double tongue

[paddy jordan]

hi does any one have any good advice on how to practice double tonguing
Paddy

[Anonymous]

i’m practicing to double and tripple tongue, it makes like you are playing a lot faster, theres lots of youtube demos.

its difficult to describe in words but easier to watch demo’d.

you say two different words eg tah & Kah, the first word is with the tip of the tongue and the 2nd word with the back of the tongue.

pick any note on the sax
1 – start playing tah’s uniformly
2 – then play a load of kah’s
3 – then play kah followed by tah very slowly, over the weeks, slowly increase the speed, you can only do this for a few seconds at a time, the tongue like every other muscle gets tired, and needs to recover, this is a really tough exercise.
4 – then swap round and play the double tonguing saying tah kah slowly, it takes weeks to build up speed. its like those ridiculous tongue twisters, after lots of practice/repititions you can say them faster without getting tired or tripping up. to some people it comes naturally.
5- then you can start whizzing up and down the scales and its sounds like you are flying, its not like a glissando

different people use other words like dig gah or tee kee, but they all have the same similar effect – best to go on youtube, and find one that suits you

[Anonymous]

forgot to say try saying the words tah and kah, both use different parts of the tongue, its like impossible to say kah with the tip of the tongue, some players play as if they are yawning for example if they want to open the throat – all good stuff

[paddy jordan]

thanks for those pointers James, i think with this one its definitely a case where what works well for some and not others.i find it a very difficult technique.
paddy

[Anonymous]

it is a difficult exercise any pro will tell you it takes weeks to master, it is mo different if i asked you to drop and do 100 press ups – you might just manage 5 press ups, over several months you could build yourself up to do 100 press ups.

the recomended thing to do is spend 5 mins a day, don’t make a big deal about, or blame it on your intrument/ligature/reed/pads etc…as the days/weeks go by conpare it an early recording – the ssme thing applies to embouchure muscles when you want to move up a reed, especially if you want to hit those highet overtones – the very high ones are easier with a number 3 reed, lower reed strenghts result in biting the bottom lip with more painful pressure – cut lips etc.,

anyway good luck

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