Improving tongue speed and quility on clarinet

In order to improve the quality and speed of your tonguing on clarinet you’ll need to change one of the smallest details about how you currently tongue, and that is the syllable you use when tonguing.

You see most of us have been taught to tongue using the ‘T’ syllable, and this is fine when you’re just starting out but later on when you want your tongue to get faster You can’t use the ‘T’ syllable for fast tonguing. You see what using the ‘T’ syllable does is stop your air and thus disrupt the reed from vibrating effectively.

In order to improve the speed of our tongue we need to keep air moving relentlessly through the clarinet while tonguing. We do this by using the ‘D’ syllable this ensures your tongue is only touching the reed very lightly while not disrupting the flow of air. You’ll notice after practicing tonguing this way for a while that you can dramatically improve the speed of your tonguing on clarinet.