Tone
Tue, 08/02/2011 - 20:38
David, Lately you've been encouraging me to relax everything but my tongue, but for tone, I also recall you pointing out the the tongue is down in back and open. You don't stretch it so far that you feel the top of your throat stretching do you (around your tonsils, like you have one of those "say Ah" sticks at the doctors)...or do you? So not the throat, just the tongue? Thanks for any more clues.
No stretch for tone. Try a slight yawn, that's a great example of what it feels like. In the end, all of your mouth, including your tongue, will be open and relaxed.
A side note, your tongue doesn't have to be really far out of the way, just enough as to not affect the vibration of the reed you're playing. Technically speaking, so that your mouth is tuned to a pitch lower than the reed can bend to.