 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Andy
Date: 2001-03-24 07:38
Well, my conductor says that my tonguing is no good and i'm not sure how to tongue properly too,erm...so I have some questions and hope that you people out there will help me out...
Q1.What is the correct concept of articulation for clarinet? Is it the tongue touching the surface of the reed, stopping the vibration of the reed or using the tongue to push the reed against the mouthpiece stopping the air flow? which one is correct or both are wrong?
Q2. I read many clarinet books and they state that tonguing for clarinet is like saying "Tee","Te","Du" and many more different syllable...but my conductor says that tonguing should sound like saying "Tea",feeling the tongue punching against the teeth.Which is the correct one?
Q3.My conductor has been emphasising on CLEAR tonguing, how can I do to achieve a CLEAR and PRECISED tonguing?
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-03-24 09:37
Re Q2: I cannot understand the experts differentiating between ''T' & 'D'. to me the two are identical except that for 'D' the vocal chords are allowed to vibrate. Since we never play with vocal cords vibrating why use the image of 'D'? Or do others speak T & D differently from me?
Also, I cannot understand the differentiation between 'ee' and 'oo'. The tonguing is done by moving only the front part of the tongue, whereas changing the vowel sound is done by making changes to tongue shape further back. I appreciate that many players claim the shape further back, including openness of throat, affects tone, but I cannot see how it affects tonguing, unless you raise this part oof your tongue so high (with a pinched 'Ee") that it creates significant air turbulence. I would go for a 'Tah' sound myself because that gives a wide open airway. That's why the doctor's use it when looking down your throat.
I would never touch my teeth with any part of my tongue while playing. I did this for years on flute and had to unlearn it. "Punchin" against the teeth sounds completely wrong to me.
Re Question 1. I think the air does need to be stopped from going past the reed, otherwise there would be a hissy sound between the notes. Otherwise I leave the question to the experts.
I would, however, like to add to this question: Is the air stopped from hissing past the reed by pushing the reed closed from below, or by using the tongue to SEAL the gap between the reed and tip of the mouthpiece. I suspect that players differ here.
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-03-24 12:10
The tongue merely touches the reed. This stops the vibration. The ideal is tip of tongue to tip of reed but everyone's physical characteristics differ (long tongue, short tongue etc). So just try to get as close to this as possible. It is *not* necessary to "punch" the reed or to press it against the mouthpiece. These latter approaches yield poor results.
Here is a short description of how to develop tonguing. Do this slowly. This is paraphrased from Bonade's "Clarinetttist's Compendium." You will need to spend a lot of time on this exercise as it generally does not come naturally.
1. The tongue starts on the reed.
2. Begin blowing. Nothing will come out yet as the tongue on the reed does not permit the reed to vibrate. You should feel the back pressure at this point.
3. Continuing to blow, pull the tongue back off the reed. The sound should start.
4. Continuing to blow, place the tongue back on the reed. The sound should stop.
5. Now you may stop blowing.
The jaw should never move. A lot of people unknowingly move their jaw when tonguing and this gives very poor articulation. The particular syllable that you use (tee, tah, dee, dah, even lee or lah) is not as important as the concept shown in steps 1 through 5 of the exercise. In reality, I tend to use a variety depending on just what I'm trying to do such as staccato, legato, etc.
Another cause of poor tonguing is incorrect synchronization of tongue and fingers. Many people think it is bad or slow tonguing when in reality it is synchronization that is causing the problem. The main point to keep in mind for synchronization is that the fingers must lead the tongue, not the other way around.
Here is a synchronization exercise from the same book. It is very similar and also takes a lot of practice as it again doesn' come naturally.
1. The tongue starts on the reed.
2. Begin blowing. Nothing will come out yet as the tongue on the reed does not permit the reed to vibrate. You should feel the back pressure at this point.
