Tonguing is a way of starting a note. Basically there are two ways: start blowing, and start blowing preceded by your tongue. The steps to tongue are simple. First, the mechanics of tonguing are simply touching the tip of your tongue to the tip of the reed as if you were saying the word "Tah." If you say out loud "Tah Tah Tah," you will notice that your tongue comes up to the top of your mouth.
If your mouthpiece is in your mouth, the tongue would be touching the tip of the reed. Just before you make the "Tah" sound, you'll notice that the air is stopped behind the tongue. When you release the tongue with the "Tah" sound, the air comes rushing out. This is called tonguing. Start by picking any note, placing the tip of the tongue on the tip of the reed. Release the tongue with the "Tah" sound and then repeat three times. You don't really want to say "Tah", but just let your tongue go through the motions of saying it.
You can feel the tongue touching the tip of the reed and bumping it. I tend to think of tonguing as one of those sprinklers that moves from side to side with a little metal part that keeps bumping the water and causing an interruption in the flow. Your air is flowing over your reed and causing it to vibrate. When you touch the reed with your tongue, the vibrations stop for a moment, and the sound continues. You should begin every note with your tongue to get used to the way it works. Later on you will have times when you will not tongue; this is called slurring. It simply means that you just move your fingers.
A few things to watch out for when tonguing: always touch the tip of the tongue to the tip of the reed for the shortest amount of time possible. If you use the back or middle of your tongue, you get a harsh "thud" sound that is not desirable. TIP to TIP. Some people like to think of it as licking your fingertip and then touching it to a hot iron or stove top. You'd want to do this for the shortest amount of time possible.
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