The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Improving Single Tongue Speed

Author: maxopf
Date: 2014-07-05 02:37

When I first picked up the clarinet in middle school 4 years ago, I wasn't really taught proper technique (beyond "put your lip over your teeth, close your mouth around the mouthpiece and say "ta"), so lately I've been working on fixing my embouchure and articulation. The most important points my teacher has taught me concerning fast articulation are:
-When you're tonguing fast staccato (i.e. Mozart 1st and 3rd movements), it doesn't really need to be short, "spiky", detached staccato. Use a softer, quicker and connected dadadadada syllable instead of a hard, detached ta-ta-ta-ta, and just interrupt the airstream with a flick of your tongue.
-Keep your tongue quite close to the reed to make tonguing more efficient. You won't be able to tongue quickly if you have move your tongue a great distance to and from the reed.
-Use more or less the tip of your tongue on more or less the tip of the reed (I believe there's some variance between players.)
-Don't use bursts of air for each tongued note; this is a very inhibitive habit I used to have. Say dadadadada with your tongue, but don't go huh-huh-huh-huh-huh with your air. Keep the air flowing constantly and just interrupt it quickly with your tongue.
-Make sure your fingers and tongue are in sync with each other. Sometimes you focus so much on tonguing quickly that you disregard efficiency in your fingers and your fingers fall out of rhythm. The tonguing doesn't sound clean even if it's done well because the fingers are in between notes.
-If it's necessary, add in a couple of slurs. For the Mozart concerto which I've been working on lately, I use a lot of slur-two-tongue-two in the first movement and slur-two-tongue-four in the 3rd movement.

The best way to piece all of this together for me is by practicing passages very slowly with a metronome, paying close attention to using a soft "flick" of the tongue and synchronizing my fingers and tongue. Start super slow (slower than you think you need to be), then increase the speed a very small amount after a few repetitions (maybe by 2 BPM at a time) and keep doing this until you've worked it up to speed.

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics