Saxophone Forum


by dijayjeremy
(8 posts)
19 years ago

Tounging

I am playing this song with my band and it has a lot of fast tounging parts and I cant play it at all. I was asking how can you increase your tounging speed overall.Thx in advance.

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  1. by Sax Mom
    (964 posts)

    19 years ago

    Re: Tounging

    There are some double- and triple-tonguing techniques, but I've never had much luck with them. Touching different parts of the reed in succession may allow quicker tonguing. I always found the best way to tongue quicker was to practice slowly, and then continually speed up until I was able to get it just a bit faster than required speed. Then, slowing it down to the correct speed made for a clean and precise rendition.

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    1. by Mlenox
      (36 posts)

      19 years ago

      Re: Tounging

      Pencil in slur markings. I had a teacher who had me practice with a stray as opposed to the horn. It help me improve my tongue placement and focus on just the tonguing aspect. Just an idea.

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      1. by Sax Mom
        (964 posts)

        19 years ago

        Re: Tounging

        I'm sorry...what's a stray?

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        1. by Mlenox
          (36 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Tounging

          Sorry, my typing is way bad. I meant a straw. Like the things you slurp your soda through.

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        2. by calongshire
          (11 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Tounging

          I am glad you clarified that you meant STRAW not stray. When I first read that, I was thinking...How can practicing with a stray animal improve your skills? It was a good laugh for me anyway.

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      2. by barisax999
        (400 posts)

        19 years ago

        Re: Tounging

        practice with a metronome. start rediculously slow and gradually incrase and keep going until you cant tongue any faster. the next day come back and start slow again and repeat the same pattern. it is a slow process, but it is very effective

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        1. by MavisDavis
          (21 posts)

          19 years ago

          Re: Tounging

          I agree. Starting slow is definately a good way. It gets your tounge and mouth more used to the speed you have to play it at. also, you can try double/triple tounging. I don't know much about them though, try asking your teacher

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          1. by selmer 4evr
            (309 posts)

            19 years ago

            Re: Tounging

            Tonguing is the very difficult on sax especially if clean articulation is desired Here are a few ideas first the tongue does not start the sound ,,that's right the tounge only releases the reed and therefore also stops it from vibrating when it is in contact this one piece of info should change you the way you think of tonguing ,,,there needs to be a great deal of air pressure before you release the reed ( some call this an attack which leads people to think that there needs to be an accent in a tounged note not so) you must release it without slapping it ( just withdraw the tongue and the note should start,,if it does not and you feel you need to add air that means that you are not developing enough air pressure ) Then you can start working on multiple tonguing One more issue the fingers do not work in synch with the tongue . In fact they work ahead of the tongue like this 1-blow a note ( your own way for this start only ) 2-stop it with your tongue this needs to be done super fast ( keep blowing pressure never diminishes) 3-just as you stop it change fingerings to the new note without uttering a sound switch fingerings extremely fast 4-wait while keeping pressure up 5-release the tongue and keep a steady sound 6-go back to stopping it ( step 2 )and proceed through all the steps do this up and down the entire range A good exercise for this is listed by Daniel Bonade in his book

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            1. by Jason McFeaters
              (4 posts)

              19 years ago

              Re: Tounging

              Unlike the fingers, the tongue tires quickly. You are trying to build it for speed... not endurance. So think of it like a sprinter and not a marathoner. If sprinters want to get faster, they run more sprints... short bursts... you don't see them out running 10 miles at a time. So, practice tonguing in short bursts.... always with a metronome... and always changing the rhythm and notes. Good luck!

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            2. by djazzy
              (65 posts)

              19 years ago

              Re: Tounging

              What is double or trible tounging?

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            3. by CountSpatula
              (602 posts)

              19 years ago

              Re: Tounging

              I know this threads a bit old but ill help out anyways... Double tonguing is done 2 ways 1) the regular Tah + Kah or Dah+Gah (Sorry for weird pronounciations) 2) moving your tongue up past the reed and back down (feels weird but my teacher does it that way) Triple tonguing ive yet to find out...

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