Double Tonguing
I’m writing this primarily for people who have yet to figure out how to double tongue. For those of you who don’t know what double tonguing is, here’s a brief explanation:
You start notes on most wind instruments with your tongue; for brass instruments, many people will say that your tongue should touch the top of your top teeth when you start a note, as if you’re saying the word “too”. People argue over what word/syllable is the best, but I won’t get into that here. Instead of saying “too”, I’ll use the word “Ta”. When you tongue notes over and over again (blowing air with the “ta” syllable), that’s known as “single tonguing”. Double tonguing is when you introduce something that I like to refer to as a “rebound articulation”; this is what many refer to as the “kah” syllable. When you switch between those 2 syllables - the “tah” and “kah” - that'‘s a double tongue. A simply way to do this is by saying the word “taco” over and over again. Then say those syllables without engaging your vocal chords (just blow air), and you have a double tongue.
How to Double Tongue
A common problem people have with double tonguing is not being able to get the “kah” syllable to sound. There are a couple of things I like to tell students that seem to help in most instances.
Try saying the “kah” syllable a lot louder. This is actually what got me to “unlock” this syllable. I was told to use more air, and then I finally got it after almost 2 years of not being able to do it.
Remember that the “kah” syllable feels a lot like an air/breath attack. If you don’t know, an air/breath attack is when you start a note without using your tongue; you just blow into the instrument.
Here are a couple common pieces of advice that I’ve heard but haven’t seen work:
Instead of saying “kah”, try saying it as the letter “Q” (que). - I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t seen this work, yet. If you’re struggling with getting the “K” syllable, I still think it’s worth a shot to try it.
Instead of saying “tah-kah”, say “da-ga”. - I personally think this is just stupid advice that someone came up with to be a contrarian and everyone else repeats because they’re too lazy to think critically about it. I think this is a complete waste of time; I wouldn’t tell someone to do this.
How to Make Your Double Tongue Better
If you already know how to double tongue but want it to sound/feel better, there’s a couple things you should keep in mind. First of all, a double tongue will never feel as good as a single tongue. I’m not sure if many people say this, but when I was in high school, I used to think there was something wrong with my multiple tonguing because I could never get it to feel as comfortable as a single tongue. I was under the impression that it should feel very comfortable, and if it didn’t, I took that as a sign that I wasn’t good enough at it. It doesn’t matter how good you get at double tonguing; a single tongue will always feel better.
A common sentiment echoed by many that I VEHEMENTLY disagree with: “A double tongue should sound exactly the same as a single tongue.” This sounds nice, but it’s just not practical; it’s a good idea to strive to have your double tongue sound like your single tongue, but THIS IS AN IMPOSSIBLE GOAL. You will never get your double tongue to sound like your single tongue, no matter how much you practice. I would consider myself to be pretty good at double tonguing, and I don’t meet many people who are better at it than me, but for those players I’ve met who are better than me, I can still hear a difference between their single tongue and their double tongue. I’m spending a lot of time on this point because I’ve had many teachers who’ve repeated this and have wasted a lot of time on this concept. In particular, my high school band directors were AWFUL about this, because they would just nitpick people’s multiple tonguing ability to the point where many people got incredibly discouraged. They would regularly say things like “That doesn’t sound like a single tongue; the K syllable sounds too different from the T syllable.”
The K syllable will always sound different than the T syllable because those are two completely different syllables; you should strive to get them sounding the same as much as possible, but they will never sound the same no matter how good you are. Anyone who tells you that they should sound the same is either inexperienced or a liar.
How to get it sounding better:
Practice it a lot more frequently - I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.
Practice the K syllable by itself - This is frustrating, but if you can force yourself to do it, it has great benefits.
Play with a reverse double tongue - If you switch the syllables (“KTKT” instead of “TKTK”), that can challenge you in new and helpful ways.
Copy snare drum rudiments - I still haven’t come up with a name for this, but this was an idea I had in high school. If you take a double stroke roll on snare drum (RRLL) but try to articulate in that manner (TTKK), this is will challenge you and mess with your head.
Practice saying the syllables off the instrument- This is common advice that I actually like to hear. Saying the syllables off the instrument will translate back to the instrument. If you want to get creative, you can also look up tongue twisters and try to say those quickly. The most common one I’ve heard of is “Red leather yellow leather”.
Final Thoughts
One very important thing to keep in mind is that different instruments in the brass family will react to double tonguing in different ways. I won’t go into great detail here, but cylindrical and conical brass instruments sound and feel very different when double tonguing (or just when articulating in general). Conical brass instruments tend to hide your mistakes, but they also hide your strengths; everyone sounds fairly similar for the most part. Cylindrical brass instruments will shine a spotlight on your weaknesses, but will also highlight your strengths, so there’s much more variation in the sound quality of articulation among different players of instruments in that family.
If you didn’t really understand what I was trying to get at, just remember this: if you’re going to compare your articulative ability to anyone else, make sure it’s someone who plays the same instrument as you. Sometimes, the instrument can be doing them a huge favor and hiding their weaknesses.
Here are some basic exercises to practice if you don’t know where to start (these are links to MuseScore; create a free account to print them):
Trumpet (Use this one if you play Horn) - https://musescore.com/user/59815129/scores/11915107
Trombone/Baritone - https://musescore.com/user/59815129/scores/11928142
