Hi everyone. I just want to say thank you in advance.
A little on me: I am in highschool and I've been playing flute for 5 years. I played cello a year before I started, and caught up in the summer before school with private lessons. I quit lessons after a few months. I play on a Sankyo CF401.
I have been told that I have pretty good tone and musicality. However, my articulation is apparently all wrong. My lessons instructor tells me that I move the back of my tongue when I articulate and that it is keeping me from articulating quickly. I can't tongue anything fast yet I can move my fingers quickly enough. How can I work on keeping the back of my tongue from moving? I have been working on this for over a year now. I've tried articulating on a straw, Trever Wye's Articulation book where you remove the tongue and just bounce the year, and even putting erasers I between my teeth to try and stop it.My instructor is all out of ideas and is trying to contact a whole lot of people but I'm afraid I won't be able to fix it before several important auditions.
Thanks to everyone!
Tonguing while moving the back of the tongue?
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mikayla.l.diggs
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pied_piper
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Re: Tonguing while moving the back of the tongue?
Think of tonguing just like pronouncing words: Tah-Tah-Tah-Tah or Dah-Dah-Dah-Dah
That's a good start. After you become more proficient with those syllables, there are others you can add to your bag of tricks.
That's a good start. After you become more proficient with those syllables, there are others you can add to your bag of tricks.
"Never give a flute player a screwdriver."
--anonymous--
--anonymous--
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theflutepractice
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Re: Tonguing while moving the back of the tongue?
First of all. Relax! I have always struggled with tonguing myself and the crazy thing is that the more you stress about it the more tense you become and the more you cannot do it. Here are some tricks that really worked for me:
1) Relax your tongue. Bite down (gently!) on the edges of your tongue with your back teeth. Hold the tongue in place and just let the front of the tongue tap on the pallet behind teeth or wherever it lands naturally. I really struggled to hold my tongue in place in the beginning but with patience I learned to be able to use only the front tip of the tongue. (Eventually you can do this with double tonguing as well!). When this feels easy you can stop holding the tongue down and just let it rest next to those back teeth. You can practice this on the bus, in a car or even during some boring classes!
2) practice flutter tonguing! This helps relax the tongue. Most of our problems come from too much tension! Using the back of the tongue may be compensation for this tension!
3) Ask yourself how your throat, neck and shoulders are feeling. If these are tense then tongue tends to be very tense too!
4) Think of a softer sound somewhere between the tuh and duh when articulating to get the lightness of the tongue and the relaxation of the back of the tongue and throat.
What part of the mouth does your tongue hit when you articulate? Have you learnt to double tongue yet? If yes is the problem mainly while double or single tonguing?
Keep at it! We all have aspects of our playing that we really struggle with!
1) Relax your tongue. Bite down (gently!) on the edges of your tongue with your back teeth. Hold the tongue in place and just let the front of the tongue tap on the pallet behind teeth or wherever it lands naturally. I really struggled to hold my tongue in place in the beginning but with patience I learned to be able to use only the front tip of the tongue. (Eventually you can do this with double tonguing as well!). When this feels easy you can stop holding the tongue down and just let it rest next to those back teeth. You can practice this on the bus, in a car or even during some boring classes!
2) practice flutter tonguing! This helps relax the tongue. Most of our problems come from too much tension! Using the back of the tongue may be compensation for this tension!
3) Ask yourself how your throat, neck and shoulders are feeling. If these are tense then tongue tends to be very tense too!
4) Think of a softer sound somewhere between the tuh and duh when articulating to get the lightness of the tongue and the relaxation of the back of the tongue and throat.
What part of the mouth does your tongue hit when you articulate? Have you learnt to double tongue yet? If yes is the problem mainly while double or single tonguing?
Keep at it! We all have aspects of our playing that we really struggle with!