How do I articulate faster on the clarinet/saxophone?

Answer 1

Articulation on the clarinet rests on a foundation of good slurring. If you have a passage you need to articulate fast, first elevate the slurred version of the passage. Then practice the passage slowly, articulated, with long notes and deliberate removals of the tongue from the reed. I recommend spending a lot of time on the slurred version slowly, with fast, snapped, clean-cut finger (and left thumb) motions, leveraging the clarinet steadily against the upper teeth with the right thumb, and focused, fast, well supported air stream. If you articulate with long-note removals, the obstacle is often the level of the slurred playing. I prefer to place the front of the top side of my tongue about a 1/4 of an inch below the edge of the reed.

Answer 2

This is a wonderful question and an area that all of us work on. Whether a musical piece requires fast or slow articulation, your airflow, tongue and mouth all work together to help you get the articulation speed you need. Having the right mouthpiece and reed, learning to use your airflow in different situations will help you have the right effect in each section of music. Your tutor can help you learn these skills with exercises (that can actually be fun!) and pieces of music. If you want to master these and work on them, give me a call to set up a trial, free first lesson.

Answer 3

The main way to improve articulations is with air. Contrary to popular belief, the more you focus on face and tongue muscles, the more you detract from the driving force of the clarinet: the air. Many times people are tonguing too slowly because their air is too slow/not being pushed all the way through the instrument, and they are pushing their tongue into the reed with great force. This will not help. The most effective way I have ever been shown to articulate faster is to 1) breathe low and push your air out using your abdominal muscles to create a consistent airstream and 2) lift your tongue OFF the reed instead of forcing it back ON the reed. This difference takes the weight of the tongue and reverses its direction without changing the actual motion of the tongue itself. There is a level of mental gymnastics we do when we think of tongue placement. We think the tongue is heavier than it is and thrusting it onto the reed only adds to that notion. More consistent air from the abdominal cavity and a lighter lift of the tongue should greatly improve articulation!

Answer 4

This is a great question, and something we all need to consistently work on! I would keep in mind that speeding up your articulation is a long term process and not something with an overnight fix. A great way to work on improving this aspect of your playing is to find a variety of articulation exercises that can be incorporated into your warm-up routine so that you are spending some time on this each day.

With the clarinet, it is important to keep your tongue high, and try to move your tongue as little as possible when articulating. If you're moving less, you can move faster. You also want to make sure that your air has consistent speed and direction, and that you tongue lightly in order to not interrupt the air. Again, if you tongue lightly, you can begin to increase your speed as your tongue will not be working as hard trying to use as much force. One last quick tip is to thing of articulation as the release of your tongue away from the reed, rather than a percussive use of your tongue. This will help with lightness as well.

I have a lot of great exercises I use to work on this. If you're interested in exploring this concept further, feel free to set up a lesson!

Answer 5

Fantastic question! The most important thing to understand here, which Andrew stated above, is understanding that the air stream must remain constant. Beginner students often push bursts of air as they tongue each individual note out. This works for slower pieces but as tempo and difficulty increases you tongue and air need to be used very precisely. Whether you are playing classical, jazz, pop etc. legato tongue/phrasing is always king. Thinking long phrases with your air and letting the tongue ride the air stream will help you play faster and with more precision.

Another somewhat advanced concept in this area would be to think about the fingers as the articulation as well, this can help free up your air stream, while focusing solely on the fingers as an acting tongue. Then adding the tongue back later. Because of the nature of the embouchure of the clarinet vs. sax, the clarinet is a little tougher to tongue precisely because of the angle in your mouth and the back pressure it takes to get a resonate sound. Keep this is mind if switching back and forth! It’s often easier to switch from clarinet to sax than the other way around!

Answer 6

When talking about articulation (also known as tonguing), there is a large misconception surrounding how to speed up the rate of your articulation. All too often, I hear students trying to speed up their articulation by making the articulated notes shorter. Although this may seem logical, this approach actually slows down your articulation for a number of reasons. The real secret to a fast and consistent articulation is through long legato articulations.

First of all, it is important to note that the thing doing the articulating, your tongue, is a muscle, and just as with any other muscle, it is subject to fatigue over time. Just as your muscles become fatigued and tense when you lift a heavy weight quickly many times in a row, so does your tongue when you are trying to articulate notes shortly. To make the notes shorter, your tongue actually has to move more inside of your oral cavity which causes greater fatigue and a slower articulation. However, if we articulate in a legato style, where the sound seems to continue through each articulation, then the tongue is moving away from the reed less and we are able to speed up the frequency of our articulations.

It is also important to note that the concept of articulation simply means an interruption of the air stream between notes, not a complete stop of the air stream between notes. In a shorter articulation style, the air stream is being stopped on one note and then has to be restarted on the next, a process which increases the time between notes, puts more fatigue on the tongue muscle, and therefore slows down articulation. However, if we keep the airstream constant, and simply focus on interrupting the air stream, we are able to reduce the lapse in sound and time between notes, reduce fatigue in the tongue, and increase the speed of our articulations.

If this topic is of interest to you and you would like to individually work on improving your articulation, head on over to my tutor profile page and contact me to set up a private lesson. I would be very excited to work with you! As always, if you are not satisfied with your first lesson, there is no charge to you!