Help! Articulation problems when playing loud

[Fgal409]

Hello, over the last few weeks im having an issue when playing loud, its more notorious on middle range when playing chromaticly, i can articulate just fine when playing softly, but when playing at loud volumes im not able to connect two notes properly without sounding stuffy and cracking notes. Maybe its the mouthpiece i play (Bach 7C) or maybe its my playing, i dont know.
I need some advice.
Maybe a deeper mouthpiece, i have a Yamaha 48 but high range and endurance sucks. Also dont like symphonic sound.

[Doug Elliott]

Tonguing loud is always challenging.
It's pretty likely a larger rim size would be easier. Deeper is not the answer.

[tbdana]

I can't comment on your mouthpiece choice, but there's a common way that people tongue improperly and it can create that problem, and that's using too much tongue as you get louder. In general, the louder you play, the less tongue articulation you need to make the same sound.

We are taught to make a "Tah" or "Dah" sound to start a note, where the T or D is our tongue involvement and the "ah" is our airstream. This capital T or D emphasizes the tongue's role in the articulation, but I think it's exactly backwards. It's the air that is important, and the tongue is needed only insofar as it interrupts the airstream enough to separate the notes and create the starting effect we're looking for. I was once told that we shouldn't tongue like "Tah" or "Dah," but to think of it like "tAH" or "dAH," which emphasizes the air flow rather than the interruption of the air flow with the tongue. The tongue is the least important part of the articulation. Air is king. And too much tongue in the articulation when the air is really moving in great volume and speed (i.e., when we play loud) will interrupt the airstream too much or for too long, and can cause exactly the problems you mention.

Try a lighter and faster tongue attack at higher volumes and see if that helps.

[Fgal409]

I can't comment on your mouthpiece choice, but there's a common way that people tongue improperly and it can create that problem, and that's using too much tongue as you get louder. In general, the louder you play, the less tongue articulation you need to make the same sound.

We are taught to make a "Tah" or "Dah" sound to start a note, where the t or d is our tongue involvement and the "ah" is our airstream. This capital T or D emphasizes the tongue's role in the articulation, but I think it's exactly backwards. It's the air that is important, and the tongue is needed only insofar as it interrupts the airstream enough to separate the notes and create the starting effect we're looking for. I was once told that we shouldn't tongue like "Tah" or "Dah," but like "tAH" or "dAH," which emphasizes the air flow rather than the interruption of the air flow with the tongue. The tongue is the least important part of the articulation. Air is king. And too much tongue in the articulation when the air is really moving in great volume and speed (IOW when we play loud) will interrupt the airstream and can cause exactly the problems you mention.

Try a lighter and faster tongue attack at higher volumes and see if that helps.

Thanks! I ll try that next practice session, i wasnt able to fully describe my problem, but i think its exactly as you said, i feel like air disrupts in between notes when playing loud making a complete mess. Problem is not the first note i must say.

[Burgerbob]

The aperture (where the air passes through and vibrates the chops) needs to stay supple at all times, but especially when doing something like loud articulations. It's easy to let the chops get too stiff, which makes only loud long tones and first articulations work.

[baileyman]

tbdana may be saying the same as me. Time your note to start for when the tongue starts to pull back. It starts on the release, not the attack.

Terrible language only took me decades to undo.