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Re: tounging

Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2006-08-13 14:59

Kristin - Try this: pick an easy piece with a string of repeated quarter notes, like Mary Had a Little Lamb. Play the notes with a separation between each. Without tonguing you are starting and ending each note with a puff of air.

Now play it over and over while getting faster each time. Once you get really fast you will get to a point where you simply cannot puff fast enough. This is where the tongue comes in. It can move much faster than you can possibly puff.

Think about it, if our tongue wasn't an amazingly intellegent and fast moving muscle we could hardly speak.

Using your tongue will also eventually lead to have better sounding note beginnings. Be patient with this and take your time listening to the sound your tongue makes until it gets nice and clean.

Try the easy song again using your tongue. Do not stop the air with separate puffs, but let the tongue touching the reed interrupt the sound while keeping the air stream moving. As you get better at this it will sound better and you can play faster music. For anything beyond 1st year music, you really need to use tonguing.

John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com

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