Single tonguing

[tbdana]

Single tonguing is something I heard being discussed the other day in the context of, "Dang, that tempo falls right in no-man's land: too fast for single-tonguing and too slow for double-tonguing."

So I thought it might be fun (and hopefully educational) to get people's tips, tricks, exercises, solutions, experiences, and traps to avoid in trying to increase single-tonguing speed. I grew up in the just-do-Arbans-with-increasing-metronome-speeds era, so I don't have any modern observations or solutions for people, and I would be interested to hear yours.

Some trombonists -- Elliot Mason comes to mind -- almost never double or doodle tongue, and can play blazing fast passages with just single tonguing. Are you someone who can do that? If so, tell us your secrets. I'm very impressed with and envious of people who can single-tongue at double-tonguing speed. My single-tonguing limit is 16th notes at about = 120. Any faster and I'm more comfortable double or doodle tonguing, especially with 16th note passages longer than about eight notes.

[Doug Elliott]

You can practice single tonguing fast and you can practice double tonguing slow. I've never understood the concept of too slow to double tongue.

[tbdana]

You can practice single tonguing fast and you can practice double tonguing slow. I've never understood the concept of too slow to double tongue.

Right, I agree.

In my warmup I play scales from slow to fast, and even when playing them slow I double-tongue them. I suppose that's a habit I picked up back when I was learning to double-tongue. But I still do it, and it's good practice for ensuring that the shape of the note sounds the same with the "ka" syllable as with the "ta" syllable.

Single-tonguing at speed seems to have a couple common problems, namely notes start sounding really harsh and/or people get real tense in their tongue/jaw/neck muscles. One secret to single-tonging at speed is a light touch.

[WilliamLang]

I have two tricks for tonguing that I like to use:

1) clean air - when you use just air either on or off the horn, is their a secondary sound in your attack?

2) isolating the on and off syllables to make the off syllable sound as close as possible to the on. i use tu ku for example, so I'll practice 16ths on the ku sound to try to get to sound as similar as possible to the tu.

[Mamaposaune]

I was taught to have single, double and triple tonguing speeds overlap, so when practicing something that falls "in between" to make sure I can play it both ways. Every time I've played William Tell, I am reminded of this. Who hasn't been in a situation when a conductor gets a little over-excited or nervous during the performance?
I have students practice their double-tonguing excercises the same way - as fast as possible single-tongued; slow the tempo a few notches and play it double-tongued.