Klarinet Archive - Posting 000827.txt from 2002/06

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Tonguing and listening
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 15:42:45 -0400

On Mon, 24 Jun 2002 11:31:01 EDT, HatNYC62@-----.com said:

> In a message dated 6/24/02 4:07:16 AM, klarinet-digest-help@-----.org
> writes:
>
> > I had lots of trouble with tonguing also.

[snip]

> If you have developed bad tongue habits, you're in for a long, uphill
> fight. YOU NEED A TEACHER WHO HAS GOOD ARTICULATION to get you through
> it. Make him/her demonstrate a lot. Your ear will help guide the
> tongue to its proper function.

I agree with Hat that it's wise to have the support of such a teacher,
even though I worked through this particular problem for myself.
(That's not to say that I might not have resolved it faster with help,
of course.)

I just want to say that there is one very striking way in which the ear
*can* be misleading, and your expert teacher would certainly point it
out. It's that loud, short staccato can sound very much as though it's
being produced by a vigorous, weighty tongue action.

Now, that's true in the low register, because there, the reed takes
quite a lot of stopping. But it's not true in the upper register, where
a very gentle contact over a very small area of the reed is what's
required for both long and ultra-short staccato.

(You could say that the whole problem of staccato is to do with how the
*stopping* is very different from the *starting*, and with the fact
that they may interfere with each other.)

For younger (and even older;-) students, I often use an illustrative
story about two princesses that I described here in a conversation with
Ann Hall:

http://www.woodwind.org/Databases/Logs/1999/12/000878.txt

That post also includes a reference to an earlier article of mine that
goes into the whole business of articulation in greater depth.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Meandering to a different drummer.

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