Klarinet Archive - Posting 000361.txt from 2001/06

From: "Aimee" <kratofil@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: Professor Wheeler's fluttertongue
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 06:34:38 -0400

I have never been great at flutter tongue, in general. The higher I have to
go the harder it is, for sure. As a graduate student, one semester my
assistantship job was playing in Contemporary Ensemble. I was assigned a
piece written for Eb clarinet, piccolo and percussion. (Yes, just as you
imagine....) Clarinet and picc parts were high and fluttered. The piccolo
had no problem. I was dying. When I showed the part to my teacher, he said
"Why didn't you tell them this is impossible?" I suppose there is someone
who can do it, but it seemed to me the tension needed in my embouchure to
play the high notes made it very difficult to relax the tongue and throat
area to do the flutter. I use vowel shapes. Try fluttering (no clarinet)
with "ah" then with "oo". I find I can't really do it with the "oo" shape.

Oops. I just really read your first sentence. I guess you didn't want to
hear from me. :) Oh well. I hate to waste it! :)

Aimee
WoodWind Week
http://www.pamusicteachers.org

> Tony wrote:
> Is there anyone here who finds no problem with playing fluttertongue in
> the high register?
>
> The reason I ask is that I have always had a difficulty with this, and
> quite a few other players of my acquaintance have the same problem. The
> recent discussion of Wheeler's discovery of the correlation between the
> position of the back of the tongue and the register being played made me
> wonder whether the difficulty arises when the flutter can't be combined
> with a sufficiently low position of the back of the tongue.
>
> It would be interesting to know whether those who have no trouble have a
> particular tongue/mouth configuration. (My guess is that they'd have a
> relatively large boccal cavity, perhaps coupled with a shortish tongue.)
>
> Anyone?

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