Video: Clarinet Articulation With Tonguing & Slurring

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Learn clarinet articulation techniques including tonguing and slurring with expert music training tips in this free online instrument instruction video clip.

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mladyhazel May 27, 2009
I am having a hard time with tonguing. I tend to close off my throat every time I tongue which delays the sound and makes a slight scooping tone. I can see my throat move when I tongue. I don't know how to get myself to stop and furthermore, I am assuming that the tip of my tongue touches the tip of the reed. How do I stop myself from closing my throat and just learn to let the air flow? Thanks!
springly Aug 02, 2008
I do not think that you need to state that tonguing is the most difficult thing for beginners. Perhaps, it is for you and your beginners. Normally telling beginners that something is difficult you are already setting them up for failure. In addition, you state the tongue touches the upper portion of the reed. You never state what part of the tongue touches. By failing to make this clear many students will start anchor tonguing ... not knowing it is incorrect. Tip of tongue is places on the tip of reed. The tongue should feel the reed tickle it. The tobgue does stop the vibration of the reed. Telling the student that the tobgue closes the reed is incorrect- this will cause many to slap tongue. Important to use the correct verbage and to not leave out important words.
springly Aug 02, 2008
The biggest problem I hear with beginners is the the quality of tone...rather the lack of a good characteristic tone quality.
clarinetmagic Aug 02, 2008
That is incorrect. You don't close the opening off. All you need to do is stop the vibration of the reed.
clarinetmagic Aug 02, 2008
That is incorrect. You don't close the opening off. All you need to do is stop the vibration of the reed.

Video Transcript

Hi! I’m Leslie Burnick. Today I’m going to talk about proper articulation on the clarinet. Articulation is another word for tonguing or slurring, but in this case I am going to talk about tonguing because that is the most difficult thing especially for beginners. Now the hardest thing about me teaching you about tonguing is you cannot see in my mouth when I do the tonguing. So I am just going to a kind of use my finger to demonstrate what it is we are going to be doing. You will have the clarinet in your mouth and if this is your tongue, you are just going to gently touch towards that tip of the reed and each time you touch it, the reed is actually going to close off against the mouthpiece and that stops the sound for a brief moment. Now generally when you do the tonguing you are going to keep blowing. So the best way to learn how to do this is to keep the air going and just start putting your tongue on the reed. Sometimes I tell students, if you think about just kind of the darting tongue of a snake, sometimes that helps them. So I’m going to tongue some notes for you. Now when you are tonguing you also should see very little, if no movement in your neck and your cheeks and your mouth. You should not really see anything. All the movements should be inside your mouth. So if you are moving too much then you are not going to get as good a sound or you may be tonguing improperly. Again, so again that is tonguing. When you start to tongue different notes in a row, you are going to tongue each note and again it takes a little coordination in getting your fingers and tongue going the same speed. So again that is tonguing. Now if I do the same thing without using my tongue it is called slurring. So with that I just, I am blowing straight through the notes and it just moves right from one note to the next. So again slurring sounds like this, and articulating or tonguing sounds this way.

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Clarinet Articulation With Tonguing & Slurring

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