Mouth Call Help

[Bottomland]

Ive been using a mouth call for the past couple seasons and I need some help.  I can make most all the sounds but they aren't very realistic to me so I'm trying to figure out how to get better.  Ive watched videos and everything but seam to be stuck in a rut and not improving which is very frustrating.  I don't know what it is but I'm starting back with just the basic yelp.  Ive got a couple question below that may help if someone could answer that is good at mouth calls.

Questions:
1.  Mouth call placement in your mouth?
2.  Tongue placement while yelping?  are you putting pressure on the reeds with your tongue? if so with tip of your tongue or middle of your tongue?
3.  Clear front end yelp?  how do you get it?


any info will help.  I want to master it somehow.

[SteelerFan]

Call is placed against the roof of your mouth... and pretty much stays there. Your tongue applies the pressure to keep it there, and the air flows between your tongue and the call. Remind yourself to seal the call against the roof, while directing your air under the call, but over your tongue. Air should not flow between the call and the roof of your mouth. (Generally, middle of tongue to create the pressure)

Your tongue pressure will control the high / low break.

Shane does a good job of explaining the mechanics here:

https://youtu.be/3uPXoGEZeYg

[Bottomland]

Thank you for the help.  Ive been doing it all wrong with call placement and air presentation.  Time to start over from the beginning.

No wondering I sounded like a drunk turkey.

[Sir-diealot]

Call is placed against the roof of your mouth... and pretty much stays there. Your tongue applies the pressure to keep it there, and the air flows between your tongue and the call. Remind yourself to seal the call against the roof, while directing your air under the call, but over your tongue. Air should not flow between the call and the roof of your mouth. (Generally, middle of tongue to create the pressure)

Your tongue pressure will control the high / low break.

Shane does a good job of explaining the mechanics here:

https://youtu.be/3uPXoGEZeYg

Thank you, I could not remember what this was called and wanted to get it this year.

[coyote1]

I'm starting over this year also. After 2 years of messing around I finally figured out I needed small frame calls.
Everything said above is spot-on in my limited experience.

One thing that has helped me is to take it a step at a time. Practice the front end of the yelp, don't even try to do a full yelp until you can pop the call in and get the front end right every time. Then practice the front and back of the yelp, once you perfect that, string them together in the right cadence to sound like a turkey. Purring has been the hardest to learn by far.

[Bowguy]

Guys realize no one really learns in a year or two. As a kid I ran one all day every day for years. Our season was just starting and very limited. Getting a permit took about 3 years. I'd call for anyone I could just to add experience plus hunt other states. Use one driving back n forth to work every day. Also use beginner friendly calls. Some calls seem reed manipulation is more sensitive to amount of air n tongue pressure, many require you to work harder. Stay away from them. Hooks are generally easy to blow.
Start real basic. Clucks, yelps, maybe cutting, scratch the leaves w hands, fly down w a wing or I've used hats successfully. It's more than you'll need most birds to be honest. You don't need a full gamut of vocalization to be successful. Now eventually you will want to add to your arsenal in order to know more tricks and leave less birds in the woods but learn to walk first. Scott Ellis has a decent dvd to show basics. Don't expect to do what he does though.

[Sixes]

The most important thing is to find a cut that you can actually run. I cannot run a call with a front cut like a ghost cut or v cut. When I try one, it will come out very high pitched and squeaky. I have no reason why, but I can run a call with a cut on the right side like a bat wing or combo cut. It took me a long time and a ton of trashed calls before it dawned on me why I could sound decent on some and others sounded like a hawk shrieking

[Harty]

Good advise thus far! FIT is very important. Anatomically the configuration of the roofs of our mouths varies from person to person. what works for one doesn't for another based on this variation. As mentioned previously you need seal the call to the roof of you're mouth as a starter. Sometimes trimming a call(be careful,too much and it's kaput) slightly is helpful to get the right fit. I know it can get expensive but try a few basic different sized calls to see what fits best. I've had adults with such a small roof that they needed to use a junior sized call. A multiple reed call takes more tougue and air pressure to use and tends to be more challenging for many. As suggested the Scott Ellis dvd is very good and actually quit advanced. I've been at this for over 30 years. I still can't purr well and though I realize I really don't need too it still frustrates me to no end.

[Swather]

Scott Ellis has made a couple of excellent instructional DVD's.  You should get them and watch them multiple times.

[GobbleNut]

Questions:
1.  Mouth call placement in your mouth?
2.  Tongue placement while yelping?  are you putting pressure on the reeds with your tongue? if so with tip of your tongue or middle of your tongue?
3.  Clear front end yelp?  how do you get it?

