 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: NBeaty
Date: 2010-08-29 22:33
When articulating, I sometimes find myself hitting the top of my tongue to the roof of my mouth. It does not stay there any time where my tongue is not on the reed (not anchor tongue).
My guess is that either my hard palate is just a bit lower in this area than most people or my angle of mouthpiece is a bit more vertical, or a combination of both.
I can easily articulate without touching the roof of my mouth (doesn't feel strange or foreign like asking someone who anchor tongues to use the tip of their tongue).
I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this themselves or had students who have this happen? Any thoughts?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Gretchen
Date: 2010-09-02 01:16
I've had students who have had this issue before. What is the angle of your clarinet in your mouth? You might want to play around with that without your tone suffering) and see if it makes a difference. You either might have to raise your clarinet up, or bring it closer to you.
Also, if this is a random thing that happens, make sure that you're practicing so you're using the same part of your tongue on the same part of the reed each and every time you articulate. By practicing this way, you won't have to worry that your tongue might touch the roof of your mouth since you're in control of where it hits. 
Hope this helps! Happy Practicing!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: EEBaum
Date: 2010-09-02 01:27
A bit off-topic, but I'm on the fence about the tongue-on-the-same-part-of-the-reed advice. I'm finding a slight variation in tongue-reed contact point to be quite effective, especially in passages with fast, repeated articulation. From what I can figure, there are benefits both with grouping (for example, feeling articulations as a group of three with one big meta-articulation) and endurance (as you're not doing the exact same motion over and over).
Not advocating a huge variation, but I think that insisting on using the exact same spot on the tongue every time might be counterproductive in the long run.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-09-02 02:16
Well most players use the tip of the tongue touching slightly below the tip of the reed. There are other players with pretty fast articulation using the flat part of their tongue. I have no idea how they can do this. Simply said everyone is different.
I'm not sure if I completely understand your second post.
For practice, which I do almost everday as part of warming up and making sure the reed hasn't changed much is simply use the open "G" and try to articulate as lightly as possible, starting off a bit on the slow side and building up from there.
A very common mistake players make is thinking when they slip up when articulating fast passages is their tongue isn't keeping up with the fingers. In most cases, probably 90 percent of the time, the tongue is actually moving faster then your fingers.
So my point in practicing with something like an open "G" will allow you to try practicing as fast as you can on 1 note. As you develop more of a feel you can start adding a few notes. I would recommend giving yourself about 1 to 3 months to master this.
I don't really feel there is that perfect tongue placement on the reed. It depends on the player, mouths cavity formation, the amount of teeth can make a difference, the angle of the mouthpiece, along with several other variables. If you can articulate around 130 beats per minute you've pretty much mastered the art of articulating.
I've played double lip since the 70's and I find it is much easier for me to articulate, which is one of the major reasons I switched from single lip.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: vials
Date: 2010-09-03 14:51
To answer the original question, yes my tongue also touches the roof of my mouth when articulating. For slow articulation I can keep the tongue lower, but as soon as I try to articulate faster (16ths at maybe 110bpm and above) the middle section of my tongue almost anchors itself against the roof of my mouth, while the tip (or slightly above the tip) of my tongue touches just below the tip of the reed.
I don't think this is a good thing to do, but for me it feels like it's the only way to articulate relatively fast. I'm also interested in knowing if more people are experiencing this.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-09-03 16:44
I agree with what Bob said about articulating but keep in mind, your tongue may be longer, shorter, fatter or thinner than many players that tongue "the correct" way. I think the principal is to keep your tongue as close to the front of the reed as possible when articulating but not everyone can do that, as mentioned by Bob. I feel it's better to use as near the tip of your tongue to touch the reed even if you can't reach near the tip of the reed, which I think for most players is better than hitting the tip of the reed with a lot of tongue touching the reed, but as said, everyone is different. I do have some articles on tonguing on my website that have appeared in the clarinet journal years ago. Check it out and see if something clicks for you. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Connor
Date: 2010-09-03 22:15
Nbeaty
Just a thought, maybe compare double lip to single lip embouchure and where your tongue consistently hits the reed. I find that double lip tends to necessitate holding the clarinet a bit further from my body, hence addressing your hypothesis about the angle you hold the clarinet and how this relates to your articulation. In the Daniel Bonade "Clarinetist's Compendium", he recommends a mouthpiece angle of 45 degrees relative to the front teeth.
Does this problem: hinder the speed at which you can articulate, create an undesirable tone, or create unwanted quricks in the sound consistency? If not, maybe leave it alone?
Good Luck!
Connor O'Meara
MM. Clarinet Performance University of Texas at Austin (2012).
BM. Clarinet Performance University of Northern Colorado (2010).
Post Edited (2010-09-04 00:32)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
