SSCA and Learning to Fluttertongue

Hi, friends!
The past few weeks in the SSCA have consisted of us (kind of) learning Louie the Cat (with maybe a small pizza party). Yesterday, it was all about making sounds that resemble a cat's purr (fluttertongue fun). When I wrote the fluttertongue effects in Louie, I didn't think of it as a true fluttertongue. I envisioned most students making the sound through singing/growling.
However.
In the midst of the *squawk squeak gurgle gurgle*, I heard the most amazing true fluttertongue I think I've ever heard on the clarinet. One of the 7th graders was legitimately fluttertonguing. This kid's tongue had to have been hitting the reed 15 times per second. It was amazing. Not in a million years did I expect a 7th grader to be able to so effortlessly do something like that!

What did I learn from this experience?
Students can will surprise you. Was it 100% chance that this student was able to fluttertongue on the spot like that? Sure. But, during 7th grade woodwind class today, he taught one of his saxophone friends how to fluttertongue. Other students heard them fluttertongue, so they were trying it too. Granted, most students were just gurgling into their instruments, but that's at least a start. What I love so much about this fluttertongue business (how many times can I write that word in this post? Any bets? I bet it's going to be 20 times) is that it's getting students interested to spend more time on their instrument. Is fluttertonguing the pinnacle of instrumental excellence? Heck no, but it's getting students excited about playing. It's like a gateway drug (except don't do drugs). Maybe, before I know it, students will be playing arpeggios all over the place. Now that would be something!
*Having students learn random extended techniques is not something that should take precedence over fundamentals. Fundamentals should be valued over anything else in the music classroom! This extra stuff is just that - it's extra stuff that the students are learning on their own time.

Fluttertongue
How does it happen? Honestly, I can't fluttertongue the way that student did (seriously I'm so jealous of this 7th grader). I think there are a few schools of thought here:

Singing and playing: Singing into the clarinet while playing is one of the most effective ways to get the fluttertongue sound. I'm not entirely sure what the science is behind this, but I think it has to do with the difference frequencies of sound waves from the pitch itself and the voice (science). If you know the real reason, feel free to shoot me an email.

• This feeling takes some getting used to. If there's any issue with students learning this, it's the mental barrier of singing while playing the instrument. For so long, students are told not to use their voice while they play - it's a pretty trippy experience at first! It just takes some serious brain power and determination. It might help to practice the elements independently (singing without the instrument, playing the instrument, singing into the mouthpiece and barrel, then singing into the whole clarinet).

Growling: This effect is done in the back of the throat. It uses the similar set of muscles that gurgling water uses. Go gurgle some water. The very back of the tongue moves pretty violently in the back of the throat because of the air movement (like a flag in the wind). It's like rolling your r's, but much further back in the mouth.

Rolling your r's: This is the one that's tricky for me to explain. I guess some people roll their r's in different parts of their mouths. What I do is have my tongue roll in my mid mouth. This keeps the tongue in position (for the most part), and it doesn't interfere with the reed. Again, this is all about the air flow, and not muscling the movement of the tongue on its own. It really is like a flag blowing in the wind.

Honestly, I use a combination of all three sometimes. It's all about effect - it's hard to say that there's a right or wrong way. It takes some time exploring the instrument, which is exactly what we want our students to do!

I used the word fluttertongue 13 times (14 if you count this sentence). Darn... I should've been more redundant.

 

Bugle Calls

Bugle Calls

The clarinet is a cool instrument because you can basically mimic other instruments. You can be a flute-inet and a trump-inet (maybe more on that later... maybe). But, one of my favorites is when you can be a bugle-net.
Okay, I'm done couple-naming instruments.

What is a bugle call? Bugle calls are songs that are played on one partial series on a bugle (a brass instrument), and the pitches are manipulated with the frequency of the player's lips buzzing. Taps and Reveille are common bugle calls.

What is the point of bugle calling on the clarinet? Bugle calling on the clarinet is an excellent exercise in voicing. The reason why young clarinet players often sound like tornado sirens above the break is usually due to the fact that their tongue position is so low, which is failure to voice properly. Clarinet players are always being told (by me, at least) to say "hee" when thinking about tongue position. Go ahead, say it. I'll say it with you so that you don't feel dumb, "heeeee" (I seriously have to say those words exactly to get students to do this sometimes). Do you feel where your tongue is? The sides of your tongue should be touching your top teeth. Your tongue should also be arched. I call this "cobra tongue" (see, the clarinet is totally cool). This is the starting position for the bugle call (as well as the starting position for any decent clarinet tone).

