Clarinet Tonguing Tips for Clearer Articulation | Adult Lessons Yanai
- Izumi Fujiyama
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Yamaguchi-based Fujiyama Clarinet Studio in Yanai specializes in clarinet lessons for adults.
In this blog, I’d like to share highlights from a November lesson with an adult student, using Boccherini’s “Minuet” and Yukiko Nishimura’s “Smiley Moon” as our main examples. If you are aiming for ABRSM Grade 3 or coming back to the clarinet as an adult, I hope you find some practical ideas here.
What We Learn from Boccherini’s “Minuet”
Boccherini was an Italian composer of the Classical period, and this Minuet is almost like a “textbook example” of a classical minuet.
Notated in 2/4 time
Regular four‑bar phrases
A dignified, elegant character
With these points in mind, we aim for refined, noble phrasing on the clarinet.
Upbeats and Phrase Shape
The piece begins with an upbeat (anacrusis).
Here are two things to keep in mind:
The upbeat is a run‑up to the phrase
The energy flows forward toward the downbeat of the next bar
Carefully observe the slurs and dynamics, and try to feel “where one musical sentence begins and ends.” That awareness alone will already change the clarity of your articulation.
How to Treat Grace notes
Grace notes are like spices in cooking. Used well, they add color. Used poorly, they blur the flavour of the piece.
In the lesson, we paid special attention to:
Clearly separating the roles of the grace notes and the main note
Fitting grace notes into the pulse without disturbing the rhythm
Thinking of sixteenth notes as “precise” rather than simply “fast”
Placing grace notes just before the downbeat, without delaying the main note
It helps to practice in stages with a metronome:
First without the grace notes
Then with grace notes added back in
This step‑by‑step approach keeps the rhythmic core stable.
Repeated Notes and Tonguing
This piece contains many passages with repeated notes. With or without staccato marks, repeated notes are a perfect opportunity to check your tonguing accuracy.
When the same note repeats, trying too hard to make it bouncy can cause the sound to get swallowed and not project. Another common issue is that the “ng” part of “tang‑tang” leaks through the nose and air escapes. Start by keeping the air going forward steadily and simply separating the notes with the tongue. After that, you can gradually round out each note into beautiful, even “sound pellets.”
Points to check:
Can you articulate “ti, ti, ti” cleanly, one note at a time?
Does the airflow stay continuous between the notes?
Before speeding up, can you make each note the same length and quality at a slow tempo?
Recording yourself and listening back will reveal uneven tonguing very clearly. For adult learners especially, cultivating the habit of checking the gap between “what I think I’m doing” and what actually comes out can dramatically speed up improvement.
Japanese Speaker Articulation Tips
Japanese is a language in which consonants are relatively soft and vowels are very prominent. Because of this, Japanese speakers on the clarinet often tend to:
Blur the attack of the note
Produce something closer to “a” than a crisp “ta”
It can be helpful to think of consonants as tonguing and vowels as the airflow:
Keep the air (vowel) flowing without interruption
Lightly touch the reed with the tongue (consonant) to shape the front of the note
Develop a flexible range of attacks, from very soft to clearly accented
In lessons, I often ask students to say the words out loud first, then play the phrase. Connecting language feeling with sound production is a powerful way to clarify articulation.
Expanding Imagination with Yukiko Nishimura’s “Smiley Moon”
Smiley Moon is a solo piece by Japan‑born, U.S.‑based composer Yukiko Nishimura, written for the band method series Sound Innovations.
It is very friendly for adult returners because:
The score is easy to purchase as a download
It includes a clarinet solo part and piano accompaniment
It comes with short practice exercises
At Fujiyama Clarinet Studio, we use this piece in our online project “Smiley Moon Challenge”, which you can join by submitting recordings from home.
Painting the Scene in Words
The most important part of working on this piece is being able to describe your moon in words.
In lessons, I ask questions like:
What season is it?
Where are you? By a lake, in a forest, in town…?
Is there wind, or is the air completely still?
What does it smell like? Earthy soil, cold night air…?
We use all five senses—color, smell, temperature, silence, movement of air—and put them into words first. Then, when you play the same phrase again, the music suddenly gains depth, even though the notes themselves are unchanged.
I ask students to describe in words what kind of moon they see. Are they alone? What is the season? What colors and smells are present? The clearer their personal image becomes, the more intimate and convincing their musical expression will feel.
Reading Story Clues from the Score
Sensitivity is important, but so is reading the score carefully.
We look at elements such as:
The flowing quarter‑note motion in the piano intro
The relatively narrow intervals in the melodic line, giving a feeling of gentle motion
The way the line later rises and holds a high note, as if looking up toward a moon high in the sky
From these details, we build an image like:
“On a quiet night, the moon gradually enters your field of vision. When you finally look up, there it is, hanging in the sky with a soft, smiling light.”
We also examine what the notation tells us. In the opening phrase, neighboring‑note motion expands from the tonic up to the third and fifth. The larger the leap, the more expressive space you need to feel. In the next phrase, flats appear and a slight shadow enters the harmony. Dotted rhythms interrupt the steady eighth‑note motion—how will you express that change? Thinking through these questions brings the printed notes to life.
We apply the same thinking to the piano intro and ask what kind of scene it sets.
Three Things I Recommend for Adult Clarinet Learners
Looking back over these November lessons, here are three points I especially recommend for adult students:
Record yourself and listen regularly.
Use recordings to check tonguing, tone, and phrase flow with your own ears.
Explain in words before you play.
Even a one‑line description like “a quiet, cold night with a gentle moon” greatly enriches your sound.
Read information from the score.
Instead of just “playing what’s written,” ask why it is written that way. Score reading becomes a small discovery process.
In Closing
Both Boccherini’s “Minuet” and Yukiko Nishimura’s “Smiley Moon” are pieces that feel “within reach” technically, but whose expressive depth grows the more you work on them.
At Fujiyama Clarinet Studio, I design lessons so that adult learners can enjoy this kind of repertoire at their own pace while steadily improving.
Lesson and Online Project Information
About Lessons at Fujiyama Clarinet Studio
I offer both in‑person lessons in the Yanai, Yamaguchi area and online lessons.
First‑time or returner adult lessons
ABRSM grade preparation (including Performance Grades)
Courses for those who want to enjoy the clarinet slowly as a long‑term hobby
For details about trial lessons and ongoing lessons, please see the studio information page or use the contact form.
Online “Smiley Moon Challenge”
This project uses “Smiley Moon” to deepen tone and expression together online.
Submit recordings from home
Receive feedback during lessons or via written comments
Get suggestions for your next practice steps based on your finished video
It is especially recommended if you would like to “fully polish just one piece” or try recording for the first time.
ABRSM Challenge (For Those Aiming for Grade Exams)
Our ABRSM Challenge Class supports you through every step of the Performance Grade process, which can be hard to manage alone:
Choosing pieces and creating a realistic schedule
Using Tomplay effectively for home practice
Planning practice and managing nerves for the recording session
If you want to turn “I’d like to try someday” into “I’m actually doing it,” feel free to contact me about the ABRSM Challenge.
If any part of this article made you think, “I’d like to try that” or “I’d just like to hear more,” please send me a short message via the studio information or contact page about where you are now and how you’d like to grow.
I’d be delighted to help make your time with the clarinet a little richer and more enjoyable.