening, though, if you tongue any real
distance up from the tip of the tongue. Most players tongue somewhere on
the top surface above the very tip. If you can articulate cleanly and
rapidly enough, there may not be anything wrong with what you're doing.
That having been said, it seems to me the "tickle" is perhaps another,
unrelated matter. I've had students complain of the same thing. Usually, it
turns out to be that the tongue is leaving the reed and (especially)
returning to it too sluggishly or too indefinitely, like a sustained "th"
instead of a "d" or "t". The tickle is because the reed doesn't completely
stop (or start) vibrating all at once, so it's vibrating against the tongue
for part of each stroke. This may not make much sense in print - it's
easier to explain when I can make the actual sounds, but it may give you
something to think about. In any case, I'm not so sure that it's a function
of the length of your tongue.

Karl Krelove
"Time is the best teacher; unfortunately, it kills all its students!"