Author: mrn
Date: 2008-08-25 20:01
It's an art--you have to do what you think sounds good. Here are some of my random thoughts as I ponder this question, in no particular order.
Obviously if you have two of the same note consecutively, you must use the tongue--otherwise you have one note, rather than two.
If you're playing vocal music, it might help to think about what the consonant sounds are in the words, since those are the vocalist's articulations (if the consonant is a voiced one like "l," "n," or "r," for example, it might make sense to slur instead of tongue--especially if the consonant does not fall on a downbeat). It also helps to consider whether what you're playing is a subdivision of the beat--you might want to slur some eighths or sixteenth notes, while still tonguing at the beginning of each beat. Variety is also a consideration. There are no hard and fast rules.
Example: (Yellow Submarine by the Beatles) "We all live in a yellow submarine." (I would tongue everything except that I might slur "in a" for variety)
("Misty" by Erroll Garner) "Or it might be the sound of your hello..." (I might slur "Or it might be the" and tongue everything else--or possibly slur "Or it" and tongue everything else.)
"In a," "and a," "or a," "gimme," and other little phrases like that that run together in speech or sound like pickup notes seem to suggest slurs. Abrupt rhythmic changes/syncopations seem to suggest tonguing, so as to accentuate the rhythmic contrast (in "Eleanor Rigby," for instance, you'd probably want to tongue both syllables of "Rigby," even if you slurred the word "Eleanor")
("What a day for a daydream" by the Lovin' Spoonful) "...custom made for a daydreaming boy..." (I might slur "custom," tongue "made" and the first syllable of "for," slur "for a" together, tongue each syllable of "daydreaming" and the first note of "boy," and slur the other note(s) of boy)
How's this for a rudimentary general rule of thumb for vocal music: Pretty much any note that needs an accent or additional stress (because it's a strong downbeat, for instance) ought to be tongued. For all other notes, you have more leeway, but if in doubt you can usually assume they are tongued. Notes that function like pickup notes or that are weak subdivisions of a beat can often be (but don't have to be) slurred together--especially if you have many short notes in succession. Multiple different notes on the same syllable are usually slurred.
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