Educate me on "anchor tonguing."

[pkb77]

Doesn't Ray Mase do this?

[Tal Katz]

Yes, Ray Mase does say anchor tonguing helped his playing tremendously.
I think he learned it from his teacher Armando Ghitalla. I think most great trumpet players tongue sort of the same way technically. Some call it anchor tonguing, some call it K-modified tonguing so it seems, some like to think about TS when tonguing, some don't call it anything, and some can't even explain what it is they are doing even though they sound great and anchor tongue. Great players also use a variety of articulations to play and shape a phrase with different colors. Great singers do it all the time, in any musical genre.

Either way, being rigid or restricted with your breathing, your tongue (especially the back part), your throat, your body is usually the way to missed/cracked notes, choking on notes, a restricted sound, lack of control which leads to insecurity.

I think practicing scales for example while paying a lot of attention that you're sustaining your sound (air flow) as long as possible while not letting the tongue stop your sound but actually use it to connect one note to the next with as little to no break between the notes will get your tongue working much better. Practicing it slowly (very) will definitely tell you a lot about what you're doing because once you're going to play those scales faster and faster you will have to try and achieve the exact same thing. It's like playing legato (slurred) but with your tongue instead of just blowing air through. Many players, when approaching an exercise like this, especially beginners have a tendency to tongue everything too short while trying to play too fast making it impossible for them to hear what's happening between the notes which leads to many difficulties playing the trumpet.

Of course there are times when we are called to play staccato (and even then many players play way too short) or even staccatissimo and secco but I definitely think that shouldn't be a starting point to build your fundamentals upon. Practicing playing shorter and even as short as possible is something one should definitely experiment with but I think developing full control over playing in a very sustained manner will get your sound and tongue in the right place. BTW, it works the same for multiple tonguing.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that the tongue doesn't produce any sound on the trumpet. Actually, it can stop our sound from being produced at all, or can make us choke on those high notes...

I like to think about the tongue as something that connects notes to each other rather than separate them from one another.
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You are what you practice.

[take2]

[Peter Bond]

[mcgovnor]

excellent. And once again, if we use speech as our reference, our tongue is never anchored, or rigid when we speak. It moves and remains flexible, forming and shaping the pronunciation and pitch of our speech.

[mikatpt]

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

I also do not do anything resembling anchor tonguing when I speak. The tip of my tongue articulates T and D sounds just like when I play the trumpet.

Maybe if I was a French speaker...

Say "chocolate donut"...are you anchoring? I'm not.

[solo soprano]

Where or who first started using the language, "anchor tonguing"?
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Bill Knevitt, who taught me the seven basic physical elements and the ten principles of physical trumpet playing and how to develop them.
https://qpress.ca/product-category/trumpet/?filter_publisher=la-torre-music

[StupidBrassObsession]

[Mike Sailors]

I remember being mixed up thinking about what my tongue was doing, what it wasn't doing etc . . .

Then one day I read on this forum that you can approach your tongue by paying attention to how it acts when you speak.

Problem solved.

Edit: It was Peter Bond who said it. I see that he's given the same advice in this thread. Everyone should pay attention to what he's saying.
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www.mikesailors.com

[John Mohan]

As others have pointed out, "Anchor Tonguing" is a bad name for what some call "Dorsal Tonguing" and what Claude called K-Tongue Modified Tonguing. The tongue should never be anchored or held rigid when playing.

Claude called it "K-Tongue Modified" (KTM) tonguing because where as with the normal (bad) way most beginner and intermediate players tongue, the tip of the tongue performs the articulation, and with K-Tonguing, it is the back area of the tongue that performs the articulation, and Claude felt that since it is the area between the tip and the back of the tongue that performs the articulation when tonguing the way Herbert Clarke taught him to tongue, it made sense to call it K-Tongue Modified. Note that in KTM tonguing (aka Dorsal tonguing) it is not really the middle of the tongue performing the articulation, but the area just behind the tip of the tongue.

Tonguing in this way keeps the tip down and out of the way of the airstream. That's why articulations, especially in the upper register, are much more sure and accurate with KTM tonguing once it's developed.

I have written an explained the way to tongue as Claude Gordon taught me in many posts on the Trumpet Herald. For more information about KTM, you can refer to the posts I've made here in the past by running a Search with me as the Author and the words: K-Tongue AND Modified

Also, Jeff Purtle has a good explanation on his webpage at https://www.purtle.com/jeff-brass-frequently-asked-questions:

[John Mohan]

[Gordontrek]

Glad to see continued interest here. I've been to a couple of people for help on regaining my usual way of tonguing and they've said I need to focus on doing just that, so that's my primary focus right now. As for anchor tonguing I'm still gathering some information about it but not spending a whole lot of time doing it. Right now it's just another option I'm keeping open if it turns out that my usual Ta-tongue can't be recovered due to a physical cause or otherwise (there is a lot of stretching of the cheeks and corners going on when I do it that I can't seem to control). I told my private teacher about it yesterday and tried playing some anchor-tongue for him and he said it's a good option to keep open, but for now I have my eyes set on recovering my normal way of tonguing.
Thanks everyone for your input so far, it's been very thorough and informative.
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"May God have mercy on my enemies, because I won't." George S. Patton Jr.
"Those who have achieved all their aims probably set them too low." Herbert von Karajan

Bach 18043
Eastman ETR-830S
Bach 1

[solo soprano]

[Mike Sailors]

[abontrumpet]

[cheeky chops]

This topic has lots of great advice on here
THANKS !
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John

[ScottA]

The idea of playing the trumpet like we speak is one that has been around for a long time and I often tried to follow. Only recently has it been pointed out to me (Special Studies for Trumpet by John Daniel) that when we speak we do not have an embouchure formed past which we are blowing great quantities of air. It does affect how the tongue works.

Don't get locked into one approach unless you are certain it is the best FOR YOU. By all means try several approaches to see which does work best for you.
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Scott Apelgren
Indialantic, FL

[Peter Bond]

[ScottA]

Good point.

I do want to clarify that the "great quantities of air" was my wording and not from Mr. Daniel's book.
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Scott Apelgren
Indialantic, FL