Klarinet Archive - Posting 000313.txt from 2001/05

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Article: Breathing and Support
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 06:30:45 -0400

On Thu, 30 Nov 2000 12:52:49 +0000 (a long time ago, that is)
Tony@-----.uk said:

> I've meant for some time to say something about an article that Abe
> Galper sent me, all about tongue position related to played register,
> which concluded, on the basis of X-rays of the author taken from the
> side, that the position of the *back* of the tongue was correlated
> with the register. But I can't lay my hands on it at the moment -- so
> it'll have to wait.

So, I found it.

It's called, "Pedagogic concepts for reed instrument performance, based
on cineradiographic research of the oral cavity", by Professor Raymond L
Wheeler, Central Washington State College. It seems to be a photocopy
of an article in 'The Clarinet', perhaps Spring 1978, and is reprinted
from an earlier appearance, in Spring 1977, in the Journal of the
National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, NACWPI.

For me, the most interesting bit was the simplest -- namely the
assertion that the back of the tongue moves down and forward as the
frequency of the played note increases. So, for higher notes, your
tongue is lower, and for lower notes, higher in the mouth.

Wheeler also makes the assertion that there is no easy way, other than
playing the clarinet, to ascertain whether your tongue is in the correct
position, and that teaching methods need to take account of that fact,
and allow the student progressively to discover the correct tongue
placements. According to him, direct instruction cannot be followed
voluntarily, and so should not be given.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

.... Let me show you how the guards used to do it.

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