Tips to Fix a Thuddy Tongue on Clarinet 

I'm glad it was helpful! That's a fun piece to work on.

That is really common!

That's a good question. Does it happen when you tongue against the reed or against the roof of your mouth? If it happens when you tongue against the reed, you might need to speed up your air or make sure that your articulation isn't too heavy. Try imagining that the reed is a hot pan. If you have to touch it, you want to do it as quickly and lightly as possible. You might find some helpful bits in our intro to tonguing video, especially if you'd like to explore tonguing against the reed. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ABmcca69kU0.html

@@ClarinetHQ It happens when I try to tongue on the reed. I don't really know what "speeding up the air" even means - I'm playing plenty loudly, and I guess I don't see how faster moving air would result in less saliva in the mouthpiece anyway - it seems it would blow even more of it into the gap. Salive aside, at this point, tongueing on the reed sounds just awful - bad intonation, and even slower than usual. Using the roof of my mouth results in better sound in every way. Maybe I should have been a brass player.

If it works for you and sounds good, then you should keep doing it. There are clarinetists who tongue the "wrong way," but sound just as good as clarinetists who do it the "right way." At the end of the day, the most important thing is how you sound. If you're not happy with how you sound, then it might make sense to change the way you articulate. Maybe instead of saying "speeding up the air" I should say focusing the air. That's done by making sure that the back of your tongue (around the molars) is up. That creates a smaller space for the air to go through and speeds it up. (There are some videos that talk about tongue position on our High Note Hacks playlist ru-vid.com/group/PLFQufybMvJhSkn6Nucim5rhGBrEznoHkb) There will always be saliva that makes its way into the mouthpiece, that's just the nature of the instrument, but fast, focused air created by good tongue position helps ensure that your saliva doesn't get stuck in the mouthpiece. We want it to get pushed through the clarinet and create a gross puddle on the ground (or on my pants when I rest my clarinet on my leg). I hope that's helpful. Let me know if you have more questions. Maybe we'll make a video with a more detailed explanation.

i do this too and now i need to “tongue lightly” for those staccato notes with slurs on top of them and idk what to do

I do the same thing. I’ve been trying to relearn my tongue articulation for a bit to get cleaner sounds

If I had to guess, I'd say that your chin probably moves when you articulate. It's a really common thing among clarinetists because it's hard to train your body to keep your embouchure still (without too much jaw pressure), your tongue in that high "whistle trick" position, and only move the tip of your tongue when you articulate. A little bit of practice might be helpful: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ct1audCpE7w.html

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your feedback! ❤

Good question! Chalumeau (pronounced shall-you-mow) is the lowest register of the clarinet and goes from low E to throat B-flat. You might have guessed from the name that it's French.

@@ClarinetHQ Thanks! That makes total sense now. For some reason I just didn't recognize it but it was probably my hearing.