Proper Articulation Techniques for Reed Instruments

Proper Articulation Techniques for Reed Instruments

By pwalington

One thing that really bothered me throughout highschool was the abundance of kids showing up without a basic foundation of proper articulation. Out of everyone in my performing classes, only a few of us knew how to tongue differently for jazz and concert pieces, or how to breathe properly to allow for longer phrases between breathes. My question: why was the music education system flawed so? Thinking back to my childhood, I realized there was no reason, just that I was not taught. In fact, no one was; the few of us who knew had taken professional lessons with semi-famous jazz artists from our city. Here’s a few things you can do to improve your sound:

1. Breathe from your diaphragm.

This is very important to maintaining an even tone. As you inhale, try to think about where the air is coming from. If it’s strictly from your chest, and not the lower half of your midsection, you need to fix it. Next time, think about filling the lowest part of your body with air first. You should be feeling the region right below your belly button expand before your chest. This is the proper way to breathe, and it will help you produce a lot more noise for a lot longer.

If you find this difficult, here’s an exercise I like to do: inhale slowly and steadily for 10 full seconds, then exhale slowly for 10 full seconds. You should be pulling the air from your diaphragm. On the exhale, it’s actually very difficult to breathe out steadily for the full time required; most people simply don’t have this skill. At the end, your lungs should be completely emptied, so you need to really understand your rate of breathing. When you can do this, slowly increase the time by a second or two each day. When you can exhale steadily and not waver for 30-45 seconds, you’ll be amazed at how very little you need to breathe whilst playing. Remembering back to my highschool days, I could hold a single note sometimes for a minute or longer. This exercise will improve both your control and your lung capacity; in fact, having the opportunity to test my lung capacity last year, I found that it was equal to the trained athletes being tested during the same time.

2. Tip to tip tonguing.