Editorial Note
Flute Almanac Educational Masterclass Series — Featuring Tim Lane
This article is part of a new educational initiative within Flute Almanac. The series is dedicated to exploring important aspects of flute pedagogy through clear, practical, and experience-based guidance from respected performers and teachers. Its goal is to present thoughtful discussions of technical principles that shape flute playing and to provide insights useful to both students and educators.
The first contributions to the series are written by flutist and educator Tim Lane, Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, whose work focuses on the mechanics and clarity of flute technique. In this article, he examines the phenomenon of anchor tonguing, a commonly encountered articulation habit that can influence tone production, flexibility, and control.
A second article will follow, introducing the concept of The Rule of Mechanical Separation and presenting exercises designed to help flutists develop greater independence between the tongue, lips, and jaw.
Through this series, Flute Almanac aims to create a space where practical knowledge, careful observation, and pedagogical experience can be shared with the wider flute community.
Anchor tonguing is a limiting practice and while it is not at all unusual in the flute world, it is little recognized or understood. The practice of anchor tonguing is rooted in the formation and use of an embouchure in which the front of the tongue rests against the bottom lip, pressing and flattening it against the lip plate on the head joint.
I have never met a flute player that chose to anchor tongue or that was taught to intentionally form their embouchure in such a manner. So, why do flute players anchor tongue? The most probable reason is that their teachers anchor tongued and the practice was passed on unconsciously. Another likely reason is that people who anchor tongue are often “reverse swallowers”. A reversal swallower is someone that presses their tongue forward when swallowing. Speech therapists consider this practice, also known as tongue thrusting, to have developed during one’s infancy when breast feeding. (Pressing the tongue forward when breast-feeding increases the supply of milk to the child.)
Problems Associated with Anchor Tonguing
Though some players can and have developed professional-level skills when anchor tonguing, it is an extremely debilitating practice. Most critically, an anchor-tonguing embouchure inhibits the independent motion of the bottom lip, jaw and tongue. It also causes the player to use a “ch” motion when articulating, it fixes or immobilizes the size of the lip aperture through which the air reed is produced as well as the angle of the air jet as it strikes the back wall of the open chimney on the lip plate, and it causes the tongue to rest in a raised position within the oral cavity which, in turn, limits both the amount of air that can be exhaled and the resonance of that sound.
How to Recognize Anchor Tonguing
Because anchor-tonguing is difficult to recognize for those unfamiliar with its practice, it is often undiagnosed. Tell-tale signs include:
- noting that as the player forms their embouchure, they will place their tongue high and forward in their mouth, often curling it in the shape of a “U” when forming their embouchure,
- once the embouchure is formed, the outer corners of the player’s bottom lip are often pressed outwards and overly flat,
- there is an unavoidable up and down motion of the jaw when the player is articulating,
- head nodding is used to change the angle of the air reed as it enters the tube of the flute (particularly when changing registers),
- well-developed, forte dynamics are not possible due to an internally constricted air passage caused by the high tongue position in the oral cavity,
- downward intervals are very difficult to facilitate while maintaining a consistent volume of air flow,
- the player will produce a sound quality that is often described as being “pure” and/or “sweet”. This quality is akin to the sound quality that is produced when playing on a conical flute.
- The low register can never become rich or full.
Diagnostic Tests for Anchor Tonguing
Here are three “tests” that can help determine if someone anchor tongue.
Test I
1) Before playing, ask the player to repeatedly pronounce a t or a d sound with their mouth slightly open and to remember how that feels, 2) ask the player sustain a sound in the second register of the flute, and 3) while doing so ask the player to draw the tip of their tongue up to and across the roof of their mouth. If the player anchor tongues, the lower lip will collapse in an inward fashion as they move or relocate their tongue, and their ability to produce a flute tone will cease!
Test II
1) Before playing, ask the player to repeatedly pronounce a t or a d sound with their mouth slightly open and to remember how that feels, 2) ask the player sustain a sound in the second register of the flute, 3) while maintaining the sustained tone, ask the player to repeatedly articulate the note, and then to alternate between sustaining and articulating the tone, 4) ask the player to notice if articulating feels the same as it did in step one, and 5) simultaneously watch to see if the player’s jaw moves up and down with each articulation and/or if corners of their mouth shift or “bulge” with each articulation.
Test III
Another “test” is possible if the player can roll their r’s: 1) ask the player to roll their r’s before producing a sustained note, if they can 2) ask the player to produce a sustained tone and interrupt it by rolling their r’s in an “on-and-off fashion” i.e., have the player repeatedly start and stop rolling their r’s while maintaining a sustained tone. If the player is using an anchor tonguing embouchure, the second part of this instruction will not be possible.
Simulating Anchor Tonguing for Diagnostic Purposes
If you do not anchor tongue and you want to further understand what it is, you can simulate it by, 1. Without undue pressure, touch the front of your tongue against your bottom, front lip and teeth and leave it there, 2. try to form an embouchure (without actually playing) and then repeatedly pronounce a “ch” sound while maintaining the already established contact between the front of your tongue and your bottom, front lip and teeth, and 3. Try to play a note while using this embouchure formation.
Changing From Anchor Tonguing
The practice of anchor-tonguing is quite difficult to change because the musculature that facilitates the formation of a more typical embouchure has not been developed. Once the front of the tongue is no longer supporting the bottom lip, the player’s embouchure will collapse. (Perhaps this is why the American flute player, Thomas Knyfenger, referred to the practice of anchor tonguing as “three lip-itis” in his book, “Music and the Flute”.)
To make this change:
- The player must first come to understand that anchor tonguing is problematic or, at the very least, be convinced that it is worthwhile exploring its’ alternative. (The revelation of any type of unconscious habit is hard to accept.)
- Generally speaking, the practice of anchor tonguing should not be totally relinquished until the functioning of the newer embouchure has become functionally equivalent to its predecessor. Side-by-side and step-by-step approaches are the most reassuring and the most “do-able”. (For the player that is making this change.)
- The development of the appropriate embouchure musculature that replaces using the tongue to prop up the bottom lip takes time. The player should first spend small amounts of time trying out their new embouchure formation. As the use of unfamiliar muscles becomes more familiar, the amount of time spent using the newer embouchure formation will increase.
- Beginning and intermediate flute-playing exercises can be re-used in support of this process.
The next edition of the Flute Almanac will include a set of embouchure exercises grouped together under the principal, “The Rule of Mechanical Separation”. These exercises help to disentangle the binding of the lip, jaw, and tongue that occurs when a player anchor tongues and they can also be used to disentangle the lip, jaw, tongue and breath for players who have never anchor tongued.
Tim Lane
Paper Route Press
Tim Lane is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he taught from 1989 – 2020. Prior to that he was a faculty member at Eastern Illinois University, the Interlochen Arts Camp, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Department.
He has been a member of the Orquestra Sinfonica de Veracruz, Mexico, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, and the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra. He currently serves as the principal flute player with the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra and operates “Paper Route Press” which specializes in unique and innovative flute-related publications. Mr. Lane attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy and earned his Bachelor of Music from Cleveland Institute of Music.
He later earned his Masters and Doctoral Degrees from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a college-age student he studied the flute with Maurice Sharp, Harold Bennett, Alexander Murray, and Claude Monteux.
