Klarinet Archive - Posting 000655.txt from 2003/08

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Articulation Problems
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 00:59:25 -0400

Howard posted:

<<<My articulation is simply awful. I hit the reed with my tongue like a
hammer hitting an anvil.>>>

Short answer - don't. (This is, of course, easier said than done.) See
below.

<<<Any helpful hints, exercises or stories that would help me would be
greatly
appreciated.>>>

It's hard to diagnose and treat a malady over email - it would always be
better to see in person. My guess is that, among other things, you are
using way too much tongue pressure.

I'll share an exercise I found helpful.

Play an open G. Nice and full. Touch the tip of the reed with the tip of
your tongue, just hard enough to muffle (BUT NOT STOP) the tone. Feel the
buzz on your tongue. It may help to touch the corner of the mouthpiece
instead of the center, too.

Congratulations - that's exactly the amount of pressure you need to
articulate. (Perhaps a tad more for *really* explosive staccato, but not
much. Work on that later.) The reed, you see, is quite thin; you don't
have to kill it to make it stop vibrating. Any more pressure than this gets
in the way and slows you down.

A technique that follows on from this is to *never* stop the reed's
vibrations, only muffle them. My teacher called this "dud" tonguing - there
would always be a "d" subtone in the space between articulated notes.
Keeping the vibrations going makes intervals easier as well.

Once you get the hang of this, it's easy to manage the subtone so that it
isn't too loud (i.e., audible to an audience).

Good luck,

kjf

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