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And now we have another very big fundamental topic: everything about tonguing. Hill, in his list that we are following for this series, combines tonguing basics and advanced extended techniques in his prompt.
Clarity, fluency, and variety
Right or wrong, most beginners get hardly any instruction on tonguing. Then later, students of the horn tend to get instruction on it when there are problems (which there will be), and the instructions given may just make the problems worse.
In my teaching I think the biggest “problem” is that students tend to tongue too far back in the mouth too much of the time, because they were told to tongue up on their gums or roof of the mouth by some early teacher (probably their band director). This is not to knock band directors either, they have many fires to put out, and tonguing in this manner works well enough as a general suggestion. But when it comes to musical situations where you need to play with more clarity, you will need to tongue further forward in the mouth, towards the point of the teeth.
In terms of clarity, one thing to know is that there is a perception out there in the conducting world that horn players might drag. I think this often has to do with clarity of the fronts of notes. This is why some teachers are so hard core about Kopprasch, you can use those etudes pretty effectively to improve clarity of articulation.
This also leads us to the issues of fluency and variety. You legato tongue differently than staccato, and in either case the movements of your tongue are small. For legato they will be gentle small movements (like doo doo doo) and for staccato the movements are more aggressive (think dut dut dut).
Clarity, part II. An important aid to clarity
I want to mention one more thing that hugely affects your clarity; choice of mouthpiece and horn.
It pains me as a teacher to see online comments that basically say it does not matter what horn or mouthpiece you use, it won’t make a difference on how you sound. I saw one of these topics go by recently on Horn People. This is such poor advice!! You really owe it to yourself to try some different equipment. There is a reason why professional players don’t play cheap horns and mouthpieces made in China! It really can make a huge difference.
Double, triple, flutter
Then we get to double and triple tonguing, which are certainly fundamentals the more advanced horn player must have mastered.
If I had to right now today pick the two syllables closest to how I actually double tongue I’d pick “doo goo.” For sure the traditional syllables suggested, “tu ku” don’t work that well. There is a reason. Those syllables are from the Arban trumpet method, and Arban was not an English speaker, he spoke French. We in America see “tu ku” and say words that are too explosive and harsh, with the tongue in the wrong position. Instead, imagine them said in French; they were much less aggressive syllables for Arban.
Triple tonguing is similar, but with most commonly a t-t-k motion.
Honestly, I don’t like to multiple tongue and avoid it whenever possible, partially because many passages sound better with fast single tonguing. But some passages must be multiple tongued.
I hate to blame anyone other than myself on this lack of liking to multiple tongue, but I could extend some blame to my teachers. In their defense, I’m sure they knew that I could single tongue very fast, so I did not much need to learn to double tongue — until I did! I did not learn to multiple tongue until after my Masters degree, and that was way too late. You should be learning to multiple tongue as early as possible in your studies.
OK, learn to double tongue! And what about flutter tonguing?
I talk about this elsewhere in Horn Matters, but will just say here that in general it is a skill that either you can do or you can’t. I’m in the “can’t do it” category. I can plausibly fake it at higher dynamics, but I know I’m doing it wrong. My technique is to force my tongue against the roof of my mouth and blow. I can’t roll my “R’s.”
Fortunately, I think composers realize that there is a large subset of players that can’t flutter tongue that well and they don’t request it too much. Whew! Because the plain fact is that some players can flutter tongue, and some can’t.
Bonus Podcast?!
Episode 61 of the Horn Notes Podcast reviews and goes into more detail on topics related to Fundamentals 4-6. Direct link here, or check wherever you get your podcasts.
When the series returns the topic is slurs.
Continue in Fundamentals Series
