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Returning to the story of 2008 and my teaching and playing, I faced a reality that I did not do what I thought I was doing in the tonguing department. That fall (like every fall), I was working with students on a common problem, making shorter articulations. Every student comes in having studied with other people, and a common instruction, stated very clearly in the Farkas book, is to not tongue on the lips, with an exception for only one situation. To review Farkas on this,
- For a sforzando the tongue is “placed very near the lip opening, perhaps even touching the lips, but not protruding between them”
- As to tonguing on the teeth/gums, “Generally, better definition is obtained by attacking progressively farther forward on the teeth …”
- “… conversely, tonguing higher onto the gums and farther back will produce softer attacks.”
- “… never stop the air column abruptly by using the tongue …”
I knew – for years! – that I was actually tonguing on my lips for short notes, which I could very much feel in the middle and lower range in particular. What I did not know was that in most other situations I also tongued at least lightly on my lips. Which was wrong by the way I thought of things. For anyone curious about more of my 2008 thinking, this led to this article:
Farewell to Blogging about the Embouchure (for a while)
Consulting with some trusted sources, I learned that many people had figured this out, but it was not very reported, or known. In my own case, I was especially reassured by this passage from chapter V of A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing by Milan Yancich on the topic of articulation. After a discussion of first teaching a student how to start notes, Yancich makes it clear that you have to develop a wide range of articulations on the horn,
I then demonstrate different kinds of articulation: placing the tongue out very far between the teeth for heavy, marcato or hammered playing; placing it behind the upper teeth for legato playing; putting the tongue to the roof of the mouth to give an even more legato articulation; and finally placing the tip of the tongue against the lower teeth, using the flat of the tongue against the roof of the mouth to produce even another attack. The student then understands that the tongue, very much like the bow on a stringed instrument, can be used for many different types of articulation.
I certainly tongue differently in different situations. Returning to the Farkas book, he describes tonguing itself in a manner that is not physiologically accurate or possible really. The MRI horn studies have been very important to our understanding how things really work. In my recent podcast interview with Peter Iltis (MRI horn studies) he describes the motion of the tongue in tonguing as being oblique. It really is neither up and down or forward and backward.
Furthermore, if you look at the MRI studies of for example Sarah Willis online, you can see clearly the tongue motion into the lip opening which is not at all as Farkas described.
The reality is that some teachers have advocated for tonguing into the lip opening for many years. The most notable old source is from Anton Horner (1877-1971). If you have heard of him, you might think of him as the designer of the Horner model Kruspe, the horn that Conn copied to make their 8D horn. However, he was a very notable player, principal horn in Philadelphia and longtime professor at Curtis (1924-42). The following quote is from page 4 of his Primary Studies for the French Horn, where it may be found right before study No. 1.
Attack each note with your tongue as though you had a small hair or tiny piece of thread on the end of your tongue and wanted to force it out of your mouth.
Try it! The tongue is incredibly facile. Tonguing is simple; many teachers have made it difficult by using too many words and by using those words to describe things that are not possible.
In my own teaching, I am very concerned that students are able to achieve everything from the most connected legato to the most crisp staccato possible, and at all dynamics. Pick any one note, you will actually be tonguing differently at either end of that spectrum, there is no possible way to tongue everything the same and get the best results loud/soft/short/long. The shortest articulations in say Kopprasch require a “dut dut dut” attack that touches the lips (and stops the air column with the tongue), which really conflicts with the instructions found in Farkas.
You do not want to overthink it, but especially if you are a horn teacher you cannot just tell a student to imagine a result, you need to be able to give some specific instructions that are physiologically accurate. Instructions that do not simply repeat bad conventional wisdom.
When the series returns the topic will be mouthpiece pressure.
