Different Tongue Placements for Different Mouthpieces

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JTeagarden
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Different Tongue Placements for Different Mouthpieces

Post by JTeagarden »

I find that I place my tongue differently when articulating depending on the particular horn/mouthpiece combination I am using, and if I were going to say in what direction, I'd say the tongue gets lower as the mouthpiece/bore get smaller.

Is this hunky-dory, or is it better to strive for the same tomgue placement regardless of the set-up?
Last edited by JTeagarden on Wed Jul 08, 2026 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Doug Elliott
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Re: Different Tongue Placements for Different Mouthpieces

Post by Doug Elliott »

That may be somewhat normal… I’ll have to try it myself.
But it’s also likely you’re trying to make small bore sound more Iike a large bore instead of accepting the brighter sound.
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claf
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Re: Different Tongue Placements for Different Mouthpieces

Post by claf »

Doug Elliott wrote: Wed Jul 08, 2026 11:35 am But it’s also likely you’re trying to make small bore sound more Iike a large bore instead of accepting the brighter sound.
I once was covering the 2nd horn part on my trombone in my symphony orchestra. The part was not hard, but it completely wore me off.
When I accepted the fact that the blend with the 1st horn would not be good anyway, it was way easier.
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