Klarinet Archive - Posting 000821.txt from 2000/06

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Can't articulate with the tongue...Using throat
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 22:21:32 -0400

> From: <SWNASHUB@-----.com>
>
> > I have a young student who had quit band and started back up
> again. Less
> > than a year's experience. The student's story is that they were not
> allowed
> > to tongue in band but only slur. Now I can't seem to get him to
> understand
> > how to use the tongue instead of the throat. When he does try
> to use the
> > tongue, he manages to play very flat in pitch. I have suggested that he
> > support the note with constant air pressure, although I'm not sure he
> > understands any of these techniques spatially. I appreciate any
> suggestions
> > I may offer him to alleviate this problem.
> >
> > HK
> >

Oddly enough, I just got started with a new (for me) student who also
articulates totally from his glottis. My first step was to get him to hear
and feel where the articulation was coming from (his throat, like a cough).
I tried a few aural images having to do with speech patterns ('D' against
the tip of the reed, a "duh" sound to start the note, etc...) without much
success. When they've been allowed to play for very long without tonguing
the reed for "attacks," students tend to be "afraid" to touch the reed with
their tongues at all. The only approach that seemed to have accomplished
anything at this first lesson was the following:

I play a note (I used clarion F - top line of the staff). I allow air to
leak audibly around the sides of the mouthpiece. Then I stop the reed with
my tongue, still continuing to blow and leak air so the student can hear it.
Start the sound by releasing the reed. Repeat the cycle of
stop-start-stop-start a few times with air pressure applied (and audibly
escaping) constantly. The sounds and the stops are long intervals - maybe a
couple of seconds each, on a note the student can play comfortably (if he's
not over the break, use a low C or Bb so the instrument is stable and not
wobbling in his mouth). Then I have the student try the same thing, only the
air escape during the stopped parts of the cycle isn't necessary - I can
hear if the attack and release are correct. The result in this case was
mostly not a clear articulation, but something more resembling
"thuh-uh-uh-th" because his tongue was moving too slowly, but it was a
start. At least he was contacting the reed.

Things to watch out for: be sure the tongue doesn't remain against the reed
during the tone itself. My new kid was able to verbalize that he was doing
this and asked if it was correct. Most kids don't know to ask unless you
bring it up. The goal is to move from "thuth" to "duht" or some similarly
clear "attack" and release. I keep putting quotation marks around "attack"
because as we all know, the start of the sound is not an attack at all but a
release of the reed. The term "attack" as used in computer and acoustical
sciences to describe a sound "envelope" can have dangerous implications for
a kid trying to learn to tongue, because it can lead to very hard 't' sounds
that are almost as bad as the glottal attacks. When I'm talking to the
student, I use words like "start the sound" and "begin the sound" and avoid
the term "attack." This particular student came in with a very nice, smooth
tone quality, so I needed to keep him focused on not changing his embouchure
to accommodate the tonguing. Lots of distortions can be introduced if you're
not careful. I might also suggest that if the tone isn't good, it might be
better to work on that first with study material that is largely slurred.
Tonguing will never sound right if the basic tone is poor, and both areas of
technique are too basic to try to fix at the same time. I agree strongly
with Dee that tackling too much at once is an almost sure way to confuse and
frustrate the student.

I sent him home from the lesson with a couple of pages of songs to practice
that were all slurred with minimal tonguing. I told him to think about and
try the exercise we had done, but not to try to apply it to the music I gave
him, which doesn't really require tonguing anyway. That way I get a fresh
start with him next lesson without his having practiced the glottal
articulation for another week. He'll have had something satisfying and
non-frustrating to work on in the meantime.

For whatever the above is worth.... This particular student is still an
early work in progress for me (though not the first I've taught with this
problem). If I think of anything more I'll let you know.

Karl Krelove

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