 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jlcraig
Date: 2012-02-26 22:43
I recently was told that I am anchor tonguing. For as long as I have played clarinet I have played like this, but just did it naturally. I am just starting to try and break the habit of anchor tonguing. Are there any exercises that could help me to break my habit of anchor tonguing?
Thanks!
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Author: kdk
Date: 2012-02-26 23:42
Were you told that it sounded bad? There are players who anchor tongue very successfully.
Karl
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Author: jlcraig
Date: 2012-02-27 00:06
I was told that I could be much more successful if I stopped playing with anchor tonguing.
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2012-02-27 00:31
I was taught to anchor-tongue as an experiment by my first clarinet teacher, who taught all his other students to use conventional tonguing. I know it works for some people, bit it handicapped me badly all the way up through college.
I don't know of any specific exercises to switch over... I just did it and sucked for a while, as I imagine most people would. You might consider going through Reginald Kell's 'Clarinet Staccato from the Beginning' using your new tongue style.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2012-02-27 00:44
Anchor tonguing is done by anchring the tip of the tongue to the back of your bottom teeth and then contacting the reed for articulation with whatever part of the middle of your tongue hits it.
Jessica, I'm definitely not trying to put you on the defensive, but sometimes well-meaning colleagues and even teachers, when they discover that you're doing something they consider "wrong" (unconventional), want to convince you to make changes that aren't really needed. If anchor tonguing is causing some defect in the sound of your staccato (noise, unusual sluggishness), then it may be important to change it. But anchor tonguing is, or at least has been used by some very successful players. My first private teacher back in the 1960s was Leon Lester, then the bass clarinetist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The way he taught me to tongue was anchor tonguing (though he didn't call it that), and I assume he learned it from his teachers, one of whom was Lucien Caillet. The important thing is to tongue noiselessly and with agility.
Were you told that you shouldn't anchor tongue by your clarinet teacher? Why did it come up? As I say, there may be a good reason to change your way of articulating, and if you're going to make any significant change at all, it may as well be to move away from anchoring to letting the tongue tip area hit the reed, rather than trying to repair the anchor tonguing itself. But, in my opinion, it makes a difference why you're trying to make the change. It will, for at least a short while, very likely cause discomfort in your playing.
Karl
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2012-02-27 02:46
Anchor tonguing is a technique that was once in vogue, but for some reason, it fell out of favor many years ago.
In Keith Stein's The Art of Clarinet Playing, he discusses anchor tonguing in depth.
He mentions that "the French school of playing has successfully incorporated the mid-tongue method to take care of the 'long tongue' problem." Stein suggests it as a great way to tongue, although he doesn't present it as the only way. As an alternative to placing the tip of the tongue on the lower teeth or on the gums just below, Stein suggests placing it "on the inside membrane of the lower lip."
Stein wrote the book in the 50s, and I studied with him in the 70s. He worked with me on tonguing, but he never once said a word about anchor tonguing. Perhaps he realized that the technique was no longer in vogue, perhaps he didn't think it would help me, or perhaps he no longer believed in it--I'll never know for sure.
I agree with Karl. If you're getting good results, there's no reason to change. Perhaps you could experiment with placement of the tongue's tip.
Post Edited (2012-02-27 02:50)
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Author: michael13162
Date: 2012-02-27 04:00
I am regular tongue er (tip of tongue to tip of reed) and my teacher has been telling me to anchor tongue. Should I comply?
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Author: salzo
Date: 2012-02-27 11:05
When I used to play single lip, I often anchor tongued when rapid articulation was required. My method placed the tongue on the membrane belowthe lower lip.
I remember working on double tonguing with my teacher at the time, who was principal clarinet of a major orchestra.
He was telling me to say "Duh guh". I played a rapidly articulated passage my way. He said it sounded good, and that it was "correct". He then mentioned that he always thought I was double tonguing, because of how clean and rapid my tongue was.
I told him I was not doing it the way he said to do it. WHen I explained what I was doing, he said "YOu are anchor tonguing!! YOU CANT ANCHOR TONGUE!!".
When he thought I was tonguing his way, he thought it was great-when I told him what I was actually doing, now it sounded bad. I said I would work on his way-next lesson I played it my way, he said it sounded great. I of course tld him I was doing it his way.
I learned a lot those two lessons. What matters, is not what you are doing, but what it sounds like in the end. Everybody has different physical equipment, use what you have to get the sound that you desire.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2012-02-27 12:30
I agree that what really matters is how it sounds. You and your teacher will need to find what is best. It is impossible for any of us to be able to suggest what will work for you without hearing you play.
I anchor tongued when I was younger, but changed it due to some advice to help improve the cleanliness of my attack and speed. I had a lot of trouble making the switch, but spent the better part of one summer working on articulating slow repeated tones, gradually adding range and speed. The key was patience.
Good luck.
Post Edited (2012-02-29 12:04)
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Author: jlcraig
Date: 2012-02-28 00:36
From the little time that I have been experimenting I have discovered that I can get about the same sound quality with both methods but I do notice it is harder to tongue fast and staccato with anchor tonguing.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2012-02-28 03:29
This has been controversial for some time now. Some teachers consider it wrong and some consider it fine. I've never been able to do it myself but have had some students tongue that way. There are usually limitations to only being able to tongue that way. Usually it's the sound of starting a note, tonuing softly or delicately or even very fast. I've always encouraged students to learn to tonue the conventional way and use both techniques as needed. I have some guides to tonguing on my website in my clarinet pages, check them out and see if you can learn something about how to tongue that way as well. It may take a little time to get the hang of it but it will get easier and easier as you learn to do it. Just be patient when you begin. Just start on a single note, advance to simple scales and then to simple etuds. Take it slow and easy. ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2012-02-28 20:28
"...but I do notice it is harder to tongue fast and staccato with anchor tonguing."
Yeah, that was my main issue. My tongue was anatomically incapable of doing, say, the fast triplet stuff in Scheherezade using anchor tonguing, so I resorted to all kinds of weird fake throat stuttering and other questionable fakey solutions just to keep up. The good news is that I don't think it ever takes as long to change techniques like this as you think it will – I always dread making major technique adjustments – and the benefits of faster and cleaner tonguing will be very encouraging. Also, with floating tongue I can now do stuff like that David Pino double-tonguing, which is pretty great and useful.
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Author: elmo lewis
Date: 2012-02-29 01:58
Everyone is talking about rapid tonguing but I would like to know how anchor tonguing affects your ability to play accents, sforzandos, secco staccato, etc. How about some comments from anchor tonguers.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2012-02-29 02:04
These days there may not be many around to provide comment.
Karl
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Author: RefacerMan
Date: 2012-02-29 16:04
Usually people resort to anchor tonguing if they have long or bulky tongues. Anchor tonguing provides a way to "shorten" the distant to the contact point that will touch the reed and actually do the tonguing. It can affect the quality of the attack of a note. Generally you have a wider area of the tongue (the middle of your tongue) contacting the reed with anchor tonguing than with tip to tip tonguing, so there can be a slight thud sound to the attack with anchor tonguing. Anchor tongue attacks can also sound a little less crisp than tip to tip. At best these differences are subtle with someone who is very good at anchor tonguing. You can do all the attacks and accents, etc. with anchor tonguing, but they may not sound as crisp and precise as tip to tip. One thing you can do well with anchor tonguing is produce a "half-stopped" staccato, where the note doesn't stop sounding entirely, but the volume decreases about 90% and you can hear a "ghost" of the tone still sounding. Some clarinetists seem to like using this staccato.
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