The Basics of Tonguing

There are two common problems with tonguing – one for beginners and another for late-intermediate students. For the beginners, the lesson book says to say, “tu,” in order to tongue. That’s not always clear to everyone, especially the over-thinkers.

For the late-intermediate students, they find their tone fuzzing out here and there whenever they’re doing a lot of tonguing. Here’s an explanation that will help.

Everyone’s Anatomy is Slightly Different

Based on your personal anatomy, you might want to place your tongue in a different place in your mouth than someone else would for their tonguing. Everyone is different. You need to find the optimal place for your tone and ease of playing. It’s all about your personal choices and needs.

What Not To Do

There are three things that won’t work with anyone’s anatomy. They’re glottal tonguing, tongue curling, and the “TH” tongue.

The first incorrect tonguing technique is to do what’s called a glottal tongue. This is when you bring up the back of the tongue to make a seal at the back of the mouth. This a correct technique for double-tonguing, but not single tonguing. The back of the tongue doesn’t work as fast as the front of the tongue, so you’re holding yourself back by doing the glottal tongue. It also makes the mouth smaller at the beginning and the end of the note, which can fuzz out the tone.

Another incorrect tonguing technique is to curl your tongue back into your mouth. At the beginning of the note, the tongue blocks the airflow through the mouth and fuzzes out the tone as the tongue comes back down. Also, it’s a lot of extra work for the tongue, so it makes tonguing go slower.

The final incorrect tonguing technique is to do the “TH” tongue. This is to place the tongue at the bottom of the front teeth, creating a “th” sound. This creates a sloppy articulation sound and makes it impossible to make a nice, crisp staccato.

Unfortunately, your teacher can’t look inside your mouth to make sure you’re not doing these things. You may be so good at your preferred tonguing technique that your teacher can’t hear that you’re doing it incorrectly. This is why I made this short list of what not to do. I’ve encountered each of these issues over the years.

How to Find your Optimal Tonguing Spot

Step 1: Brace the sides of your tongue against your top molars. This seals the airflow to go forward, through the embouchure.

Step 2: Feel the roof of your mouth with your tongue. There will be a flat portion right behind the teeth, then it will curve up into a bowl shape.

Step 3: Place the tip of your tongue where the flat part meets the bowl. Play four quarter notes in a row, tonguing at that point.

Step 4: Place the tip of your tongue slightly forward from the point in step 3. Play four quarter notes. Is the tone better? How does it feel?

Step 5: Keep going forward, bit-by-bit, comparing your tone and feel with each spot, all the way so that your tongue goes between the lips (Marcel Moyse liked that spot for playing Bach).

Step 6: Choose which spot sounds and feels the best, and use it. The sound is more important than the feel. If it feels awkward, you’ll get used to it.

If you’re having a hard time doing the above steps, start with step one and two, then skip to tonguing between the lips as described in step 5, and go backwards through the different points in your mouth that are described in the steps.

Your first time going through this process, you may want to have someone listen to you and help you decide what sounds good. It’s a good idea to have an extra set of ears sometimes.

When to Do This

For a beginner, this process is for the over-thinkers of the world. Musicians tend to be just that, so it’s pretty common to go through this process with new musicians.

It’s also pretty common to go through this process in late high school or early college, as the first step to perfect your tonguing technique. If you went through this process as a beginner, you’ll still want to do it when it comes up later on in high school or college. Your embouchure has matured and your tonguing spot may have changed.

Conclusion

After I used this process (I was in the older category), there were a few spots that worked well for me because they provided different sounds and still had a good tone. It’s good to have options, and it’s also good to have a favorite spot – something automatic and reliable.

Work on your favorite spot first. Make it automatic and reliable. Use articulation studies and tongued scales. You can expand from there. It will serve you well.