 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ayylamo
Date: 2018-03-15 03:37
I've been told that I slap tongue and need to fix it. Any tips?
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Author: GenEric
Date: 2018-03-15 04:58
I don't think slap tongue is the appropriate term. Perhaps heavy tonguing? If so, what problems are you having? Are you having trouble tonguing quickly or lightly?
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Author: JF Clarinet
Date: 2018-03-16 02:40
Try changing the way you think about articulation. Articulation can be an attack on the reed, and that is how many people treat it. Instead try this. When you take a breath as you are about to play, while you breathe in, place your tongue on the reed in your desired location. Your initial articulation should be a release from the reed. Just as you can say the letter d or t throwing your tongue at your top front teeth, you can also have your tongue already on those teeth and say those letters as more of a release.
If your articulation are overly aggressive, or you are unhappy with your current articulation, this is a good way to fix that. There are other benefits to this method, but this is the main one you'll notice quickly.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2018-03-16 03:11
There is a technique called slap tongue. It involves suction to create a popping sound. Is that what's being referred to? If your normal articulation involves suction, then that's a problem and needs to be changed. On the other hand, if you intend to slap tongue and it isn't working right, that's another story.
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Author: Jarmo Hyvakko
Date: 2018-03-16 10:34
There's nothing wrong with anchor tonguing. Ken Shaw in his writing draws a very black picture of it.
First of all anchor tonguing doesn't necessarily slow down your articulation. If you happen to have a longish tongue, using a tip-to-tip technique may even slow down you because you have to bend your tongue upwards to reach the tip of the reed. And that causes tension that stiffens the movement.
Second, using a portion of your tongue a bit further back gives you a possibility to variate the quality of the attack by slightly shaping the form of your tongue and thus the size of the area your tongue touches the reed.
Third, anchor tongue doesn't necessarily dullen the sound. What is dull? Dark, covered, soft, mysterious? What is clear and centered? Reedy, too bright, screaming, thin? There is no need putting more lip between the reed and teeth, actually i have exactly the same half-of-the-red there that Ken Shaw describes. That helps me keeping my tongue long, straight and relaxed in my mouth.
Actually it may help you to get more core to the sound, if you have quite thin lips, as i do. Because when your tongue lightly touches your lip (not your teeth!) it gives more substance to your lower lip, makes it thicker. One thing is sure, it has no effect whatsoever to your lip support in your embouchure. If you bite the mouthpiece, you bite it, no matter how you articulate.
So, anchor tounging is not a mysterious tropical disease, you have to cure. It's just an other way to articulate!
Jarmo Hyvakko, Principal Clarinet, Tampere Philharmonic, Finland
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Author: GenEric
Date: 2018-03-16 11:06
I would also like to note that when you're tonguing with the tip of your tongue, the actual tip is lower than what you perceive. Look at the mirror and put the tip of your tongue on the reed and you'll see.
If you tongue with higher fleshy part, the start of your note, especially in the lower register will not be clean which is something I heard a lot in the county band I was in a couple months ago.
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Author: Jarmo Hyvakko
Date: 2018-03-18 10:06
That is easily fixed by shaping your tongue so, that it won't cover the edges of the reed, when articulating, controlling the amount of saliva in your mouth while playing and learning the proper way to attack the sound: the sound doesn't begin by hitting the reed by your tongue, it starts by letting the air pressured by your abdominal muscles go into the instrument by quickly releasing your tongue resting on the reed.
Jarmo Hyvakko, Principal Clarinet, Tampere Philharmonic, Finland
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