Klarinet Archive - Posting 000759.txt from 1997/12

From: "Sebastien Duguet" <sduguet@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Tonguing
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 13:52:45 -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 had succes with.
>
>Any info would be helpful,
>
>J. Blake Arrington

Increasing my tonguing speed is something that took me many years.
I had huge problems 4-5 years ago; I was unable to tongue properly.
No I think that I have reached a good level of tonguing.
There is one particular exercise that made me progress very fast:
alternate tonguing and sluring scales. You choose any scale and go up
one octave in legato, repeat the last note and come down in staccato.
You do the same thing for the rest of the scale. When practicing this
exercise, you should always make sure that the tempo of sluring and
tonguing are perfectly identical, and that you use the same amount of
air for both techniques. Because when we tongue, we often forget about
how much air we have to give the reed to be able to vibrate. The
biggest effort has to come from your air column and not from you
tongue!
Also try to keep your tongue as close as possible to your reed, so that
it doesn't have a long way to go. You do the same thing with your
fingers
when you want them to go faster.
And of course, as someone already said: Tip of the tongue on top of the
reed. That's rule number one.
Always try to find out what part of your tongue touches what part of the
reed.

Sebastien DUGUET, clarinetist
Indiana University, AD-Student

Phone: (812) 323 9744
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