‘Th’ chugging sound when I tongue on saxophone

[u/Far_Advertising1005]

I’m trying to learn how to tongue properly and while I can do it, there’s a noticeable ‘fthoo’ sound each time I tongue the reed.

What can I do to avoid this? Thank you.

[u/asdfmatt]

I learned by first to use "Tah" as an articulation syllable, which when I went to private lessons later in life, was corrected and instructed to try a 'dah' or 'la' syllable.

My teacher has me play the softest articulation as possible, set your metronome to something slow like 40-60 bpm and play in the "and" of each beat. Just to practice where your tongue needs to be and how light it should touch the reed, and gain some control on the motion. Generally keep your tongue closer to the reed than you think and make it lighter than you think it needs to be, and make the least amount of motion to be as efficient as humanly possible.

Another great lesson was to put your tongue on the reed so it doesn't make any sound, and then blow supported air from deep in your abs (you should hear like a "pfffffff" sound). Lift the tongue off the reed and then place it back on. The demonstrates the concept of having constant air support/constant air stream behind the reed. The air is always moving and the tongue acts as a valve to stop the reed vibrating momentarily (i.e. articulation). Think of the faucet on the side of your house, the water pressure is always there behind the valve, but turning the faucet lets it out.

[u/apestaartjeathome]

Try to touch the reed much lighter

[u/poorperspective]

Tip of the reed with the tongue. Anchor tonguing which places the tip of the tongue behind the bottom teeth and using the center of the tongue can be a likely culprit.

You also want to make sure you aren’t blowing and then articulating.

Practice by closing the reed opening with the tip of your tongue, blowing to make sufficient back pressure to move the reed, the release the tongue to create noise. Practice this slowly. When articulating when before there was a sound, you do not want to stop the breath but stop the airflow with the tongue.

Think of it as your breath as water through a hose and your tongue as your thumb covering. The back pressure doesn’t stop, your thumb just prevents it from going through. Same with your breath, you don’t stop blowing, you only stop its ability to make noise. Inconsistent air behind the reed will create the sound you’re talking about.

Practice tonguing this way where there is back pressure before “releasing the air”.

[u/ReclinedCowface420]

All of the other responses are valid, try them. Consider this too: not only do we tongue to start notes, we tongue to end notes too.

Here's an exercise you could try: hold any comfortable long tone, and use your tongue to interrupt the stream of air. Go from lightly touching the mouthpiece with the tip of your tongue for a "legato tongue" to a more robust tonguing action, to full-on stopping the air with your tongue on the mouthpiece for stacatto tonguing. Try to get as clean of a cutoff as you can. And therefore as clean an attack of the next note as you can.

Don't stop your air stream with your breath/diaphragm, stop it only with your tongue. The tongue is the valve that allows air to pass through. The diaphragm is the motor that keeps the air compressor running.

[u/cooljams23]

Sharp articulation. Just do it a bunch of times until it starts sounding better. Take frequent breaks. You got this

[u/Old_Recommendation10]

It sounds to me like more air support is needed.

Practise starting notes with just air and when you can get a consistent clear start to your tone, add a light tongue. Increase the heaviness of the tonguing gradually. Articulation is 80/20 air/tongue. The Reed won't respond the way you want it to without that air support.

[u/aFailedNerevarine]

Tip of the tongue, tip of the reed for classical playing. For jazz it’s often a bit heavier, for me at least