Technique

[mg721709]

For at least a year now I have been struggling to improve my technique with little result. Anyone have thoughts/advice on how to improve technique?

[ShoelessWes]

That's a very broad term, could you be more specific?

[mg721709]

technique as in technical playing. I have trouble with fast, tongued passages. My tongue feels very sluggish and I lose clarity very quickly. I feel like it is the only aspect of my playing holding me back at this point.

[mark38655]

Five minutes is about all you can spend per practice session on rapid tonguing exercises. A general rule of thumb that might help you is to focus on keeping the air moving while tonguing. For rapid tonguing, use multiple tonguing patterns: for double tonguing use the syllables "da ga, da ga". For triple tonguing, use "da ga da, da ga da" Now with that at a buck 50 you can probably buy a cheap cup of coffee....

Record yourself and listen for sounds that are undesirable. Then post the actual recording. There will be lots of people who will give you free advice if they can hear what you actually sound like. As is, we have absolutely no idea what level of player you are, or even how old you are, etc.

[swillafew]

Persons who excel in music have daily routines that include technical passages. Get in touch with a competent brass player and listen to them warm up; you will learn a lot more doing that then reading anything here.

[mg721709]

Thanks for the advice! I'm an undergrad performance/education major. I have had this issue since high school and have been trying to work on it but seem to be making little to no progress.........I will definitely record myself soon and give it a listen.

[mark38655]

Thanks for the advice! I'm an undergrad performance/education major. I have had this issue since high school and have been trying to work on it but seem to be making little to no progress.........I will definitely record myself soon and give it a listen.

Another thought or two--sometimes it is the skill we have to work on the most that we become the most proficient at teaching. There are lots of players who can tongue fast. What is really rare is a player who can play with beautiful musical expression on the less technical passages, with great tone and pitch. Learning how to demonstrate and teach those aspects of playing will be of great value to you in the future. Don't stop working on the technique though... since most people can't spend much time working on rapid tonguing in a single session, it is very important to work it in every session.

[mark38655]

Here is a link to a pdf of some tonguing exercises that might be of help to you. https://rapidshare.com/#!download|254l3 ... 4fa3175%29