HOW TO TONGUE ON THE SAX
In this video, I break down all of the basics about how to tongue on the sax. Tonguing is the way that you separate notes on the saxophone (or any instrument) and because everything that happens with your tongue is inside of your mouth it can be a tough topic to explain. Below is everything that is covered in this tutorial…
TONGUE POSITION, PLACEMENT & MOVEMENT
- I start the video off by talking about the basics of tonguing on the sax and why it is important.
- Then we get up close and personal with visual demonstration of where your tongue should be in your mouth.
- I demonstrate the movement your tongue should make when hitting the reed, as well as show you the what part of your tongue should hit which part of the reed.
- I finish the tutorial up with practice tips and techniques for tonguing on the sax.
INSIDE THE SAX SCHOOL
This tutorial breaks down the basics of tonguing, but inside the Sax School, I go into great detail about all of the basics for playing the sax. Throughout each lesson, as we learn new songs, I talk about tonguing, articulations, and ways to make everything you play sound better. The entire Sax School is set up with a step by step teaching approach so you will never have to guess at what to practice, how to practice, or what to practice next. There is a strong emphasis on the basic foundations of playing the sax, so as you work your way through the courses you will constantly be adding to your knowledge of how to make your sax playing sound better!
A full-text transcription is available by clicking the accordion below. The timestamps line up with the video’s timeline.
FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
HOW TO TONGUE ON THE SAX TRANSCRIPTION
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0:00:02.8 Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? My name is Scott Paddock, and today we are gonna talk about how to tongue on the saxophone.
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0:00:14.0 S1: Tonguing on the saxophone is, by far one of the most difficult subjects to teach. Because you can't see inside someone's mouth. And they can't see inside their mouth, to see exactly what they're doing. You kinda have to feel around with it and figure out exactly what to do. Where your tongue should be. Where to hit the reed and with what part of your tongue. There's a lot of moving parts, and there's a lot of terrible information out there, you hear from professionals saxophone players and professional teachers. It makes the problem, way more difficult, because there is also bad information.
0:00:45.7 S1: So today, I am gonna tell you exactly how to tongue. Exactly where your tongue should be. Disclaimer, this is gonna be somewhat of a gross video because I'm gonna show you my tongue doing it. We're gonna get up close and personal here. When this video is over, you will know exactly where your tongue should be, where it should hit the reed and why. Okay, let's start off with where your tongue should be. You hear that the tip of your tongue should hit the tip of the reed, that is completely incorrect. That looks like this, and this is your tongue.
0:01:18.9 S1: That is not a good way to stop air, that does not work at all. Then you hear the tip of your tongue should hit slightly below the tip of your reed and close it off. Like my finger can't even do it more as my tongue, like this... That also is not correct. So what part of your tongue should hit the reed? The answer is, this part right here. The tip of your tongue is gonna be down here, and this comes up and hits it like this. Sounds a little confusing. Here is the explanation. If you put your tongue. If you feel around in your mouth, take your tongue and feel below your teeth.
0:01:58.2 S1: Again, I know this is really weird, we're talking about our mouths, and where our tongue is and our mouth and all that kinda stuff. But if you feel down, there is a little bump below your teeth. The tip of your tongue... This is gonna be your bump, below that there's a little nook. You should put the tip of your tongue in that little nook below the bump, below your teeth. That's where the tip of your tongue goes, and that's where the tip of your tongue stays. This is the rest of your tongue, and it comes up like this. So it works like this, and it hits the tip of the reed to close it. You're doing this instead of that. Try doing that with your tongue, it's weird. That doesn't work or this.
0:02:43.2 S1: Again, another super awkward movement. Weird, weird, right? Now do this. A way easier, more consistent, super easy to control movement. Let me grab my tenor mouthpiece here. And again, I'm gonna show you on the actual mouthpiece. This is your mouthpiece in your mouth. Obviously your top teeth would be on the mouthpiece. But for what I'm gonna show you, I'm not gonna put my top teeth on my mouth piece and so my mouthpiece is gonna move around a little bit. But I wanna keep the top teeth off of the mouthpiece, so you can see exactly what's going on with my tongue. So this is the way that you should tongue. The tip of the tongue goes down in the nook and it stays there. This part of your tongue, right here comes up and hits the reed, like this. On the mouthpiece, that looks like this.
0:03:43.9 S1: Now, what you're told all the time is tip of the tongue hits the tip of the mouthpiece, like this. That doesn't work at all. And this is what that looks like. Do you see how awkward that is? To try to get your tongue bent back enough, to hit the tip of the mouthpiece like that, is impossible. The next thing that you hear is, the tip of your tongue goes underneath the mouthpiece and hits right here, that looks like this. That's slightly less awkward than this, and you can get a little bit better of the sound.
