 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: lreid
Date: 2009-01-27 13:43
Greetings to everyone; new user here. . .
A question regarding the physical issue of tongue-tie. I have a clarinet student (college freshman, music ed major) who has this condition and has never had it corrected. Needless to say, her ability to articulate suffers. Has anyone here had experience with this condition, or with students who have had it? Is there any hope for improvement without the student having to have the tongue-tie clipped? And if she does elect to have it clipped, can she expect other problems to develop from that? I've not had a student with this condition ever before, so any information or advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2009-01-27 13:58
What exactly is this condition? The only time I've encountered the term "tongue-tied" it referred to a speech problem similar to a stutter caused by anxiety.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2009-01-27 18:37
Thanks, tictactux, for the link.
I can only vaguely imagine how the tongue may feel with this condition limiting its motion. If the middle of the tongue can be thrust forward a little, you may have the makings of classic "anchor-tonguing" in which the player anchors the tip of the tongue to a point behind the lower teeth and articulates by moving the top surface of the tongue toward the reed tip. Most American clarinet players I know reject this tonguing style, although it is the way I was first taught by a very prominent player who had been a student of an equally prominent French player in the early 20th century. If anchoring makes playing easier for your student, it could be a solution.
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Author: lreid
Date: 2009-01-27 21:35
We're definitely going to try anchor tonguing. We'll see how it goes.
I'd heard of the condition (though like you, kdk, not by that particular name), but I've never actually met, much less taught, anyone who had it. I asked the student to stick her tongue out as far as it would go, and you could see perhaps a quarter to a half inch of it from between her lips. She said her dad and her niece also have this condition, so definitely a genetic thing in that family.
Thanks, all, for your interest in this topic. I'll let you know how things turn out.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-01-28 12:20
Well that's a new one for me, I've never heard of this. I've often talked about people having different size body parts, especially the tongue, longer, shorter, thicker etc. but I never thought of this. Like kdk, I thought it was a speech problem. I assume she has spoken to a doctor about this, what is their opinion on recovery and possible related problems if any? Also, does this problem have any effect on anything else in her life outside of playing the clarinet? ESP
www.peabody.jhu.edu/457
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2009-01-28 14:47
I had a student with this problem. He could do incredibly fast single tongue, but when he had to do soft short notes in the upper register it didn't sound clear enough. Only then did I investigate how he does tonguing, and was very surprised to find that he had this tongue condition. He did "anchor tonguing", which worked very well, except for these quiet staccati. I spent many hours thinking about and experimenting with something to improve the problem but I wasn't able to fix it. I also don't know anybody who successfully manages to do this kind of tonguing (on a professional level), so I had nobody to consult. It must be possible somehow, as there are good players who apparently can tongue this way. If you find out more about it please let us know!
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