3. Continuing to blow, pull the tongue back off the reed. The sound should start.
4. Continuing to blow, place the tongue back on the reed. The sound should stop.
5. Continuing the air pressure, finger the next note.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 5. You must continue blowing throughout. Work on this for a sequence of notes.
These exercises should be practiced slowly at first and then very gradually increased in tempo. It's slow, boring work but must be done if you truly wish to master tonguing.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-03-25 11:58
You wrote "2. Begin blowing. Nothing will come out yet as the tongue on the reed does not permit the reed to vibrate. You should feel the back pressure at this point."
If you can feel the back pressure then you have stopped air passing between the reed and mouthpiece tip. So back to my last paragraph question (previous post) You say you don't close the reed. Do you then seal the gap at the end with your tongue?
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-03-25 12:03
Gordon (NZ) wrote:
>
> You wrote "2. Begin blowing. Nothing will come out yet as
> the tongue on the reed does not permit the reed to vibrate. You
> should feel the back pressure at this point."
>
> If you can feel the back pressure then you have stopped air
> passing between the reed and mouthpiece tip. So back to my
> last paragraph question (previous post) You say you don't
> close the reed. Do you then seal the gap at the end with your
> tongue?
No you do not seal the gap at the end with your tongue. The tongue on the reed stops all vibration. Even though you haven't sealed the gap, there's enough of the tongue "in the way" so to speak that no air goes through anyway (at least for me) and hence the back pressure.
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Author: Bob Culbreth
Date: 2001-03-25 15:45
Maybe you should ask the conductor if they want a cleaner attack or more space between notes. If its space between the notes that the conductor actually wants, you can employ the stopped tonguing technique which is described in Bonades' compendium, the one quoted by Dee earlier. Simply put, you end each note with the tongue and release for the start of the next note. You can vary the space between notes ie. making them shorter or longer as needed. This technique takes alot of practice to perfect but it is a useful technique to have in your arsenal. If its a cleaner beginning to the notes that your conductor desires, you will as some of the others stated earlier, experiment with tongue placement and velocity. Make sure you are not anchor tonguing. This occurs when you anchor the tip of the tongue on your bottom teeth where they meet the gum and you use the middle of the tongue to articulate. You can become quite proficient at this as I did but there will always be a lack of carity and speed. As far as syllables, T or tee whatever, you are using the tip of the tongue in a pointed fashion. If you are using the d or dee syllables you are using that part of the tongue behind the tip of the tongue, which gives you a softer more legato attack. Anyway, that what I was taught from a Bonade student. This difference is easy enough to feel just by saying these syllables without the clarinet mouthpiece. I love hearing everyones' different opinions. We are never too old to pick something new up and experiment with it.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-03-27 12:33
Dee if no air escapes between the reed and the tip you must be stopping it from getting through some how. If you have air pressure then the only two ways I can imagine are blocking the opening of the tip, or pushing the reed sufficiently hard to close it against the mouthpiece. Please think hard what you do. It must be one of these or something I have not even imagined. As a relative amateur I'm curious about whether there is an agreed desirable method.
Re T or D. First, I never speak into my clarinet. If I whisper D my tongue position and action is identical to T. For me the difference between these spoken sounds is that for T the voice starts immediately AFTER the tongue movement, whereas for D the voice starts immediately BEFORE the tongue movement. Do we make these sounds differently? Is it a dialect thing? Is there a linguist in the audience?
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Author: Dee
Date: 2001-03-27 23:20
Gordon (NZ) wrote:
>
> Re T or D. First, I never speak into my clarinet. If I
> whisper D my tongue position and action is identical to T. For
> me the difference between these spoken sounds is that for T the
> voice starts immediately AFTER the tongue movement, whereas for
> D the voice starts immediately BEFORE the tongue movement. Do
> we make these sounds differently? Is it a dialect thing? Is
> there a linguist in the audience
When the clarinet is not in the mouth but one is just speaking, the T and D letters result in a slightly different tongue position in the version of English that I grew up with. So I would say it is indeed a dialect thing.
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