Klarinet Archive - Posting 000211.txt from 1998/06

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Re: [kl] The "uvular tongue" and a gentle reminder
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 12:42:54 -0400

Teri Herel wrote, commenting on one of my posts:

>Every time alternate tongueing techniques are brought up on the list, my
>shoulders start to knot up...

What I said was, in part ...

> All it involves is starting a tone with a "kuh" instead of a
> "tee." That gives a clear, clean but gentle beginning to a tone. I often
> use it in preference to a "tongue tongue," especially in passages where one
> wants a smooth, quasi-legato feeling.

And I agree utterly with what she said:

>The danger I want to warn about is to look for the magic cure to tongueing in
>these techniques. I feel that double and triple tongueing should be explored
>AFTER a player has fully exploited what can be done with a single tongue!
>(snip)
The ability of the single tongue is all too often never developed to its full
>potential. So I offer a challenge:
>I DARE you to get your single tongue to sixteenth notes at 168 MINIMUM!
Clean
>and clear and light and perfect! ,,, get your single tongue absolutely
legato and >breathtakingly light in the altissimo register! (And I mean
altissimo up to A at least!
>Fully controlled at any dynamic, to whatever degree of shortness you require,
>and slow or fast like the wind.
>And THEN double tongue. Triple tongue. Flutter tongue. Do it all ...

That's a little exaggerated, and extremely ambitious, but I wouldn't call
it wrong - except that I don't agree with the modern emphasis on the
altissimo register. To paraphrase Teri, don't go for those dog-whistle
notes until you have fully exploited everything the clarinet can do up to G
in alt. And bear in mind that accomplishing everything she proposes would
involve a lot more than tongueing technique. It would call for a
carbon-steel lip and the lung power and breath control of a competitive
two-mile swimmer. But her goals are valid ones even if they may never quite
be realized. One's reach should exceed one's grasp, or what's a heaven for?

And please notice that, although I mentioned double tongueing, I was mainly
talking about the uvular tongue as a very useful and effective alternative
in some passages, and that I also said ...

>It can never replace the normal
>tongueing technique, especially at up tempos, but it's a valuable part of a
>clarinetist's armament.

Long tones. Blow long tones every day. At least twenty minutes. Everything
else, including tongueing, gets easier when you do that.

Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
For additional commands, e-mail: klarinet-help@-----.org
For other problems, e-mail: klarinet-owner@-----.org