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Stop-tonguing and Light Articulation

Author: BaconLord
Date: 2019-10-29 05:37

So I’ve been having trouble when it comes to light tonguing. Let me provide some background and context to help understand.

I’ve been taught from a young age stop-tonguing. It’s been the only form of articulation I have used. As I have progressed and become more picky with my playing, I’m starting to realize that my stop-tonguing sounds too hard and percussive. I cannot play fast staccato articulation passages without playing lightly. I have tried countless times to lighten my tonguing by playing super slow and here’s what I found:

I cannot release my tongue lightly from the reed without an undertone or something sounding fuzzy. I also cannot stop the reed lightly and clean enough. As my tongue approaches the reed I can hear the reed closing and losing vibration but I have to do it quickly; otherwise it doesn’t sound clean. During all this I’m thinking constant and fast airstream but haven’t had success with eliminating the fuzziness and undertones.

Let’s the use one of the most feared excerpts in clarinet playing: The Mendelssohn Scherzo. I have always been told that the A’s in the 2nd and 4th measures need to be played with stop-tonguing. Makes sense, as they are written with staccatos. When I play them with stop-tonguing they sound hard, really short, and percussive, which is completely the opposite of the style. If I try to lighten up my tongue I get all that fuzzy stuffiness. The one method I can light up my tongue is to play long legato tonguing on the A’s, but that’s not what’s written. I need to get the lightness of legato tonguing in a staccato note. I don’t stop tongue legato tonguing (or do I and I don’t realize?).

Ricardo Morales is my freaking idol when it comes to articulation. He has the lightest articulation I have heard. Listen to his recent Weber 2, 3rd movement recording (it is on YouTube). Literal perfection. It’s like a stone skipping on water.

So now come my questions:
- What exercises should I do to lighten up my tongue?
- Is it possible to lighten up stop-tonguing? If not, is there an alternative method of staccato tonguing I can use that will be lighter than stop-tonguing?
- If stop-tonguing is the only good method of staccato tonguing, how can I approach it and practice it to make it lighter and cleaner?

I’m willing to put in the practice for it, but first I need to know what to do and what to look for when trying to lightly tongue. Thanks for reading and thank you in advance for any replies!

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