Klarinet Archive - Posting 001190.txt from 1998/09

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] TONGUE POSITION
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 18:24:49 -0400

TONGUE POSITION

The articles by Wheeler and Anfinson deal with X-ray studies of tongue
position while playing.

An important conclusion that can derived from the studies is this:

The tongue is in the highest position when playing the low register.
When one goes into the higher register, the tongue moves forwards and up
at the front and lower at the back.
It is always easier to go into the upper register but more difficult to
move down. For instance, one can play from low A to clarion E. But it's
difficult to do this in reverse.
There is a famous clarinet solo in Strauss's Don Quixote, where at the
end, one has to slur from Middle B down to low E. Not easy at all.

The tongue movements are motions that are determined by what you play.

There are those who can get overtones by moving the tongue this or that
way.

For me the most important thing was to find what to practice to make the
most use of what the tongue does.

I think that some of the old masters knew about these things from
experience, not having any X-ray studies to support what they felt.

In the Klose book, there are a lot of low register exercises that are a
help for the tongue in the low register position.

Klose then has many exercises going over the break, designed especially
to facilitate these tongue transitions and make them sound better.

In "THE UPBEAT BAERMANN SCALES AND ARPPEGGIOS', in which everything is
in Eighth notes and starts off the beat, the chord exercises in their
variations, lend themselves to these tongue exercises.

As I said in an earlier posting, one has to practice and persevere.

--
Avrahm Galper
THE UPBEAT BAERMANN MELODIC SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS
http://www.sneezy.org/avrahm_galper/index.html

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