Hey Manny, As I was practicing lip flexibiblities yesterday, I noticed clearly for the first time that I can't do a lip slur cleanly and easily if the back of my tongue is laying down in my the bottom of my mouth. It has to be up in the back of my mouth. I know you don't like to think of the mechanics and I know you don't have to much at this point in your career but my question is when we are playing, whether it's lip slurs or tonguing or flow studies, or even orchestral music, should our tongue always be in the same position as when we whistle or should it ALWAYS be down in the mouth like we are saying "aahhh" like you tells us...I hope this isn't to vague...thanks for your help... Jeremy
Welcome back, Jeremy. The tongue is always moving in subtle and gross ways but we minimize that movement by focusing on the sound quality and letting nature take its course. You don't try to physical freeze your tongue in any position. Think about it logically. All that's going to do is add to an already stiff gut approach to playing that will be counterproductive to playing easily. Focus on a vowel result and not on the physical process. ML
