Tonguing
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Tonguing is a technique used with
An alteration called "double-tonguing" or "double-articulation" is used when the music being performed has many rapid notes in succession too fast for regular articulation. In this case, the tongue makes a silent "tee-kee".[3] (The actual tongue positioning varies slightly by instrument. Clarinetists may go "too-koo" but a bassoonist may actually say "taco".) Double-articulation allows the tongue to stop the airflow twice as fast when mastered. If the music specifies a pizzicato sequence, the musician might perform this as a rapid sequence of the articulated note, thus: "tee-kee-tee-kee-tee-kee-..." etc., in staccato. When beginning with "da", the second syllable is "ga". Double tonguing is easiest on brass instruments, and it is more difficult for some woodwind instruments, primarily the clarinet and saxophone.
There is also "triple-tonguing", used in passages of triplets: "tee-tee-kee-tee-tee-kee", or less commonly "tee-kee-tee-tee-kee-tee".
There are different ways of tonguing for the flute. Some flutists tongue between the teeth; others do it between the lips as if spitting; others do it behind the teeth in the roof of the mouth as with trill consonants. With this roof articulation the flutist thinks of the words dah-dah and for double tonguing it is dah-gah-dah-gah.
Tonguing is indicated in the score by the use of accent marks. The absence of slurs is usually understood to imply that each note should be tongued separately. When a group of notes is slurred together, the player is expected to tongue the first note of the group and not tongue any of the other notes, unless those notes have accent marks.
Trombone players must lightly tongue many slurs by tonguing "da"; otherwise, the result would be a glissando. The bagpipes require finger articulations ("graces"), since direct tonguing is impossible.[5]
See also
Sources
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. 15, p. 764.
- ^ Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet The Authentic Edition, p.7
- ^ a b Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet The Authentic Edition, p.153
- ISBN 0-521-89080-2.
- ISBN 9780253013774.