Simplicity, clarity, accuracy. Tongue, or articulate, the way you speak (but only if you already speak clearly). Say a phrase with lots of “T’s” or “D’s” in it such as,” Don’t date that toady!” Think about what your tongue was doing during this ridiculous phrase. Chances are the tip of your tongue lightly touched the top of the inside of your mouth, just behind your top teeth. Put the mouthpiece in, touch just behind the tip of the reed the same way. You don’t need to press the reed closed, just stop it from vibrating.
I like to think about what would happen if you lightly touched the wing of a hovering humming bird – don’t do this with your tongue, or anything else. The slightest touch will send the poor creature veering off into a death spiral. The same is true for the reed. Touch it and its vibration will be altered, or stopped. Experiment with touching the reed at a variety of points and catalog the results. Now you have an arsenal of expressive articulations. Can you touch the reed and still have it continue to vibrate? This leads you to one form of jazz articulation, the so-called “n” articulation. Listen to the CD for some examples of this.
Jazz Articulation
Jazz articulation is generally taught in two incarnations; first by simply following the articulation below;
and second by using an “n” articulation on each upbeat. Jazzers endlessly argue over what is the one “true” path for articulation, and some players advocate using almost no articulation. The answer is simple, use your ears, analyze players you admire, vary your articulation depending on the line, the intensity of the moment, and your musical, interpretive goals. Frankly, I think Cannonball Adderley’s articulation sounded, inventive, surprising, soulful, and always musical.
Subtone, or “Foo Foo Tenor”
Subtone is a way of making your sound fuzzy, less focused, often warmer, and can be accomplished two ways. Subtone is achieved by disrupting the air as it enters the mouthpiece, so that the air enters more slowly, or in a less direct manner. The old school method was to lower your head, send your jaw way back, and blow way down into the instrument, using much less jaw pressure. This worked great – if you didn’t mind being about a quarter step flat. Another way to create a subtone is to bring your tongue as close as possible to the reed, possible even allowing it to remain on the reed as in the “n” articulation, thus disrupting the air stream without lowering the pitch. As in all techniques of this type, experiment, listen to other players, and please consult the all-hallowed tuner.