Does anybody have any tips on how to improve/quicken tounguing? Right now I'm playing in a ridiculously fast piece (maybe not so fast, just faster than I can toungue) and I'm not doin' so swell.

As Zoom suggested there is the double and triple tonguing method. It has worked welll for years.

Also, think about this; pull your tongue away from your teeth rather than pushing your tongue into your teeth. To get an idea of what this is get a friend or family member and take your fist and hit them in the arm. Do it a couple of times (not too hard) and get a feeling of what your arm muscles are doing. When you have done that then do this . . . .

Barely, tough them on the arm - like a martial artists. You are going to hit the arm very very lightly; barely tough it But with the same speed and intensity as you were hitting when your were pushing your fist into the arm. This time you are pulling away.

Tha tis the way to tongue really reallly fast.

The surest way to improve your tonguing is to exercise the tongue and experiment to see what variations might help. The simplest set of exercises are some major scales - although to avoid boredom its worth playing some minor ones and not sticking to the easy ones. You'll probably find that after a week or so of 10 minutes per day on scales your precision and speed will have noticeably improved.

When you reach the point that a week's practice isn't producing any improvement, then you'll probably also be quite a good player with a very good teacher who can listen and decide whether its worth refining your technique.

A: It's at just a tempo that I should be able to toungue it regularly, and my double/triple tounguing doesn't sound the greatest, anyway. I think I'll work on that here soon, but not on this piece.

Thanks for posting!

The easiest (and simplest way) to get the fast tonguing is just to start below tempo and work up. There's no magic spell for quick tonguing, you've just got to get the technique right. Whenever I get something like that (if double or triple-tonguing isn't an option) I just get the metronome out and play the passage over and over again (as in, sometimes for a whole practice), increasing the tempo by a beat each time until I reach the right tempo. Have fun!

Would working on tonguing in a much lower range also help? Or would that just help in the lower range?

YES.

Fredrick,

Good question - Short answer is yes.

Longer answer - One of the better ways to improve and work and your high range is work on your low range. Also the same the other way around for low range work on your high range. It is my observation, and Dr Erickson mentions this in his recent books, many people would be quite surprised at the practicing methods horn players. Many 1st and 3rd players spend quite a lot of time practicing in the lower range of the horn. And many, many 2nd and 4th players do a lot of work up in the high register.

Working in the low register helps center your embouchre and teaches the relaxation yoru embouchre needs to play clean in the high register. When my students sound like they are pinching their notes or can't get very high I give them exercises in the bass clef for the next 2 weeks. Then we go back into the high range and it does wonders!

I'm just curious, but could you explain how the high register would help the low? I've known that working low can help up higher, but I didn't know it worked well the other way around.

Practice high to play low.

Practicing the high range helps us with Focus.
Playing low all the time can result in lack of pitch center. A variant of 20 cents in the low range is not as noticeable as a 20 cent variant in the high register.
High practice helps to prevent over adjustment in the lower register.
Jaw and neck position is more critical in the higher range. Having this will help your low end accuracy.
Tongue position is more important.
Endurance is improved.
Hearing and feeling the higher notes helps you listen and feel for the higher harmonics when playing low.
I never tune to the fundamental note I am playing, I always tune to the harmonics.
Embouchure – although controversial I believe you want your low embouchure as close to your high embouchure as possible.

I also work with students on practicing soft to play loud and loud to play soft.
A lot of this seems contradictory, and perhaps it is. Perhaps it is because the horn is such a fluke, but it works really well.