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The real power of KTM...



 
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acatrp61
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 6:14 pm    Post subject: The real power of KTM... Reply with quote

Greetings,

I've been noticing improvements in my playing while doing Claude's routines, but I have always had 'issues' getting the KTM element down. My tongue would get 'tired', and my articulation would slow to a crawl. Lately I've really noticed that my KTM is getting so much better, and I realize that as I get stronger, I also get more relaxed in the back of my tongue. For example, the first week of practicing Clark #1 K tongued, my articulation was so sloppy and my sound was awful. Everyday however, it seems to get clearer and my sound is now so much more 'upfront'.
The message: I encourage you to spend extra time and concentration when doing any of Claude's KTM exercises, they DO WORK. In fact, I've noticed that my intervals lock in better as well.

John, Eric, Matt: Does working on KTM or K tongue exercises help with upper register slotting?? Cause it sure seems to be helping me in that area as well.
thanks,
Ed
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Matt Graves
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 7:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ed:

Consistent practice of KTM across your range will help "slotting" as you put it, or accuracy.

The ideal: "K" (or "G") needs to be equal to "T" (or "D").

Practice simple articulation exercises at slow tempos with a metronome throughout your range.

Keep a journal of your tempos.

Quality, accuracy and evenness before speed.

Listen closely and record yourself.

Don't be in a rush.

Rest properly, you will progress quicker!

Remember, the tongue needs rest just as much as the lips!
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homebilly
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have found that for me the biggest benefit has been how it has helped my jazz phrasing. I'm able to tongue a lot of notes lightly and cleanly without sounding stiff and square.
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acatrp61
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aThanks so much for your reply Matt. Yes, I will start using a metronome with my K exercises. I get so tired with my tongue I slow down to a crawl with Clark #1.

The struggle continues.....
Ed
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trptdoc
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 4:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I find tremendous value in KTM for piccolo, con tolling the softness or harshness of the attack. It feels like whistling through the horn. When I learned it from CG 45 years ago a whole new world of trumpet opened up to me.
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John Mohan
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Like Larry, when Claude taught me about KTM tonguing many years ago (at my second Crash Course back in 1980 before I moved to California to study with him full time) with time it made a huge difference in my playing. It took about a month for it to catch on, but once it did, significant increases in accuracy, range, tonguing speed and the ability to multiple tongue to the top of my range were the results.

I am not a naturally fast tonguer. Even with KTM, I hovered around 96 to 104 bpm back in the mid-1980's. But truthfully, I didn't do the KTM exercise every day consistantly as Claude assigned me. Finally, in the year 2000 while living in Germany, I took it upon myself to go back to the KTM exercise that Claude assigned us (the First Exercise in his book "Tongue Level Exercises" done in the way prescribed in his book "Brass Playing Is No Harder Than Deep Breathing").

As Claude would instruct, I marked my time in the margin of the book - I think I was at 100 or 104 when I started working the exercise again, and as I improved my speed, I marked the new time. I did the exercise every day (takes about 10 to 15 minutes), and though the progress was slow, it was steady. Sometimes months would go by before I could mark a new, faster speed in my book’s margin – but with time, it did happen. A year later I reached 120 bpm, tonguing those sixteenth note exercises for 20 beats each (resting between each set as long as I played). Eventually(another year later) I reached a consistent 132bpm on the exercise with peaks to 144 bpm.

Stick with it. With time and proper practice, it will work for you.

Best wishes,

John Mohan
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Jeff_Purtle
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The first thing Claude told me to do was that exact exercise. I had already been to his brass camp and heard everything. We talked on the phone and the lesson wasn't for a couple weeks and he told me to work on that just like he had showed me when I pulled him aside at the camp.

Before KTM I know my maximum speed was 90 for single tonguing 16ths. The weird thing was that I could actually tongue really fast triple tonguing, which I later discovered was when I was doing KTM without knowing it.

It took me many months to gradually build the speed. I remember Claude used to have a metronome that seemed about 10 bpm faster than my digital metronome. I tried to tell him it was faster than mine and he wouldn't accept that.

He had me on a series of exercises he wrote for several months. This is a page from a similar Tonguing Exercise, seen on the middle of that page. He wrote several series of tonguing exercises for different purposes.

I remember each lesson he would set the metronome faster than the previous lesson. I remember one lesson that he set it on 160 and told me I would do it. The fastest I had tried before that was a solid 144 and never 160 and never with that metronome. But, the pressure was on and somehow I did it and it actually helped me believe I could do more things than I previously thought I couldn't do.

It was a cool thing to have a teacher that walked me through the process and pushed me to go farther. He knew I could do it.

Jeff
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shofar
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 2:13 pm    Post subject: KTM Reply with quote

This is interesting to hear from Jon and Jeff. Here's my first lesson with Claude.

Tongue Level 2, 3
Tongue Level (P. Ex. #1 KTM Practice Many Times Daily

That was the entire lesson for the next month.

Later,

Rog
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Jeff_Purtle
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 5:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It was a really good thing for me because I had heard about KTM at another music camp two years earlier and thought I could never do it. I had tried it for a couple days and gave up. I bought the Clarke's Characteristic Studies only for the reason of reading that sentence about KTM. I also read about K tonguing for the first time there too. It was new and I thought kind of pointless until Claude stressed it two years later.

I remember being at college and having a teacher tell me to stop doing KTM and another teacher saying that it was an old cornet style of playing and doesn't work for today. I told the one teacher I wouldn't go back to the previous way because I knew KTM was way better. I think I got my only B in lessons that semester and I learned to just keep my mouth shut.

KTM is one of the most important things that people don't see the significance of. EVERYONE does tongue level in some for or another. That's the point of all the presentations I had people do at my conferences.

However, without KTM tongue level won't work well in the upper register and single tonguing will never get fast. When you do KTM you can really feel the notes and know that you have absolute certainty you won't miss no matter how you feel.

But, people will never know until they have gone through the process to learn it and personally experience it.
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EBjazz
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Right you are Jeff. I've tried to point this out on the forum many times.
You don't just "do" tongue level (tongue arch), you have to learn it.

Eb

Still trying to learn it
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BPL
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 3:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's funny.. for me KTM was the most natural thing in the world.. I have never single tongued any other way since the very first time Jeff showed me how... I don't even think I could do it any other way even if I wanted to.

One thing I have noticed, though, is that being "assertive" with the air helps the KTM feel right. Or to put it another way... "let the air do the work"(?)

Quote:
I get so tired with my tongue I slow down to a crawl with Clark #1.

The struggle continues.....
Ed


Reminds me of Clarke's comments in HIBAC about his own k-tongueing (I know, I know, he wasn't taking about KTM, but..). You feel like a spluttering engine, or a severely stuttering child.. but it improves. And when it does, it's soooo clean and crisp, and all the other articulations seem to become really really easy.

Does k-tonuing help KTM?

Brett
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