0:04:22.0 S1: You can kinda get away with that a little bit until you start playing faster, you can't tongue quickly like that. But you can kinda fake it for a little bit, but your tone is also gonna be a little bit smaller because your throat isn't gonna be totally opened up. But when you tongue correctly it looks like this, tip of tongue down below the nook or down in the nook, below that bump, super fast. So I'm gonna tongue my saxophone all three ways and you're gonna hear a gigantic difference. This is the tip of the tongue, hitting the tip of the reed looking like this. Wish me luck.
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0:05:01.0 S1: Do you hear how closed off it is, it's almost impossible to close off the sound like that. In a really clean, even way. We're doing a higher note so you can hear better.
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0:05:16.6 S1: It feels terrible on the tongue. Your tone is way smaller and it kinda sounds a little squawky. Which, none of those are outcomes that you want when playing the saxophone. So the next thing I'm gonna do is, hit the reed from below like this, with the tip of my tongue. I'm closing the reed... You should close to reed like this, but I'm gonna do it the tip of my tongue. It's gonna sound a little bit better, but it's still gonna be a little weird and kinda awkward. Take a listen to it.
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0:05:45.9 S1: That definitely sounds better than.
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0:05:53.0 S1: But again, it's not really clean. There's all these little remnants on the note, for a lack of a better word. There's the little squeaks that wanna pop out. It's just not a clean way to tongue, and if you try to do it fast...
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0:06:15.5 S1: It sounds terrible, because your tongue isn't meant to go like that. Alright, so now I'm gonna do it the way I'm telling you, with the tip of your tongue down on the nook, below the nook, below the bump, into the nog, stay there, this part of your tongue goes up. So you're hitting the reed like this. So this is staying. Let me see if I can do this. So you're hitting the reed like this from below. Okay? So what about reed like this is the nook, this is your tongue and it's going like this. It's a really easy, easy movement with your tongue, which is why you can do it fast and it's gonna open up your throat. So this is the correct way.
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0:06:56.8 S1: Really easy, really clean. You can do it all day long and you can play it, and you can do it really fast. So I'm gonna do all three again. I'll do tip of the tongue to the tip of the reed, tip of the tongue, just below the tip of the reed and then the correct way. And you'll hear that big difference. You'll hear the sound get bigger and cleaner as I do it. Tip of the tongue to the tip of the reed.
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0:07:22.8 S1: Tip of the tongue, just below the tip of the reed. So it'll be right here, going like that, coming up and hitting it from below.
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0:07:34.5 S1: Now, the correct way with the tip of your tongue down in the nook. And the fat part, this part right here, hitting the tip of the reed, coming up and hitting that like that.
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0:07:51.4 S1: So the reason it sounds better is because when you're tongue is down lower, again, I guess it opens up your throat. And more open your throat is, the better and bigger your sound is. And we have to do all these things to control our airflow with our tongue. So when you're playing low, you want your tongue in the aaahh position. So the notes come out.
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0:08:09.9 S1: If you're tongue is up here to tongue, you can't get down in that aaahh position.
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0:08:19.4 S1: So if you're wondering why you can't get your low notes out, and you're tonguing this way or this way, it's because your tongue is in the wrong position. You're tongue is up here when it should be down here. And when you're thinking low notes, it should be in a low position in your mouth, aaahh. So the tip of your tongue is in that nook, and the back of your tongue is down.
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0:08:41.4 S1: So you're tongue looks like this. So that's why you need your tongue in that position. And same thing with high notes. When you're playing high notes, you need to be in the eee position.
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0:08:58.3 S1: But if your tongue is up high, you can't get your tongue up at a higher position. If your tongue looks like this, you can't get this part up higher and still tongue. Your tongue isn't built like that, your tongue can't go pfff. So you want your tongue again in that nook. And then for the high notes, an Eee. Say the word E in the back of your tongue. This part is up high and this part is down here, and then this part... It's hitting the reed.
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0:09:27.9 S1: If I have my tongue in the wrong position...
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0:09:35.5 S1: There's no support. It just sounds terrible. So getting your tongue in the correct position and tonguing correctly is gonna make your tone bigger and fatter, and your notes cleaner. So again, the tip of your tongue goes down below the bump, right here, and it stays there. It doesn't move. This part of your tongue, up close and personal, right here, comes up and hits the mouthpiece. Just like that. Again, I know that's super gross, but now you know how to tongue. You don't wanna do this. Just watch me do it, is awkward, you can tell that my tongue is fighting to do it. Or doing this from below. Like that's a little less awkward, but it's not nearly as clean as smooth as the correct way.
0:10:28.8 S1: So the key to correct tonguing is putting the tip of your tongue below the nook and hitting the reed from below with the fat part of your tongue. It's gonna be super clean and it's gonna give you way more control over your tongue to do different types of articulation, and make your vibrato and everything else sound better. Thanks for taking the time to check out this video. And if you now know to tongue correctly, I'd really appreciate it, if you would give me a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel, leave me a comment and share it with your friends. Thanks a lot.
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Additional YouTube videos on tongue position: