7/20/06

Metaphors for Articulation


Here's a fascinating article on articulation:

METAPHORS FOR ARTICULATION. Par Tony Pay

1 comment:

MonksDream said...

Hi Dave,

Nice article! It's funny, because after being required to play the clarinet on a variety of occasions, I took up formal study for a while. The tonguing problem became obvious, in comparison with the saxophone, after a couple of weeks.

The combination of a tighter embouchure coupled with a much more knife-like column of air makes tonguing the little axe quite a bit more difficult than the saxophone, and the metaphors presented here make sense, as the clarinet also helped me eliminate some bad habits in my saxophone playing and incidentally gave me a more pleasing and slightly more focused tone on the latter instrument.

The excellent clarinet player who taught me emphasized a process of throat tonguing alternated with yelling "HEY" at the top of my lungs which turned out to be a great way to get more deeply in touch with "diaphragmatic" breathing.

Thanks for the acknowledgement on the Ellery Eskelin stuff which I forgot that i'd sent. I have to say that I've actually heard some Archie Shepp with some fairly astonishing chops, particularly in the tonguing department, and Ellery's got a whole other thing going on in his playing and composition. Better end this long-winded diatribe.