 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: THE Big J
Date: 2000-11-18 16:13
Hello, my name is Jeanie. I've been playing some pieces lately that have alot of tongued 16th runs. I find it really hard to go fast enough, and when I do try to go a little faster, my fingers and my tongue don't match up. Any suggestions to fix this? Thanks
-Jeanie
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Author: jbutler
Date: 2000-11-18 16:24
Try timing the fingers to the tongue INSTEAD of trying to get the timing on the tongue to the fingers. I feel the tongue is more rhythmical than the fingers.This always helps me.
John
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Author: Fred
Date: 2000-11-18 16:34
Another practice trick that I was taught seemed to work well for me . . . though I'm not really sure why. Practice the 16th note runs first as dotted 16th's and 32th's (DAH dit DAH dit . . .); then go back and practice it 32th's and dotted 16th's (dit DAH dit DAH . . .). After you've worked it out both ways, try playing it as written and see if it isn't easier.
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Author: William
Date: 2000-11-18 18:01
In addition to the above good advice, practice first at a tempo that you can coordinated your fingers and tongue at. Practice over and over again for "perfection" and pretty soon, without even noticing it, you will graduially speed up. This gradual practice may take weeks or longer--don't expect success "over night," if you do, you will become more frustrated discouraged and may never develop the skills you need to play faster. Remeber, we all crawled be fore we learned to run. Good clarineting.
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Author: Steve
Date: 2000-11-18 19:40
My teacher says if you practice them using different rhythms it helps. He says to first try it as a dotted 8th and 16th rhythm (like Fred said). Next use an 8th and a 16th note triplet. Then play the passage augmented, that is play 8th notes where it has 16th notes, and so on. Good luck!!!
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Author: Samual
Date: 2000-11-18 19:45
I can't believe your having trouble coordinating your tongue with you fingers on mere 16th notes! I think it's time you quit.
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Author: Fred
Date: 2000-11-18 21:04
Samual -
Your rudeness is appalling. Compounding that, however, is a lack of understanding. Without stipulating the tempo of the piece, you have absolutely no idea of how fast the 16th notes are. Apparently you are in the habit of saying things you haven't thought of yet.
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Author: Kim L.
Date: 2000-11-18 21:22
Excuse me, college students, who are music majors, have trouble tonguing! I am still learning and I've been playing 11 years. I have trouble tonguing, my tone quality needs improvement, etc. If you put down people for little things, then how will they want to get better? Get a life!
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-11-18 22:00
Samuel, your statement is inexcuseable. You have no way of knowing what tempo these are at. Plus you have no idea of the person's stage of development. Difficulty synchronizing the fingers and tongue is one of the commonest problems that students have at fast tempos. Often they erroneously think that they have a slow tongue when the real problem is the synchronization.
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-11-18 22:08
It is an excellent sign that you have been able to identify this as a coordination problem. Many students simply think that their tongue or fingers are slow, which is seldom the case.
Several things can help.
1. Just relax and go for it. Tension slows you down.
2. Focus on the fingers. They need to get to the note slightly before the tongue.
3. Start slowly and gradually increase your speed.
A drill described by Daniel Bonade in "The Clarinetist's Compendium" goes something like this.
1. Start slowly.
2. Finger the note but do not play it. Then start the note playing. Then stop the note playing.
3. Finger the next note but do not play. Then start the note. Then stop the note.
Continue this practice a little each day gradually increasing the speed. You will notice that the *fingers* move to each note *before* the note is actually sounded.
Eventually you will get there. No one picks up speed and accuracy overnight. Even advanced players will sometimes have a bad day and have synchronization difficulties.
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-11-18 23:12
This an area that can be frustrating and challenging. I for one have been having trouble with this since the beginning. First I had a bad speech impediment when young so I never have had full control of my stupid tongue to begin with. Then when I started in bigginers band (they made Studebakers then) I learned a wrong technique that plagued me till I got a hold a good teacher. Now I just have to practice and practice. Even if you learn the right way first, it still takes time.
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Author: Mike Hancock
Date: 2000-11-19 02:31
Let me join the club, too! One of my current frustrations is exactly the same..... coordination of tongue and fingers on fast staccato runs. I appreciate the advice and suggestions above and will try some of them myself.
Mike Hancock
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2000-11-19 08:06
If you tongue or slurr between two notes in ultra, ultra slow motion you realize that there is a messy noise between any two notes. Now realize that when you speed up a passage all you do is shorten the CLEAR part of the note, but the messy noise remains the same length - if not longer. Therefore to practice playing well fast you must shorten the messy noises between notes. This can only be done by very careful listening to these noises, and perfecting coordination of everythiing involved - fingers, breathe pressure, tongue, embouchure, etc. This can only done while one is playing slowly.
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Author: Robin
Date: 2000-11-19 10:16
I have a feeling Samual was being sarcastic. Just shows the communication problems this sort of tehcnology can lead to, I guess! Even still, it's walking a fine line, and sarcasm is supposed to be the lowest form of wit. For my part, I just think it works better face to face!
Rob
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-11-19 12:38
Here is another thing to check for. When tonguing, make sure that your jaw does not move, only the tongue should move. A lot of people move the jaw a bit and this really slows things down and throws off your coordination.
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Author: mark weinstein
Date: 2000-11-19 15:32
My teacher says (that we all need) to practice slow & to build up speed slowly.
Also, practice variations with odd-even tempo & even-odd tempo. By doing this we LEARN the piece to be tongued better, it becomes MORE familiar to us. When music is more familiar we can play it FASTER.
I have a piece that I practice as part of my (everyday) warmup. It is Etude #4 in Rose 32. This Etude will help build tongue speed (& breathing). You can start Etude #4 slowly & build up your speed. It definitely will make your tongue faster & give you better control over your tongue.
Much good luck to you.
mw
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