Flutter tongue

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AndrewMeronek
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Flutter tongue

Post by AndrewMeronek »

Taking a practice break, working on my multiple tonguing. I've been thinking lately about experimenting with getting more control over my vowels when multiple-tonguing, particularly on the "k"/"g" syllable. I've never been particularly good at it, and in extreme ranges, that the "g" causes the tongue to change my air a bit and makes pitch control pretty unstable, particularly in the very high range.

But, playing around with trying to feel my tongue maintain different vowels in this context, suddenly out pops a flutter tongue! I've never been able to do a true flutter tongue. Pretty exciting! :amazed:

Does anyone else seem to have this connection between a flutter tongue and multiple-tonguing? Maybe it's just my ignorance or something unique to me, but I've never heard of a description for someone trying to do one other the other as being similar.
Last edited by AndrewMeronek on Tue Aug 25, 2020 10:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
“All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.”

- Thelonious Monk
AndrewMeronek
Posts: 972
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2018 6:09 pm
Location: Detroit area
Contact:

Re: Flutter tongue

Post by AndrewMeronek »

Thinking back, my explanation of a flutter tongue that I've gotten told involved the front of the tongue, not the area just behind the front that I found (thinking of moving the "g" extremely forward to minimize any change in air focus). This is different from a "growl", too, which is more focused in the area of the uvula in the back of the mouth.

Speaking it out loud, not in the horn, what comes out is something like a combination of a chainsaw and the tongue-flutter that Louis Gossett Jr. uses as part of the Drax phonetics in the film Enemy Mine. Still not quite what most people sound like. But it definitely sounds more like a true flutter tongue in the trombone than the growl I've had to default to, not really having any other options until now.
“All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.”

- Thelonious Monk
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