Low F

Written pitches of bugle call

How do you bugle on the clarinet? What a great question! I'm so glad you asked! First, make sure you're sitting down. Cross your right leg over your left (or left over right, whatever suits your fancy). Finger a low F on the instrument. Now, plug the end of your bell on the calf of your crossed leg. If you're voicing correctly and using fast enough air, you should get what sounds like a concert G (written A) above the staff. Then, if you go from "hee" to "haw," you should get what then sounds like a concert C (written D) above that. If you "haw' even higher, then you get the     concert E (written F) above that (and so one and so forth with the partial series).

Hee Haw? Yes! Hees and haws. The higher you go, the lower the back of your tongue gets (but your middle tongue and front tongue are still high in position). Clarinet players can get a little weird because we talk about our tongues in three sections (another lecture for another time). Go ahead and sing a major scale, or Twinkle Twinkle. The higher you go with your singing voice, the lower the back of your tongue gets. It's the exact same thing with clarinet playing!

SSCA When I taught the SSCA kiddos this last week, I didn't show them the pitches or talk about the purpose of bugles. I just explained how to do it, demonstrated, and had them match pitch. It took quite some time for most of them to get it, but a lot of them ended up getting the first pitch. I remember when I was first learning bugle calls with my clarinet teacher in high school, it took me a long time to get the hang of it. However, if your clarinet players can do bugle calls (SLURRING), and translate that knowledge into their playing, then you'll notice a difference in their tone and intonation.

Outside Resource There are tons of things on voicing and bugle calls on the internet, but here is one that my clarinet professor has sent out to the studio a few times. When Ballif talks about bugles, he uses low E as the base pitch instead of F. 

Hi!

Hi, everyone!

My name is Sam. Confession: I have no idea how to run a blog. However, I do have some goals for this small corner of the internet (here's another confession: the internet totally freaks me out, and I don't understand it). Before I give you my aspirations for this blog, I guess I should give you some backstory.

I'm a music education major at Missouri State University, and, as you probably guessed, I'm a clarinetist (maybe "The Clarinet Club" gave it away). I'm currently student teaching, and it has been an amazing experience so far. At the program I'm with, I have been bestowed with the task to get their young clarinet players excited about playing the clarinet. So, I started (with the help of some of the directors) the Clarinet Club at the middle school. However, this club is super secret. In fact, when we pulled the 7th grade clarinet players aside to tell them about Clarinet Club, we stressed the importance that it is a secret club.

* The words "I swear if you tell any of the other sections about this I'm going to show up to your house at night in a clown costume with a metronome" may have been said by one of the directors. Did I mention that my experience at this placement has been amazing so far?

The kids then decided to call it the Super Secret Clarinet Association (SSCA).

The SSCA

My hope for the SSCA is that students will have fun learning more about the instrument that they play, and maybe even get better at playing it. If kids want to learn how to play Let It Go (so help me), then we'll learn how to play Let It Go. If a kid has been practicing Castle on a Cloud and wants to play for all of us, then that kid is going to play Castle on a Cloud, and we're all going to cheer (which happened, and it made my heart happy). Of course, there are things that I do want to teach them. For example, in our first meeting this week, I taught them bugle calls. This is great for so many reasons, but I'll talk about that somewhere else, some other time.

The Clarinet Club

Okay, this is where I finally talk about my aspirations for the blog. 

I say "finally" because I've been working on this post for at least 2 hours now... I hope this gets easier!

I want to have a readily available collection of materials and resources that I find and create. This aspect of my blog aspirations is slightly selfish - it's basically a virtual file cabinet for me. However, this idea stemmed from the thought of wanting to have a collection of resources for my friends who are or are going to be band directors, and who feel like they don't know anything about the clarinet (because, really, who even does). But, this blog truly is for anyone who is trying to find resources for developing, young clarinet players (even if you yourself are a developing, young clarinetist!).

At the beginning of this blog's life, most of the things that will be posted are going to come from what I do with the SSCA. At some point, especially if there's a demand for it, I'll post different types of things (working with beginning clarinet players, reed discussion, etc.). Even though I've had a fair amount of experience with clarinet at all kinds of levels, I don't claim to have all of the answers (nor am I the be-all end-all of any opinion). So, this will be as much of a learning experience for me as it will be for you!