School of Music
2024-25 Awarded Amount: $8,666
Title: Enhancing Clarinet Performance: A comprehensive study on double tonguing techniques to enhance performance and give students a competitive advantage in both college and professional music auditions.
Preface
In the current professional music landscape, auditions are becoming more and more competitive, whether it is for college entry or scholarships, fellowships to music festivals, or professional jobs. For clarinetists, there may be 100 people who audition for one open position in a symphony, military band, or summer music festival. Based on industry knowledge, the majority of the players winning these positions have a proficiency in multiple tonguing articulation, which allows them to play lighter and with more ease at significantly faster tempos than a player who can only single tongue.
Overview
With double tonguing, students will learn to articulate faster with increased proficiency, which will give them a competitive advantage when preparing for an audition, competition, fellowship, college, or graduate school. The immediate impact of this instruction will enable clarinet students to incorporate these techniques into the University of Utah wind ensemble, symphonic, band, philharmonia, and campus symphony allowing ensemble conductors to program more challenging music. The long-term benefit is the concepts learned and pedagogy will never leave them. Once they learn the technique, they will retain it as long as they continue to maintain thoughtful practice on their instrument.
Original Method:
Principal Investigators: Dr. Laura Grantier and Mr. Lee Livengood
A pre-assessment will be distributed in August 2024. Dr. Grantier will assess each clarinet student in the clarinet studio on etude No.1 from the Kell Staccato Etudes and Jean Jean Vade Mecum to determine how well and quickly they can articulate. This will serve as a baseline for the study. Mr. Livengood will teach 10 sessions each semester. Students will keep a binder and take notes of each Livengood session and Dr. Grantier will record the sessions so students can go back and review material. Dr. Grantier will assess weekly the progress of the clarinet students. The hardest part of teaching articulation is having to describe the inside of the oral cavity, especially when you cannot see it. Dr. Grantier will bring in a speech pathologist to discuss the anatomy of the oral cavity and tongue and how we use the tongue.
At the end of the study, students were assessed on Kell and Jean Jean Vade Mecum tonguing exercises, double tonguing exercises created by Mr. Livengood, Mendelssohn Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fillmore Americans We March, and the new Jessica Rudman work. Dr. Grantier will take this data and along with Mr. Livengood, and develop a best practice pedagogy method to be published in distinguished journals such as the Clarinet Journal (in progress).
Conclusion
"I was more aware of where my tongue placement was and how I ended the note. My articulation has a sharper beginning and end and is less "fuzzy". I have increased the speed considerably at which I can articulate."
"Not only did my single tongue speed improve immensely, the sound of my articulation improved. Taking the time to really focus on what my tongue was doing inside of my mouth (the earplug method especially)."
The study was incredibly successful. We began the study with a presentation on the Anatomy and Physiology of the Respiratory and Articulatory Systems by Mr. J. Austin Collum. Over the course of two semesters, every student improved and everyone learned to double tongue to some degree. The biggest improvement was the speed and quality of single tonguing. Students improved so much that the large ensemble directors (Dr. Jason Missal and Dr. Robert Baldwin) noticed. It was also apparent in our audition lab mock audition contest where students prepared excerpts and auditioned behind a screen. They received feedback from the Utah Symphony clarinet section and three of the biggest positive comments were quality of articulation, quality of sound, and good intonation. Rhythm and dynamic contrast were the areas where the students needed the biggest area of opportunity.
Mr. Livengood and I also paired with vocologist, Dr. Lynn Maxfield, and speech pathologist, Dr. Amanda Stark. They were able to place Lee in a dynamic MRI where we could visually see the tongue motion, position, and speed in real time. This has never been done before and it was truly exciting to finally “see” inside the oral cavity. This included the use of a “pocket clarinet” designed by the clarinet maker, Buffet-Crampon. This instrument has no metal on it and is small enough to fit in the MRI machine. In addition to the groundbreaking MRI images, Dr. Stark performed a nasal endoscopy on Mr. Livengood where we could see his throat, larynx, and vocal box moving in real time as he played tonguing exercises on a regular Bb clarinet. While we are pleased with the progress of double and single tonguing articulation by the University of Utah students, we are even more excited at the prospect of developing a new methodology for articulation in beginning/intermediate clarinet students. Improper articulation is a systemic problem in this state and most of the country.