Most beginners tend to push the call too far forward to avoid the gag reflex.  Once that is overcome, the call will generally fit comfortably up against the palate a ways back from the teeth.  I'm not sure tongue placement is consistent for everybody, but for me, the air flow is controlled by the back of the tongue pressed up against the call tape behind the call such that the outside edges of the tongue force the air across the center of the call. You don't just "blow" air through your mouth,...you "huff" air from your diaphragm and control that huffing with your tongue to manipulate how the air flows over the call reeds.

Once you get where you understand all of the above and can control that air flow to produce proper sounds, much of the sound quality becomes a function of the call itself.  That is, certain call designs work better for one individual as compared to others.  If a guy truly wants to be the very best he can be with a mouth call, he will devote many hours (and usually quite a few dollars) to using a variety of calls with varying designs to determine what works the best for them.  Unfortunately, "what works the best" often varies from person to person and call to call.

Finally, in answer to your third question, the "high front end" is often controlled by the amount of reed exposure of the secondary reed(s) of the call.  Generally speaking, the vibration of the primary reed (top reed) and the cuts put in it control tone and rasp and the secondary reed controls pitch and "high end" sounds. 

If you are having trouble getting that high end, try using a call (or modifying some of the ones you have) to expose more of the secondary reed.  For instance, if you use a "V-cut" call, try cutting the side tab ends to expose a little of the secondary reed to get a little  more vibration out of it,...or try a combo cut (one tab of the V removed).  That will usually bring out that high end you are missing. 

[coyote1]

Questions:
1.  Mouth call placement in your mouth?
2.  Tongue placement while yelping?  are you putting pressure on the reeds with your tongue? if so with tip of your tongue or middle of your tongue?
3.  Clear front end yelp?  how do you get it?

Most beginners tend to push the call too far forward to avoid the gag reflex.  Once that is overcome, the call will generally fit comfortably up against the palate a ways back from the teeth.  I'm not sure tongue placement is consistent for everybody, but for me, the air flow is controlled by the back of the tongue pressed up against the call tape behind the call such that the outside edges of the tongue force the air across the center of the call. You don't just "blow" air through your mouth,...you "huff" air from your diaphragm and control that huffing with your tongue to manipulate how the air flows over the call reeds.

Once you get where you understand all of the above and can control that air flow to produce proper sounds, much of the sound quality becomes a function of the call itself.  That is, certain call designs work better for one individual as compared to others.  If a guy truly wants to be the very best he can be with a mouth call, he will devote many hours (any usually quite a few dollars) to using a variety of calls with varying designs to determine what works the best for them.  Unfortunately, "what works the best" often varies from person to person and call to call.

Finally, in answer to your third question, the "high front end" is often controlled by the amount of reed exposure of the secondary reed(s) of the call.  Generally speaking, the vibration of the primary reed (top reed) and the cuts put in it control tone and rasp and the secondary reed controls pitch and "high end" sounds. 

If you are having trouble getting that high end, try using a call (or modifying some of the ones you have) to expose more of the secondary reed.  For instance, if you use a "V-cut" call, try cutting the side tab ends to expose a little of the secondary reed to get a little  more vibration out of it,...or try a combo cut (one tab of the V removed).  That will usually bring out that high end you are missing.

Excellent information. I'm still learning myself but it took me a little over a year to figure out what Gobblenut summed up in a few paragraphs. Bat wing, reverse combo and ghost cut work for me. I can not run a v cut or combo.

[Chris O]

Call in roof of mouth and the tip of the tongue against your bottom teeth or pretty close. You use the middle of your tongue to put pressure on the call. Use your diaphragm to push the air over the call. More tongue pressure the higher the pitch. Hope that makes a little bit of sense

[Ctrize]

Placement is  covered here the one thing many new callers fo is to blow to hard and not let the reeds work.Learn to blow soft first. Get your two tone yelp and then work on different cut reeds.Good Luck

[Bork]

I have been turkey hunting for over 50 years and have never mastered the use of a mouth call.  I can call with the best using a box or slate call and always have gotten my birds.  However, the mouth call has me baffled and all I do when trying to use one is run the birds off to never see again.  So thanks for these posts maybe I can learn something.

[sixbird]

Here's my advice to get started right...
Check out Calling all Turkeys video on Youtube. You'll find where your air flow is (center, left or right). That's the basis of all of it as far as I'm concerned. If you don't get that right, you'll fight an uphill battle.
You can buy a "kit" from them with all the basic cuts and they'll show you how to determine the cut for you.
After that, your practice sessions will be way more rewarding...