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This weekend I got busy working on the five newly composed etudes by Douglas Akey that comprise the AMEA Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association regional and all-state festival audition materials. The ASU CMENC chapter (Collegiate Music Educators National Conference) wishes to record these to put online as models for horn players and teachers to know what these etudes should sound like.
While all are challenging to various degrees, one really stands out, the fourth etude. It stands out because to play it at the tempo indicated would certainly require double tonguing, a skill few horn players work on at the high school level.
I know why this is, as, speaking generally, it is a skill that horn players don’t need to use in a lot of literature even at an advanced level. Many teachers just don’t teach it at all, as almost everything we play can be single tongued. I used to only rarely teach it, but double tonguing has become something that all students at ASU work on if needed, especially now that I have materials handy to teach it from in the form of my draft book on developing horn technique. It takes time to develop the skill and control–don’t put it off.
Learning to multiple tongue is today not optional for the horn player. In my own case as a student I could single tongue very well but did not learn to multiple tongue until I was taking and advancing in professional auditions, after I finished my Masters degree! I wish I had learned earlier; don’t wait until you have auditions staring you in the face to learn to double tongue well.
