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Re: Growth to expect in tonguing speed

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2019-03-24 05:06

Paul Aviles wrote:

> I would also LOVE to hear input from others on the SLOW vs FAST
> tongue issue. We don't really talk about this in a helpful
> way. Many who have fast tongues assume that we "slower" folks
> are not using proper technique or have not invested enough
> practice time.

Well, that's the crux of the problem with discussing this as a nurture/nature issue. You've got it exactly right, and I doubt if discussing this part of the problem is likely to move anyone's understanding very far. Probably more useful to focus on how to optimize an individual player's own tonguing speed and clarity to reach whatever his potential is.

We're in about the same boat - and I've certainly tried to practice tonguing faster in any number of ways. I can tongue short bursts of notes faster - but things like Saint-Saens's 3rd or even some the faster tempos I've heard used for the Midsummernght's Dream scherzo still are beyond me without mixing at least some double-tonguing in with as relaxed as possible single strokes.

Could I learn to tongue faster? I don't honestly know. Not through any technique or technical change I've tried. I've had students who could single tongue much faster than I can. I've even asked them to describe what they're doing (I learn as much from teaching as my students learn from me). They universally have had no idea. They just do it. So, I suppose I have to come down mostly on the side of nature.

There are too many ways to cheat (including but not limited to multiple-stroke tonguing) on articulated passages for me ever to have made really fast tonguing a priority (is that just an excuse?). I wish I could tongue those cadenzas in the Nielsen Concerto the way I heard Drucker do it when I was a student. Oh, well...

Karl

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