Klarinet Archive - Posting 000961.txt from 1998/03

From: "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: touguing problem
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 13:33:50 -0500

Shouryu Nohe <jnohe@-----.edu> wrote:
>Also - 90% of articulation is AIR AIR AIR!!! If you do not start the
>sound with a strong airstream, it will sound bad, period. You can tongue
>ANY way imaginable and it will sound decent if you use good air.

This is more true than you may realize. I've been playing Bb clarinet for 25
years and Eb for about 5; I am section leader for our community band and have
more respect within the band than I probably deserve. But I harbor a terrible
secret: my toungue never touches the reed. Never. I don't quite know how I got
through grade school, high school and college bands without this secret being
revealed and corrected.

For many years, I didn't even know I was doing anything wrong. We did the
Overture to Rossini's Semiramide in college; only 1/3 of the section could keep
up with the sixteenth note soli sections, and I was proud to be one of them.

I have upon occasion tried to teach myself the "right" way, but the results have
never been pleasant. Because I only play non-professionally, and because my
current method produces good results, I haven't felt a strong incentive to go
cold turkey. Someday I will rot in clarinet hell for it.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.