- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
While long considered an essential skill for the trumpet player, double and triple tonguing was not so essential that it was included in The Art of French Horn Playing. But it is addressed in a number of horn publications.
Arban is a major influence
Most commonly brass teachers suggest the syllables “tu” and “ku” for multiple tonguing, a concept drawn from Arban in his cornet method. There is an important thing to note with this; Arban was a French speaker. Say “tu” and “ku” first as you would in English, then try with your best imitation of a French accent. Depending on your English accent there may be a huge difference, you need to say them more like French to multiple tongue well. Keep this in mind as you see the suggestions of syllables as you read on in this series
The “Tah-Kah” approach
Gunther Schuller in Horn Technique introduces the topic of double and triple tonguing as follows.
Some players are gifted with extremely fast-moving and agile tongue muscles. Others are more sluggish in this respect…. In many cases no amount of practicing will compensate completely for a ‘slow tongue’. In fast tongued passages, many players therefore have to resort to what is known as ‘double tonguing’ and triple tonguing’. This is an ingenious method in which notes produced by means of the normal tongue movements of ‘tah’ and ‘dah’ alternate with notes produced by the syllable ‘kah’, thus giving us in combination ‘tah-kah tah-kah’ or, in triple tonguing ‘tah-tah-kah’ or ‘tah-kah-tah’. When first practising this tonguing, the attack produced by ‘kah’ will be very rough. This is because in the syllable ‘kah’, there is no direct contact between the tongue and the teeth.
Schuller suggests learning to make the “kah” very strong and to start practicing double tonguing very slowly. He notes
Although at first discouraging, clean attacks can eventually be attained. I have not known a single student who, once he had put in the necessary amount of practice, could not master double or triple tonguing.
“Kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty”
While not covered in The Art of French Horn Playing, Farkas addressed at some length the topic of multiple tonguing in The Art of Brass Playing, presenting it as an alternate used only in specific situations.
When a tongued passage occurs which is too fast to be single-tongued, the brass player can always resort to double- or triple-tonguing. I use the word “resort” purposely because, in my opinion, these two types of tonguing should only be used as a last resort. Not that there is anything wrong or cowardly about their use, but…. resolve only to use them when the tempo absolutely cannot be handled by single-tonguing.
Farkas recommends the syllables “too-koo,” “tih-kih,” and “dih-gih” noting that
This principle can be easily grasped by reversing the syllables and saying rapidly a phrase we have all used at some time, “(Here) kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty.” If you can say this rapidly, you can double tongue….
After a discussion of how to build up the “K” syllable he notes
Strangely enough, many students, when first studying double-tonguing, can attain great speed, although it is usually quite uncontrolled. So it is essential when learning both double- and triple-tonguing to play very slowly and evenly. The unevenness, so difficult to prevent, is much more pronounced at a slow speed and can thus be corrected more satisfactorily.
Conventional wisdom on triple tonguing
Farkas presents that most brass players visualize triple tonguing as a T-T-K motion (“tih-tih-kih” or “dih-dih-gih”) but then notes that
Occasionally, brass players get into heated discussions with flute players, who contend that the proper articulation for triple-tonguing is “tih-kih-tih-tih-kih-tih-tih-kih-tih”, with the “K” attack in the middle of each group of three. But this is splitting hairs, for a glance at the figure will show that this series, once started, continues to repeat two “T’s” and one “K” just as the brass player’s articulation does.
Farkas also notes that “many players will solve certain triplet passages with double-tonguing, emphasizing the proper notes.” In other words, double tonguing with accents in triplets is another way to produce triple tonguing (and an approach I use often). Farkas advocates learning double tonguing first and to then when mastered learn triple tonguing.
There are better resources…
I don’t think most of the syllables suggested above are ideal, and Schuller and Farkas ultimately come across as not being big advocates of multiple tonguing. Read on for some newer takes on the topic
Continue in Hornmasters Series to Part II
