John;
I reckon I'm a 75%-of-the-time tongue blocker too. I was
trying to keep things simple here, and not to expose my ignorance
of my own anatomy. What I believe is that the tongue extends right
down the throat and is connected somehow to the larynx. I think
that when I am tongue-blocking, the back of the tongue and the
larynx (or Adam's apple, to make it more visual) work (how exactly,
I'm not sure) too open and extend the resonating chamber, by
deepening and perhaps broadening the resonating chamber.
I would equate resonant chamber size with reed length and
weight, and air pressure with reed oscillation speed.
Regards,
RD
"John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx> 7/10/2008 12:24 >>>
Rick,
Everything you say makes perfect sense to me EXCEPT the role you
attribute to the tongue--"that the tongue works to change the size of
the resonating chamber." If that were actually so, how is it that a
full time tongue blocker is able to bend?
Minor point: After reading Steve Baker's post, i looked up what the
"pharynx" is, and it seems to me that it may actually the pharynx,
rather than the larynx (or, perhaps, both) that are involved, But my
experience is very much consistent with what you describe as
constricting ("choking") the air flow. That's a very good way to
describe what i think my "throat" is doing (not that i am the
standard by which technique should be judged).
JP