| Speaking of tongues
This brings up a very interesting point that I have pondered many times. How much does your "native tongue" have to do with how you play? OK - most of us are Americans and the days of distinct ethnic groups living in certain pockets of the country is also a thing of the past since we seem to be such a transient society now. However, when you think of trumpeters from all over the world and how they play, have you ever thought of how much their native tongue has to do with the type of sound and style they produce? To me it is glaring and fascinating. I, for one, never had a problem with anything technical or anything requiring fast tonguing. I truly believe growing up in a place where we spoke very quickly and tossed around a lot of Italian and Spanish had an influence on that.
(for the sake of all readers and time constraints, I will be making generalizations here, so please, no flaming...I know there are exceptions to everything. I mean no offense to any one group of people.)
I will begin with a startling difference - Asian dialects. Their language is so different from the ones where brass playing originated, so they therefore have a very unique style. They are not accustomed to the hard syllables we use to articulate because it is not naturally a part of their "oral muscle memory". I taught at a Korean music academy and it was quite the eye-opener. There was also a trumpeter from China in Belgium for part of the time I was there. I watched him struggle for a long time with articulation, sound, etc. He emerged triumphant, but I know it was very difficult for him because of the language.
The differences between American/British/Canadian English are evident as well. I truly think that has something to do with the subtle differences between those three and the players that come from those places. We are the only language that uses the "th" sound as well. This is kind of important because I purposely use "thuga thuga" when tonguing rapidly and low. Well, you can't teach that to anyone outside of the English language because they are just not comfortable (and in lots of cases just not able) to produce this shape with their oral cavity or tongue. Therefore, you have to teach that technique with a syllable in their language....or at least something close.
A Russian player - we can hear one a mile away stylistically...why? I bet it has something to do with his culture and his language.
Germans - they speak from a "hardy" place from the middle to the back of their mouths and have a "hardy" approach to articulation and style. That falls in line with their language and culture.
The French - their language is very pointed, precise and full of sounds that would tie our American mouths and tongues into knots and they tend to speak more from the front of their oral cavity - as is evident in the "brightness" of the French style.
Latin - technique for days, unique inherent vibrato and passionate sound production. They can roll their "Rs" naturally which comes in handy, wouldn't you say? Try to get one of the Germans to do that.....LOL. It is much more work for them.
Dutch - I bring this language up because I actually learned it and was amazed at some of the "shapes" I had to make with my lips, my tongue and my oral cavity to produce the correct sounds when speaking. I guess that was one of those epiphanal moments for me. There is much more "pucker" - as in the sound 'ooooooo' (like in "boo") but executed more like "ewe", then there is the ever famous "g" sound which most English speaking folks cannot produce correctly (like our "th" which everyone else finds extremely difficult), and there are diphthongs for days that tire out your tongue in no time. Yes, Dutch is a "Germanic" language, but it has much Scandinavian influence as well. The Dutch spoken in Belgium (Flemish) is very different sounding than that spoken in the Netherlands. The Belgians have a Spanish influence on their pronunciation, as well as mixing in French when it suits them (since half of their already small country is French-speaking......the Walloons). When I travel to the Netherlands and am brave enough to speak Dutch, I am regularly told that I have a "Belgian" dialect. Since that is where I lived and learned the language for three years, it would make sense. By the end, I could tell the difference as well. I found it all fascinating when thinking of the oral cavity and our ears.
This is something I wanted to throw out there just as food for thought. I truly believe there is some validity to it. IMHO. |