Posted by ken k on July 27, 2000 at 18:09:48:
Hello again,
I have an adult student who has been playing for many years but without a teacher and over the years has developed a bad habit of grunting or trying to hum when he plays. I have tried to get him to concentrate on starting the note with the tongue at the front of the mouth rather than the throat because I sense he is trying to use the throat to start the tone. We have tried starting with no tongue at all, just air. We have tried slurring everything. We have tried separate tonguing exercises, and he can usually stop doing it when we isolate it. But once he has to start thinking of other things such as notes, rhythms, fingerings, etc, he starts the grunting again. Any other ideas to help us out?
ken k