 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2026-03-13 19:32
I recently enjoyed several YT videos of one-time Sousa band principle cornetist Herbert L. Clark, and this video appeared. It's interesting. It briefly discusses "K-tonguing", which I gather is part of "T-K" double tonguing. Clark published exercises for K-tonguing alone.
Does anyone practice that way on clarinet? That's said to promote the "K" attack becoming closer to the front or tip of the tongue, as opposed to being back in the mid-tongue area. Most clarinet videos I've seen demonstrating double tonguing don't extend into the upper clarion or altissimo registers; it's been suggested elsewhere that the alternate ("K") attacks coming relatively further back in the tongue is a reason for that limitation.
Incidentally, Clark is said to have single tongued 16ths at 180 bpm for one minute. I wonder about that "one minute" stat. Brass players tongue differently than clarinet players. How fast can clarinet players actually single tongue? Or double tongue?
The extended staccato 32nds passage in the Nielsen cto is marked 72 bpm, or 144 for 16ths. I'm not there, lol, but it's part of my routine single tonguing practice. Anyone here play it as marked? Single or double?
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2026-03-13 20:23
It is a fact that there are individuals with extremely fast muscle fibers in their tongues and there are those without. I recall Julian Bliss saying that he doesn't double tongue because he just doesn't like the way it sounds. I've also had young students who I started on double tonguing and I got a question something like......"But how will YOU know if I'm double tonguing?"
For me, I approached my SLOW tonguing speed later in my life by developing a double tonguing technique that is ALL off the reed. This prevents a disparity in any physical difference from the T and the K. In essence there is really only a disturbance of the air flow rather than a pure "on" and an "off."
But I suppose there are many versions in between a pure "T" and "K" versus what I do for those of us who are not blessed with fast twitch musculature in the tongue.
..............Paul Aviles
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