Klarinet Archive - Posting 000724.txt from 1997/12

From: Dee Hays <deerich@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Tonguing
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 10:03:11 -0500

J. Blake Arrington wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for increasing my
> tonguing speed. Are there any exercises that I could do that any of
> you have had success with?
>
> Any info would be helpful,
>
> J. Blake Arrington
> ---------------
> I love Jenni!
> ---------------

Another possibility to check is the tongue / fingering coordination. My
tongue was fast enough and my fingers were fast enough, I just was not
getting them together. Unfortunately, this often sounds like the tongue
is too slow.

What I had thought was tonguing problem was this coordination. My brain
thought my tongue was slow and made my fingers slow down. When I worked
on speeding up the tongue, my problem actually got worse! I was even
more unsychronized.

So there are a couple of things that can help here. First of all start
very slowly. Use a simple scale. Tongue a note in staccato.
IMMEDIATELY upon ending the note, move the fingers to the next note in
the exercise. Then play the next staccato note and again move the
fingers to the next position upon finishing the note. The goal is to
get the fingers leading the tongue not following it. Gradually speed
this exercise up.

Another exercise for this problem, is to think of your tongue as a
metronome. Set it in motion at a steady beat. Using a simple scale,
move the fingers into position before the "tick" of your "metronome
tongue". Start slow and build up speed. This is really like the
previous exercise but now tries to incorporate steady movement.

Now when I play a piece, I focus on getting my finger tempo correct and
making sure that they do not fall behind the tongue.

I believe that this problem is more common than many realize. I learned
of it from an instructor in Findlay, Ohio and later read the same thing
in a booklet written by Daniel Bonade and published by Leblanc.

Good luck,

Dee Hays
deerich@-----.net
Canton, SD