The Flutter tongue
Hey everyone, first off the obvious plug. I wrote a book about flutter tonguing, it is a systematic approach it is available in a digital edition from Qpress
This post though is a supplement to the book, and has some thoughts you can apply right away to start either learning to flutter tongue, or improve the control you already have.
Exercise 1 - The foundation
This exercise is all about learning to flutter. Work without the horn and focus on air. For details on how this works watch the video below. A quick outline is that we work to create tongue motion with an emphasis on air flow by working on holding the tip of the tongue in place at the contact point of the articulation stroke as we blow emphatic air against it.
The view outlines it better than I could write it here breifly.
Exercise 2 - Into the resistance
The greatest challenge for fluttering is learning to work with the added resistance and perceived lack of space that is created when we flutter. To do this we play flutter tones on the horn. Flutter tones are made by fluttering without a buzz on the horn creating a super low pitch.
Once you have the flutter tone try to slowly bring the embouchure into focus until pitch is created. This, like long tones from air teach us to find and control the initial point of vibration. This is called control.
Exercise 3 - The transition
As flutter has become more and more common our need to control it at many dynamics has grown. As well another common application is to move either from a flutter to straight sound or vice verse. The exercise here is to learn to do that, to disengage the tongue without stopping the sound.
Practice this by starting a note with a flutter and then trying to retract the tongue back into the vowel part of your articulation (the Ah, of TA for example) without causing the sound to stop. It sounds easy but fluttering creates some crazy things inside your mouth around the air… so take some time and learn to control it.
Happy Practicing.
Check out the Youtube channel, subscribe, or pick up a copy of “Flutter Tongue”