Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • June 2014
19
MEC:
So how do you tongue rapidly?
JD:
Tonguing fast is just taking it off and putting it
on more quickly. Slow legato is having it off the reed
most of the time. Slow staccato is having it on the reed
most of the time.
MEC:
When you’re putting the tongue back on the
reed, is a syllable used? It’s not another “tee”, is it?
JD:
Not really. I suppose you could think of it that
way, but that’s thinking too hard. So just go “tshhhh,
tshhhh, tshhhh.” Now form your embouchure and say
the same thing. That’s legato tonguing. Now go like
this: “Tsht, tsht, tsht.” That’s staccato tonguing. Then
you just start to develop faster and faster tonguing.
Clarinetists often think it’s one gesture to take the
tongue off and another gesture to put it back on,
when in fact all you’re doing is releasing the reed
and stopping it again when you want silence, in one
flowing motion.
MEC:
So, you’re not stopping with the air; you’re
stopping with the tongue.
JD:
Largely, yes. Unless you get into an air release,
which shapes the back of the note, but that’s more
complicated.
MEC:
So with beginners, I usually start them with
all connected notes so that they don’t have to deal with
that. They don’t have to deal with the ends of the notes
because it’s just the start of the next note.
JD:
Exactly. The end and the beginning of the note
are really simultaneous, that’s the thing. I don’t think
you really need to talk about the end too much, until
it comes to making different musical shapes. And that’s
later.
MEC:
So you don’t want to do that when they’re
beginners, but you have to get into it later.
JD:
My big things are think of a teee more than
a taww because taww pushes the tongue down, and
only have them move the tip of the tongue. And the
tongue mainly stays in the “shh” position while doing
this. Make sense?
MEC:
So, they must isolate the tip of the tongue.
JD:
Yes, I think that’s a very good suggestion. I’m
always saying “shhh,” then put the t on it: “Tshh, tshh.”
I ask students to touch the part of the reed with the
part of the tongue we talked about. They can even pull
it out of their mouth so you can see. It’s a funny thing
to do with young students. Sometimes you’ll find that
the tip of their tongue is actually behind the teeth. A
lot of it sort of relates to the way they speak. When
I’m one-on-one with students, I really listen for the
sound their t’s or d’s, and sometimes they don’t work.
Sometimes they actually articulate off the bottom teeth
when they say tee. If they do, it’s no wonder they’re
anchor tonguing. That’s what we taught them to do.
So you have to make sure this syllable works for each
student.
MEC:
What notes would you use for a tuning
sequence in a concert band setting, or how do you
tune yourself?
JD:
That’s a really good question. I teach our college
students to try to understand their concert A, which is
the orchestra tuning note, but may not be best for our
instrument. I think the good notes on a clarinet are
actually a concert E-flat, our F. Ask students to play
the clarion F and then the thumb F to get a sense of
the range. Those usually tend to be pretty good notes
if you have a good embouchure. Our C, concert B-flat,
which is the note bands use to tune, is often sharp.
Usually with a pretty good embouchure, a little bit
of pull at the bottom of the barrel, and maybe a little
bit in the middle joint, evens out the clarinet. Most
clarinets are built that way.
Clarinet Clari ty: An Interview wi th Jul ie DeRoche