Double tounging

[8parktoollover]

Can someone please reccomend a list of tounging excersizes I can use to become proficient in double tounging?

[BGuttman]

There is a whole section in Arban's on double tonguing and triple tonguing.

There is no exercise I know of that can get you double tonguing at lightning speed in a week. It will take some time at slow speeds until you finally click in.

One thing that I never saw in an exercise table but which worked for me is to play only the fist syllable (ta, tu, du, whatever) and then play only the second syllable (ka, ku, gu, whatever). Play them at the same speed and make sure they sound exactly alike. When you can play both and can't hear a difference, move on to the true double (or triple).

[norbie2018]

Check out the multiple tonguing exercises in Arban.

[Doug Elliott]

One hint:. Work on triple before you start to work on double.

[paulyg]

Work at it REALLY slow. But also fast.

There's a saying in track/sportsball that you can't teach speed. Double tonguing slowly is a great way to dissect the kinetics necessary, but ultimately... well, you are trying to articulate fast music!

One of the best ways to work on double or triple tonguing is to sing in the shower. Seriously. Sing passages with the articulation you are going to use.

[baileyman]

To me where proficiency hits the road is when it is on time. To that end, keeping a metronome running, inventing repetitive things to play for every note on the horn that alternate all kinds of tonguing in rotation, forces high concentration on achieving good time no matter what articulation is at hand.

So, over months, for every metronome mark, invent a figure. Depending on the mark, play in halfs, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, maybe triples, too. Use single, double, triple, doodle double triple, breath attacks, and on partial changing figures (flexibilities) add in slurs.

In the mix of this you discover the speed for every articulation, and you force yourself to workout the transitions between every articulation, and you have to work out how to articulate on each different pitch, where the speed envelope also varies by pitch. Finding the edge of the envelope in every possible dimension, which is where it breaks down, over time you stretch the thing larger. And that is fun.

Along the way, double tongue technique should become clear.

[Doubler]

To me where proficiency hits the road is when it is on time. To that end, keeping a metronome running, inventing repetitive things to play for every note on the horn that alternate all kinds of tonguing in rotation, forces high concentration on achieving good time no matter what articulation is at hand.

So, over months, for every metronome mark, invent a figure. Depending on the mark, play in halfs, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, maybe triples, too. Use single, double, triple, doodle double triple, breath attacks, and on partial changing figures (flexibilities) add in slurs.

In the mix of this you discover the speed for every articulation, and you force yourself to workout the transitions between every articulation, and you have to work out how to articulate on each different pitch, where the speed envelope also varies by pitch. Finding the edge of the envelope in every possible dimension, which is where it breaks down, over time you stretch the thing larger. And that is fun.

Along the way, double tongue technique should become clear.

Great post!

[GabrielRice]

One hint:. Work on triple before you start to work on double.

I'll second that.

[2bobone]

I had the great fortune to sit next to one of the finest solo trombonists to ever exist, Robert Isele. After he retired from his career as trombone soloist in The U.S. Marine Band, he played second trombone in The National Symphony Orchestra for almost two decades. We used to joke that it was like hitching a "Fire Horse" to a plow ! ALL that technique, but hardly any opportunity to use it ! Anyway ---- Bob had a clever trick to help you visualize the evenness of double or triple tonguing . He would open a book of matches far enough to achieve about a 90 degree angle and then hold it by the strikepad and place it directly in front of his lips. When he articulated, the natural "springy-ness" of the matchbook cover would bounce back and forth. When you SAW it doing it evenly, you could be sure that whatever multiple tonguing you were attempting to do would SOUND even. Clever fellow, that Bob ! . I surely do miss him !