[BenBrittonJazz]

I just wrote a post dealing with playing fast tempos, tongue positions, and articulation. It should be helpful beyond just up tempo stuff.

http://everythingsaxophone.blogspot.com/2011/10/up-tempo-playing-common-problems-and.html

 

[florian]

Hi Ben,
i really appreciate if someone is trying do give young players tips and tricks how to get better. But i disagree slightly with what you say about the tongue position and articulation regarding speed in your last article. But maybe this is all depending on the view on it.

1. tongue position:
I've learned in university, when i studied the saxophone, that the postition of the tongue (using the vowels a, e, i) is influencing: intonation, timbre and response of a note.
By using it we can change intonation, change slightly the tone colour and optimize sometimes the response of a note.
A lot of young players for example have problems with the low notes because the tongue position is too high for the low notes (i instead of an a).
Having your tongue postion always down (a) is as bad and causes as many problems as having it always up high (i). Being flexible in the use of it is helpful.
Also it depends a lot on the player how much he has to change the position to get the wanted results.
Especially young players don't hear any difference in the beginning. Also using a more down position of the tongue doesn't mean that you have to use more pressure of the lips (depends again on the player). In my experience this only happens if the player is unflexible in changing tongue positions. This can result in overcompensating by lippressure.

Articulation:
There are two kind of ways articulations and accents can be produced i've learned: The one with your tongue (and all it possiblities) and the one controlled with your airstream. With the airstream it is not really articulation but accents you can produce. Many uptime players don't articulate that much with their tongue in a lot of 16th phrases but using the air to do some accents and by doing this are fast enough. Trying to do the same with your tongue can not work for most players (tonguearticulation in tempo 240 with 16th notes???).
But that is only what i learned at university some years ago, so maybe i'm wrong and i'm always willing to learn something new.

 

[BenBrittonJazz]

@Florian

You bring up some great points. To address the first with tongue position. The generally high tongue position I'm talking about is further back even then the vowel forming part of the tongue. So for example, I can hold that back part of the tongue up, therefore focusing my air, and still create vowel sounds from ah-i (just the "oh" seems impossible). So there is still plenty of room for variation, but you are still constantly focusing and increasing the air speed. I hope that clears it up. Its really apparent in the comparison clips. I have no problem with the low notes and they even sound better with the "higher" tongue position. I very well could be making an "ah" vowel sound. I honestly would have to go experiment to be sure. Hopefully that explanation helps.

To address your articulation stuff. I think I'm going to have to disagree. Charlie Parker articulated many of his accents even during his fastest playing. He didn't articulate very much during those super fast lines, but he would still articulate key points. Its part of what makes his playing sound so clean and amazing. However, I was addressing a tempo where articulation is very possible, which you can hear in the sound clips.

Thanks for your comments Florian, especially the part on the vowels. I think that will help readers understand where I'm coming from. I almost want to do an edit in the article and include that information! By the way, the higher tongue position comes from Joe Allard. Its one of the concepts he taught (though I know he taught different things to different students). Anyways there is some great info and conception ideas at joeallard.org

 

[whaler]

Articulation at fast tempos comes from great technique. Charlie Parker's, and other greats, articulation came from the shape of their lines. If you are thinking about your tongue, you are screwed. To play fast, you have to "live upstairs", a lot. It is quite a bit different to be Charlie Parker playing fast tempos night after night or a college professor sitting in front of a metronome.

 

[Black Obelisk]

Its more about your fingers & air, at very fast tempos, no tongue or just in a few spots for "color" or accent. Very few.
Sometimes you might think, on some records, that guys are tonguing more than they really are. You can do alot with your fingers, the way you hit the keys, to simulate "articulation". If you focus on tonguing, its the real sure-fire way of remaining "earth-bound"

 

[BenBrittonJazz]

There is definitely articulation happening defining lines in Parker, Cannonball, Potter, etc. They aren't articulating as much as when they are at slower tempos, but the best players articulate even when playing very fast. It just takes practice so you don't have to "focus" on it. As far as thinking guys are tonguing more than they are, I'm referring to when you can clearly hear players articulating, not when its a maybe.