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Re: Tongue Position

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2016-02-09 19:40

Agomongo wrote:

> 1. stick my tongue out as far as possible (so that the way back
> of the tongue touches my molars and NOT the part of the tongue
> 3/4's back)
> 2. my whole tongue is raised (not just the back of the tongue)
> 3. the tip of the tongue is as close as possible to the tip of
> the reed
>

To get all the way back to your original post...

I have the feeling that there are things implied but missing in the first couple of paragraphs that make me feel as though I've come into the middle of a longer conversation. What Midwest clinic paper do you mean? Who wrote it? Did your teacher mention that reed strength could noticeably affect the pitch of the B+MP test? The C-G-E test is somewhat an apples-to-oranges test compared to B+MP because E6 vented as G + the G# key is naturally sharper than venting with the open 1st finger. Was it supposed to test tongue position? Where did you get the suggestion? What was supposed to not happen if your tongue position was wrong?

In any case your three part process has some conceptual problems if you try to use it to explain to other people (students?) what you do:

1. Your tongue goes a lot farther back than you probably think. The "way back" of your tongue isn't coming anywhere near your molars. It's closer to your uvula. You're still very "middle" of your tongue. Meanwhile, the back may be doing something you really don't intend, perhaps coming upward toward the soft palate and closing the opening. Though, since that would reduce the opening, it ought to make the air speed up by some theories, which maybe would make it an unintended benefit. (I don't think so.)

2. Exactly - this is very likely, though I'm not certain it's anatomically inevitable. But it also may be a problem (see #1).

3. Now, you're placing where everything is at such a level of priority that some players whose tongues don't naturally find this position will have to contort to some extent to comply. Contortion leads to rigidity and, as most voice teachers and choral directors will tell you (though it seems to elude a great many teachers of wind instruments), rigid soft tissue inside the mouth will damp resonance and dull the tone.

Positions of things can't take precedence over the sound produced by whatever the player does. If you try to teach this as a three step approach for every student you meet, you may help some, but perhaps frustrate many others. You and they need, to some extent literally, to play this kind of thing by ear. A good teacher helps solve individual problems, not create copies of a template.

Karl

Post Edited (2016-02-09 20:06)

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Tongue Position new

Agomongo

2016-02-08 04:51