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Re: Flutter tonguing

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2010-01-20 17:04

I've always been able to roll an R and flutter tongue as long as the note involved isn't above a G5 or so. My problem has always been sustaining the roll. Sometimes in a piece that needs a long flutter I just have to re-start it. It has a great deal, I think, to do with where your tongue touches the roof of your mouth. Another player once told me it needed to be back farther on my hard palette, but when I tried it I couldn't roll (or flutter) at all, suggesting to me that it must be a fairly individual location related to your tongue length. I find that my tongue needs to touch close enough to the front of my hard palette (very near my upper front teeth) that it's awkward to do it with the mouthpiece in a normal position, so I sometimes have to take less mouthpiece to provide room for the tongue roll (which is mostly why I can't do it much above the staff - I don't have enough reed in my mouth to produce anything higher).

In a pinch, if I can't make a legitimate flutter work, I hum along with the notes - a pretty standard jazz technique you probably already know that produces a growl effect. It's not a flutter, but most of the time it's enough of a distortion to get by.

Karl

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