Faster Tonguing in Two Weeks: WEEK TWO

Hi everyone!!

Welcome to the second week of this intensive - I hope you're all doing well with building up a bit of consistency in your tonguing practice. Even if you're not up for posting a video, I'd love to read about how that's going for you, so please do post a comment. Or even better: post a comment on someone else's video! Let's try to get some discussion about tonguing going this week. 

In this week's video I take you through a bit of a practice session (I'm playing the bass clarinet here just because I'm playing a lot of bass in my concert life at the moment but it's the same process!) and talk a bit about a few things that have come up for other people over the last 7 days. 

It's sounding like endurance is a real theme for everyone in this intensive, and maybe we can talk more about that in the Zoom meeting, which I hope some of you can come along to. As I said, it will be on Friday the 31st at 6pm GMT (10am PT). A link to the meeting is here.

Looking forward to seeing your videos and comments, and to seeing some of you on Friday! 

 

And as I've mentioned before, it would be wonderful to work with some of you 1-1 as your clarinet coach - if this is something you're looking for, be sure to check out my coaching profile here on tonebase! 

23 replies

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    • Jesse_Rogers
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Hello, I have been working with the Kell study for almost a week now (late start). I began at mm 84 and increase one click daily. Today was 104 and it occurs to me that I will hit a plateau at some point.  I could set the metronome back a bit and work back up or I could just click it back and forth between what I can do now plus one click.  How do you deal with plateaus?

      • Donald_Lurye
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

      maybe at higher speeds do a shorter session and then gradually lengthen it.

      • Jesse_Rogers
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       absolutely, about 6 minutes today, I will haul it out for another session this evening.

      Thank you, It was a pleasure speaking with you yesterday.

    • Head of Clarinet
    • Heather
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi everyone!! Hope you've been enjoying this TWI - I just wanted to address a few things that have come up over the last few days as well as some things we talked about yesterday in the Zoom check-in.

     

    I also at the end ask a question: would it help more of you attend the Zoom check-ins if I  did them on a weekend? Say on a Sunday? They'd still need to be at around 6pm my time (GMT) but at least it wouldn't be on a work day... 

      • Donald_Lurye
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       I'm retired, so timing matters less to me, but I think weekends could work better...unless you've got gigs.  A sign up process with a day prior reminder is a good idea. 

      • Jesse_Rogers
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       most important for me is advanced notice, I will be working part time and while I have flexibility in sheduling, I will need to book hours possibly two weeks in advance. Week days will work as well as week ends (although Sun afternoon can be a problem as I have 6-10 concerts a year on Sun afternoon-evenings). 

    • Donald_Lurye
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    I've included my commentary in my Weed 2 video.  Looking forward to hearing from everyone.

      • Jesse_Rogers
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       It sounds good, I find it hard to think of any physical thing that goes into the production of sound to be sacred. I plan to work up to my single tongue max over the next month or so and then move to double tonguing.

    • Martijn
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    https://vimeo.com/1053822328/37bd96e2fd?share=copy

    i gave it a go!

      • Donald_Lurye
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       lovely, clean sound and tonguing!  What was your metronome speed?

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       I agree with  - you sound fantastic! Did you get faster over the last two weeks? 

      • Martijn
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       This is my start of today. Ill see how it will be in two weeks. 

      • Martijn
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

      112

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

      Ah great, that's a fantastic start - I look forward to hearing how it goes for you! 

    • Martijn
    • 3 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Little update... did not manage to do it every day but most of the days.

    https://vimeo.com/1056052482/15ad38e096?share=copy

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 3 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Nice work Martijn - your staccato sound is great, particularly in the high register (not easy), and an 8bpm improvement in two weeks is good going when your starting speed is already so high. 

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 3 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       this just sounds great but I wanted to offer some kind of constructive feedback -- this is super super picky of me, but watching your video I notice your left shoulder creeping upwards a little bit - this can lead to some tension, which can then affect your playing (not to mention your spine - but I'm obviously not a medical professional, so take what I say with a grain of salt), but it might be worth sometimes just encouraging that left side to relax a little bit! 

      • Martijn
      • 3 wk ago
      • Reported - view

      Thanks, I am aware of this... My teacher used to say this to me a lot. But in the heat of the moment I forget to relax it from time to time.

      • Martijn
      • 3 wk ago
      • Reported - view

      It's just one week ago I started.

      • Martijn
      • 3 wk ago
      • Reported - view

      And I need to speed it up because we are playing the last movement of Shostakovich 5th symphony with the wind band I play in.

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 3 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Oh yeah, you do need some regular tonguing practice then, I guess clarinets are replacing violins for a lot of that? Woof!

      My physiotherapist (really you're not the only one trying to change a habit) always says I should just focus on the postural issues for 5 minutes, because trying to do it for a whole practice session will just lead to frustration and more tension... 

    • Donald_Lurye
    • 3 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Very nice, Martijn!  What was your metronome marking?

      • Martijn
      • 3 wk ago
      • Reported - view

      Thanks 120

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