September 1999

Tamane, Pt. 2

Last month, I talked about how there were two main types of tamane.

The first type involves vibrating the tip of your tongue, while the second type involves vibrating your uvula. The first type tends to result in larger and slower tamane, while the second tends to result in smaller and faster tamane. Type 1 can sometimes sound too loud, while Type 2 can be not loud enough.

Also, some people just naturally have trouble with one or the other. For example, even some Spanish people cannot trill their r’s, and some people have an uvula too small to vibrate.

Actually, there yet another part of your mouth which you can use to vibrate and create tamane: the center of your tongue. You can raise the center part of your tongue up to the roof of your mouth, then blow air through it to cause it to vibrate. This method of tamane can strike just the right balance between Type 1 and 2 described above.

No matter what style of tamane you try for, you won’t be able to do it well without a lot of practice. My teacher Katsuya Yokoyma used to play all of Rokudan using tamane to practice.

What you want to aim for is control over your tamane such that it begins just when you want it, you can play it softly, and it fades gradually along with any note.