Why is it important to single tongue K Tongue Modified?
This is not an optional item. Without tonguing this way you will never experience accuracy, tonguing speed and ease of playing especially in the upper register. Incorrect tonguing disrupts the tongue’s arch in the front of the mouth working against Tongue Level. Everyone uses Tongue Level when they play. Most people are never taught about correct single tonguing. The very tip of the tongue always remains in contact with the top of the bottom teeth and you produce the “T” just slightly back from the tip of the tongue. This is in the front middle of the tongue, hence Claude Gordon coined the term “K Tongue Modified” because like K tonguing it is in the middle of the tongue, but modified to be more forward toward the tip. Here are some people I have spoken with that I know tongue this way: Arturo Sandoval, Doc Severinsen, Frank Kaderabek, Wayne Bergeron, Bob O’Donnel, and Claude Gordon and his students. Claude Gordon learned this from Herbert L. Clarke, who taught it to all his students.
