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Re: Tounging

Author: moma4faith
Date: 2024-03-13 03:23

I so feel your pain! I was auditioning for college when someone pointed out that I was likely playing "anchor-tongued", which I was. I had to totally change my embouchure within and without. While my lesson professor was understanding and helpful, my band director was not. I was best able to change my tonguing/embouchure setup in the summer, without constant performance expectations.

First, commit to the change. Just tell yourself this is going to happen. It will feel weird and alien at first. Let it feel that way. It will take time to teach the old muscles to do something new, and to teach the new muscles to do something at all. Take breaks the moment you feel frustrated, even a short break can make a difference. Working with a professional teacher during lessons really helps, but ultimately, it is up to you to take the information and advice they give and put it into practice. Your embouchure will try to fight and go back to the "old way" and you will have to keep the new set-up locked in. Lots of breaks helped me, so my muscles could rebound for a few minutes before going back at it again. Also, it was much easier for me to do this with exercises that were simple and basic instead of more demanding solos or band/orchestra pieces.

The mixture of time, simple rudimentary exercises, breaks, and compassionate tolerance for my shortcomings was the winning combination for me. And I'm still working to further improve my embouchure 35+ years later.

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