Mastering Tonguing for Saxophone Players

Tonguing is one of the most important skills to master for every saxophone player. The tongue is like the saxophone player's equivalent of the violinist's bow. It enables you to:

• Start notes precisely
• Repeat notes quickly and efficiently
• Create subtle variations of phrasing

Unfortunately, it's also one of the most difficult skills to acquire. Part of the reason for that is that you can't see what I'm doing, and I can't see what you're doing. We're both kind of working with our eyes shut. However, over the years that I've been teaching, I have devised an effective way of teaching people to tongue.

The Ventriloquist Exercise

My first teacher, Don Rendell, used to tell me that tonguing was like ventriloquism, and he was absolutely right. When I first started teaching, I would go into all kinds of complicated descriptions of what the tongue was doing. As the years went by, I came back to Don's idea of tonguing being like ventriloquism.

Here's the exercise:

1. Stand in front of a mirror.

2. Take a note, let's say the B that we've been playing already.

3. Sing that note as if you were a ventriloquist:

   • Attempt to do this without moving your lips, teeth, or jaw.

   "Do, do, do, do, do."

Using the mirror, observe how much movement there is. It may be impossible to have no movement, but try to keep it to an absolute minimum.

Notable Points During the Exercise:

• The "do" sound is produced not by the tip of your tongue, but just behind the tip.
• The tongue moves as little as possible.
• The tongue moves as gently as possible, so it's not like this: "do, do, do," but more like: "do, do, do."

I'm moving my hand across to remind myself to maintain the line. Earlier, when we were playing long notes, I talked about the importance of drawing a line. Keep that in mind as you do the ventriloquist exercise:

"Do, do, do, do."

Final Thoughts

Although you hear distinct notes, I want you to think of this as one breath because it is one breath. It's almost like thinking of it as one continuous sound.

Don't confuse trying to keep the action of the tongue gentle with playing or singing more quietly. This is a common misunderstanding. The gentleness of the tongue's action is completely distinct from the volume of the sound, whether you're singing or playing.