 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ksclarinetgirl
Date: 2003-12-01 03:41
I'm a junior in college, and I recently started teaching lessons to clarinet students. They are two girls that are a sophomore and junior in high school. The girl that is a sophomore has been taken lessons from my private instructor, but for personal reasons, decided to leave her studio. Anyway, both of these girls live in a very small town in KS, and both of them "slap tongue" I have tried explaining tip to tip, I have tried having them close their eyes and visualize putting their tongue at the tip of the reed, and right now, I'm having them look at their throat moving in the mirror, and trying to tongue w/o having their tongue move, as well as listening to themselves tongue and try to fix it so they don't hear the tonguing. Both of these girls have a lot of potential if I could just help them fix a few things! I would really appreciate some advice, as I never had this problem and don't know how exactly to go about fixing it. Thanks everyone!!
Stephanie :o)
"Vita Brevis, Ars Longa"
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-12-01 05:03
This may not help, but I've found it to be successful for some of my students who are tonguing to hard. I'll have them playing a note (open G usually), then have them move their tongue very slowly until the tip of their tongue barely touches the tip of the reed. If they can do it right, the sound won't stop completely, it will just become fuzzy and muffle (since the reed is being constricted but not closed all the way). After they can do this, I'll have them meter it and do many 4 or 8 counts of tonguing so light that the sound doesn't even stop (this is a little hard to teach because you can't hear it well, but it works for me usually). Then have them do it slightly harder so that you get a slightly more define break, like a "legato-tonguing" style.. that's what I would call it anyway.
This has worked for me. Just emphasize lightness. Just saying tip of the tongue to the tip of the reed can be quite confusing, and if you're beating the reed half to death, it doesn't really matter what part of the tongue is hitting what part of the reed. You may also want to make sure that you are clear when you say "tip to tip".... The angle of the mouthpiece is very important. When I started playing clarinet (before I had a teacher) I heard about "tip to tip" and thought that it meant your tongue should be parallel to the clarinet! Of course, when my tongue was bunched up in my mouth and the clarinet was at a 90 degree angle to my body, I figure that couldn't be the right approach! (okay, it wasn't that bad, but I did try to tongue with my tongue hitting from a more parallel position). Maybe draw them a picture of a face with a clarinet and tongue to make sure they're getting the right angles.
The mirror suggestion is good if they are moving their chin or something when they tongue.
A good way for me (with students who actually care enough to do it) is to just stress that tonguing is a learning experience. Every mouth is different, and it's very tough to tell someone exactly what to do (what I wouldn't give for an x-ray machine to watch people tonguing!). If they have the "guidelines" and know how a good tongue should sound, I try to stress the importance trying different things and sticking with what works. This may sound like an excuse to just do whatever, but assuming the student is patient and dedicated, I think letting them experiment can really be a good (and if nothing else, it's a quick way for them to realize what DOESN'T work!)
I hope this is helpful
DON Hite
theclarinetist@yahoo.com
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