 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: traysee
Date: 2002-12-30 20:41
I have a clarinet student who is in eighth grade. When she first started to take lessons with me, she didn't tongue-at all. (I didn't start her.) I went through all the explanations about how to tounge and even tried to show her through physical examples. I even went back to the beginning of her lesson book in order for her to learn how to toungue without all of the other technical challanges getting in her way. Over a year has past and she is only now starting to tongue. Even then it is only part of the time. When I ask her about it-she tells me she is tonguing but it all sounds like slurring to me. She has also said that she can not tell the difference in the sound of a correctly tounging note and her slurring/tounging. It is frustrating to both of us because if it were not for this one problem, she would be able to play much more than she can now. I have asked several band directors and have already searched this website. Has anyone have/had students like this or have any suggestions. Thanks in advance.
Traysee
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Author: buffet^RC
Date: 2002-12-30 23:03
hm.,.,., give her sum time to try.. start to tounge slowly and clearly then slowly add the speed.. make sure it is clear..
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2002-12-30 23:48
You can often fix the problem with a bit of reverse psychology. Start the student playing long notes and have them deliberately cut the note off with the tongue. Gradually shorten the notes from semi-breves to minims, then crotchets and then quavers repeated rapidly so the difference between tongueing the end or beginning of the note becomes hard to distinguish. Also work on semi-staccato or portamento ie. tongueing lightly within a slur but not breaking the slur.
This problem is generally a co-ordination thing more than a pysical problem and may take some time to fix. She could be having you on as well.
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2002-12-31 14:24
You obviously are doing all that you can possibly do for your student and she is probably doing her best to understand, and both of you are getting frustrated. You could speak with another experienced teacher and then send your student to that teacher for one or two lessons to work specifically on the tonguing.
While teaching I've found that in these situations another person is able to explain things using a different line of reasoning or a different method that the student can instantly connect to. We are all individuals with different thought processes, and so are our students. That simple method could break up the frustrating log-jam and you and she can progress through the studies successfully.
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Author: Kim
Date: 2002-12-31 14:53
The syllable my college clarinet teacher taught me on is "Dut". What you do is have her say "Dut" and then have her say "dut" through playing. Ask her if the tip of the tongue is hitting the tip of the reed. If it isn't keep on asking until it is.
Other sounds for articulation are "de-ut", etc.
Happy New Year.
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Author: Dee
Date: 2002-12-31 15:39
"Tut" instead of "Dut" tends to give a cleaner, quicker articulation.
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Author: Liesel
Date: 2002-12-31 16:53
I'm a freshman music major in college and I have a very hard time tonguing. I have always had a slight speech problem and am almost certain that is the related problem. That's what my current teacher has concluded is probably the problem, too. The only way I can toungue quickly is further back on my tongue giving a legato sound because I can't really physically move my tongue quickly and accurately the way that one correctly tongues - it sounds more like a thwat sound that a clear tonguing sound. My teacher gave me studies that require me to tongue continuous sixteenths but I wanted to tell you the other thing I'm doing to try to improve my tonguing. I play scales in whole notes and concentrate on tonguing correctly. Doing it slowly helps me to think about doing everything right each time. Hopefully as time goes on and with practice I will move on to half notes, quarters, etc.
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