Tonguing Question

[TubaZac2012]

So I have a tonguing question. I am working on double and triple tonguing currently and i am having trouble getting my fingers to line up with my tongue. I can double and triple the same note SUPER fast, but when I have to change notes and it's so fast that I have to double or triple tongue I have to have some personal practice time to work the section up, because my fingers will not line up with my tongue. I'm working on this so i can working on some higher grade literature in the future and for any band/orchestra part that might have a tough double/triple tonguing section in it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Zac

[gwwilk]

Some work on the basics is apparently needed: Arban's for Tuba is what I learned from. Use a web search for "Arban's for Tuba". That said, slowing down to get the fingerings in line might be all that is needed before getting back up to speed.

[happyroman]

Jerry is exactly correct. What is required is to slow things down to a speed where you can play the passages perfectly, and then gradually speed things up (using a metronome) while maintaining the quality.

You will likely need to play at a tempo slower than you could single tongue the passage. In fact, that would be a good way to practice. Play the passage while single tonguing and then make the multiple tongue version sound just as good before kicking the tempo up a notch.

The main thing to be aware of is that practicing multiple tonguing will tend to raise the tongue in the mouth, cutting off the air supply to the lips. To maintain "thick air" you will want to focus the low vowel sound (i.e., the OHH in tu-ku-tu-ku). Good sound during articulation is the result of using 10% consonant and 90% vowel.

[swillafew]

Start slow.

Devote a lot of time to practice at each and every tempo with that Arban Book. Play at one tempo a week, starting with a very slow one, it takes about three months to get much cleaner and faster than your friends. Never be tempted to cut the week short or to skip a week at the current tempo.

People will tell you they can do it at one tempo but not another, and you will know that they took the short cut.

[Jeff Keller]

SLOW practice. I see "start slow" and "Slow down". Start VERY slow. Like Quarter equals 60. The cleaner you can do single pitch or scales double tongued at 60, the better you will be at 200+, with slow practice AND climbing the metronome even slowlier

[timothy42b]

Start slow is age old conventional wisdom never to be questioned.

however there are times when it isn't the best approach, and zac's specific problem is very likely one of them.

Work those patterns at tempo or above, but use a different method of simplification than slowing. If you can't play it you can't practice, simplification is necessary, but slowing is not the only way.

Have you seen that youtube video on practicing at tempo, but just adding one note at a time? It works.

Practice 8 sixteenths and a whole note, on the same pitch. Then change pitch on the second sixteenth. When that's clean, on the third, until the entire scale is clean, always at tempo. Etc.

[swillafew]

Finger drills are just as critical as are tonguing drills

That nugget is the OP's answer right there. Applying the drills in the book is the solution, at the speed that leads to the desired performance speed. The faster the desired speed, the more time it takes to develop. The more time spent doing it slow, the less time spent

flailing

[imperialbari]

Would your fingerings be clean and the notes be in time, if you slurred the given passages?

Can you sing these passages controlled and in time with the t and k articulations?

Klaus