Throughout this website, I always strive to share the "why" behind the "what," "when," and "how" of elk communication and effective calling – especially when learning to use, and mastering, specific elk calls (i.e. mouth diaphragms). Unfortunately, in today's world of social media, not only do most folks not share the "why" of what they "teach" in the short soundbites and video clips that they share, even if they try, it can often times be quickly and easily lost. 

A recent example of this came in the way of video clips of both Joel Turner (Shot IQ, and former Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation National Elk Calling Champion) and Jay Scott (of Jay Scott Outdoors) demonstrating how they operate mouth diaphragms to make high-quality, "nasally" cow elk sounds. Both of these highly skilled practitioners of elk calls have a very unique way in which they engage a mouth diaphragm call with their tongues, and how they hold their jaws open. Seeing Joel's and Jay's unique styles, some newly-starting elk callers started questioning whether or not their personal way of engaging a mouth diaphragm was correct, and/or whether or not they should be trying to mimic what Joel and Jay were doing, specifically. This is where the "why" of what Joel and Jay were doing became lost, with folks losing sight of the fundamentals of running a mouth diaphragm call for quality sounds vs. simply trying to imitate the image of someone else. In this video, we dive in to the WHY of what Joel and Jay were doing/saying, and how that translates to YOUR personal mouth structure, your individual tongue engagement, and how those two influence your personal diaphragm calling efforts and ability.