 |
| Not quite what we had in mind... |
In Left Coast Playing the tongue is used to hold the air back before the note starts then aim it at the Target.
How do You Shoot?
 |
| Almost..have it..have to focus.. |
The guy on the left has a lot of fancy stuff helping him to pull the string back and some thing in his right hand that helps him to steady it and release it straight. It still looks difficult to do.
 |
| Ready! Aim! Fire! |
This is why we want to practice getting the air pressure built up while being restricted by the tip of the tongue (NOT the back) then released with an explosion at the beginning of the note.
Having the air pressure start at the same time as the note or worse, after the note starts is a major cause of clams, thin tone, bad attacks, notes that don't speak and other gifts from some angry horn god.
We are not saying that we always tongue this way but we advocate practicing clean, really hard tonguing all over your range.
Common Tonguing Mistakes
The most common mistake is to take a shallow breath. If you take a shallow breath your throat muscles including the lower parts of your tongue have to work to push the air out! How can they relax and control the air when they are tense and squeezing the air? It is imperative that you take a deep relaxed breath in order to learn to tongue well no matter what technique you use. Controlling the breath from Place #5 or above is simply asking for tonguing problems.
Another common mistake is to let your voice box close after taking a breath. This means the air has to be controlled in one extra location and it’s really hard to coordinate your tonguing if you have to control it from three different places. We want to control the air from as low down in the abdomen as possible and as close to the Target as possible. We don’t want to control it from inside the rib cage or in the throat.
The next most common mistake is not tonguing cleanly enough. What a huge disadvantage to not starting with a sudden burst of air. You have to get all the air in your horn vibrating at once. The cause of this is usually either the air pressure starting at the same time as the note instead of before, or the tongue being shaped incorrectly.
Moving the back of the tongue too much is a common problem. It cuts off the supply of air
When we are beginners it seems like all the notes are high notes and we instinctively aim upwards. This affects our tonguing too and most people tongue quite a bit too high in their mouths.
Tonguing should be done as close to the Target as possible for at the Target.
Left Coast tonguing gives you great control of note shape and articulation. It trains you to use the air to shape the notes, not the muscles of the face and neck.
The Four Steps for Everyday Tonguing
- As with all of our exercises you start with a deep, low relaxed full breath.
- Get the tongue in a position where it can prevent the air from escaping.
- Create air pressure between the lowest point of the lungs and the tongue.
- Release the tongue with an explosion of air.
Yes, we mean an explosion. We want all the air inside the horn to begin vibrating at once. if the air does not explode into the mouthpiece we tend to get an airy weak sound and a lot of facial tension.
It is much easier and faster to learn this kind of tonguing then learn different articulations than it is to just tongue things over and over hoping that someday it will sound good.
Once a good strong T sound is happening, practice creating the same sound more quietly. Try always to hear the T even when making really quiet attacks.
This doesn’t mean we always tongue hard or don’t learn legato tonguing. But our basic technique and the one we use most often is the clean tonguing that results from the four step system.
It is much easier and faster to learn this kind of tonguing then learn different articulations than it is to just tongue things over and over hoping that someday it will sound good.
Once a good strong T sound is happening, practice creating the same sound more quietly. Try always to hear the T even when making really quiet attacks.
This doesn’t mean we always tongue hard or don’t learn legato tonguing. But our basic technique and the one we use most often is the clean tonguing that results from the four step system.
This is in response to private emails I got but I thought this was worth putting here. Scott
ReplyDeleteThe techniques here are pedagogical in nature. I don't tongue with the air sitting behind my tongue waiting for 5 seconds all the time but if you can't do that you are not going to have the kind of control we want to develop. We want to have a wide palette of tonguing styles, from the softest touch to the hardest hammer. Most people 'just sort of tongue' and don't have a lot of technique, and sadly I find most players tongue too softly in general and it hurts their tone, causes clams, loss of endurance, etc.
The other problem that is all too common (and is the basis of all the breathing books by Arnold Jacobs, Claude Gordon and their followers) is closing the voicebox at the end of inhalation. If you close your voicebox at the end of inhalation you now have three places to control the air (Place #6, the voicebox and the tip of the tongue) instead of two and that's really tough to coordinate it.
For people that have this problem we eliminate the time between the breath and the tongue by eliminating the time between inhalation and tonguing the note.