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 Double tongue, and articulation.
Author: HautboisJJ 
Date:   2006-03-18 12:55

How does one teach double tongue technique on the clarinet, or in this case, any single reed? How does one approach the pedagogy of this particular technique? I have heard of many syllable recommendations and stuff but until now i have yet found an efficient way to teach double tongue for single reeds. Maybe a review of how single tongue technique is approached will help? How is the concept of starting a tone with articulation taught? Thanks.

Howard

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 Re: Double tongue, and articulation.
Author: mnorswor 
Date:   2006-03-18 17:43

Robert Spring and Clark Fobes have written great articles about this very subject. Look them up!!

Michael

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 Re: Double tongue, and articulation.
Author: Tyler 
Date:   2006-03-19 00:17

I started by, of course getting my single artiulation to be fairly light and efficient. Then I practiced just the "k" or "g" strokes of double articulation, repeating "kee, kee, kee, kee kee kee" as lightly and quickly as I could without losing clarity. This is unnatural and difficult, but will help for later.

The main thing I would stress to a student is that they need to find whatever syllable allows them to move lightly and quickly, and does not severely alter the tongue position needed for correct voicing (high in back). For me, I anchor (well, that makes it sound tense--it's not) the back of my tongue in the "eee" position, then articulate something like "too-koo-too-koo-too". In speech, the vowel sounds like the dipthong 'ew'.

Double-tonguing is not easy, but it is not too difficult for most people to learn, and it has gotten me out of many a sticky Military-March-A-Tempo-Di-Oh-S!@#! situation. Just make sure students experiment with syllables to find what works for them.

As far as beginning a tone with articulation, I would say to abandon that mindset altogether. Explain to the student that the tongue DOES NOT BEGIN ANY NOTES. Air begins notes. BUT BEFORE AIR, THEIR NEEDS TO BE A HIGH DEGREE OF RELAXATION. Relax, breath, set the embouchure, use the fingers, THEN use the tongue to 'clean up' note entrances. This is a strong order of priorities for all clarinetists to follow. Is it necessary to learn how to apply the tongue to the reed at the beginnings of notes to give them definition? Yes. Is the tongue the beginning and end of all notes? No. Air (with help from relaxation and embouchure technique) is what creates notes.

Try teaching articulation concepts in this way. Also, strongly emphasize lightness of the tongue. Explain that all the tongue has to do is prevent the reed's tip from vibrating. The reed's tip is very small, and therefore, does not require any great pressure from the tongue before it stops vibrating.

All IMHO
-Tyler

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