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Growth to expect in tonguing speed

Author: ceeslaw
Date: 2019-03-23 04:43

I just started playing clarinet in July, and I've been a reasonably quick study (am now a good ways through the Rubank Advanced Vol. 1). My problem is that my tongue seems to be quite sluggish. I can only tongue sixteenths at around quarter = 78 bpm on an open G, which slows to around 66 or slower so on simple scales.

My question is, is your approximate speed ceiling something one tends to have from the beginning, or do you see growth as you progress through the beginning stages of clarinet playing? My teacher uses anchor tonguing, though she's not dogmatic about it, and I don't tend to anchor the tongue rigidly but I do lightly tuck the very tip behind the top of my lower front teeth. In general she doesn't seem too concerned about my lack of speed at this stage, but I'm an anxious type and want to make sure I establish good fundamentals so I don't have to go back and do a lot of fixing later. Also I'm curious if I can expect to see much speed acquisition as I continue study, or if one tends to be able to gauge if one has the goods for fast tonguing (or not) fairly early on. Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide!

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