Double Tongue-ing

[pinktuxcat]

Does anyone know how to do that properly?

My director has explained it to me about 400 times now, but none of the clarinets can get the hang of it so we slur the 8th and 16th notes at the beginning of our show instead of tongue-ing them. Which is really bad. And we should stop. But we're struggling with it.

Does anyone have a particular technique they use for it? We're all Sophomores (entering Junior year) but we've never had to double tongue before.

[jazztastic]

Hmm... well I play trombone and "accidentally" came upon double tonguing in 7th grade when I learned how to bugle Reveille, so this might not help a whole lot BUT...

*trying to think of a way to explain to a woodwind* umm... let's see, just try playing the note (I find it easier to work w/ the top one first) and just start out with simple, slow 8th notes at first and then move to 16ths, then to rhythms where it's
-8th- -16th- -16th- 16th- -16th- -8th- faster and faster or any other rhythm works too... Hopefully, your tongue will get used to that pattern of "tu-ku-tu-ku-tu-ku" and you'll stumble upon it.

One question for you: Are you alternating between notes, or are you staying on one? Because ironically (or at least for me it seems) it's easier to double tongue between notes instead of staying on one.

Hope this helps! And if it doesn't, well... don't hurt me! ;D

[Phoenix Wright]

^^ She's right. Although i can't double tongue myself, i know how too. Pretty strage. My director says that to double tongue you go di-ga-di-ga.
I've tried that, and it doesn't work AT ALL. It may work for him, but it doesn't work for me.
tu-ku-tu-ku is the right way, although i HAVE seen tu-ku-tu-ku-ku-tu in some practice sheets...

[Lprdgecko]

I was told that it wasn't possible (well, at least extremely difficult) to double-tongue on a clarinet/saxophone?

[jazztastic]

^ Yeah, I haven't really heard about it until it was brought up here. It's a charm to brass players, but for woodwinds... it might sound sloppy or like your playing from your throat. idk.

[Lprdgecko]

Yeah. I know flutes can do it and I'm pretty sure double-reeds can. Single-reeds are the only ones that I know of that it's suuuuper difficult to do... One band camp we had a professional clarinet player come in and he had trouble double-tonguing. We didn't need to he was just showing us.

[Phoenix Wright]

I doubt that it IS possible to double tongue on a sax or clarinet... it just seems hard lol. Dontcha think? XD

[flutefanatic]

I've tried double tongueing on flute and it kinda works. Does anyone know how to flutter-tongue?

[tsaxmadness]

^ There are two ways to to flutter tongue. One is to flip the tongue up and down very fast like the sound of a cat purring while playing. If you can't or it's difficult for you, flutter tonguing may also be done in the back of the throat. The tongue is up in the back and the uvula is down, blow through them, almost like clearing the throat, but not quite. One can also use saliva in the back of the throat: gargle it a bit for flutter tonguing.

[carlaxbassoon]

have you tried tongueing like super fast? I tend to do on my flute when I feel too lazy to actually double tongue. But it is nessarcy for William Tell.


otherwise its sorta like this:
just do ta, and then touch the back of yr tounge to the roof of yr mouth.
"Ta diga ta."

[clarinet361]

You can listen to Alessandro Carbonare (clarinetist) double and perhaps even triple tongue like it's his life. I highly recommend his recording of Weber's clarinet concerti and concertino (recorded with the Haydn Orchestra Bozen). www.carbonare.com/

Here's one description of how to double tongue on clarinet: www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Study/DoubleTonguing.html.

Personally, I still don't double tongue after playing for 10 years. I've just learned to single tongue very fast or to leave out some notes (or join forces with someone and swap playing every other beat or measure so you get the effect of playing what is written but without wearing anyone out or having it sound overly sloppy).

[altoclarinets]

Time for my spiel. What else is new..?
The way I double tongue (this only works with like 4 or less notes in a row) is to use the "telegraph key" (my own name) method. Basically you start a little lower on the reed than normal and bounce upward. Start out trying with 2 sixteenth notes at a time like at the beginning of rocky- not the very beginning- the 1 te ta 2- te TA - ta te... the is a MB arrangement that has like 10 ms. of it... work your way up to 3 and 4 in a row. Voicing is doo-daht for 2, duh- dah- dit for 3 and duh- der- dit- daht for 4.
Edit: This really works well for endless assymetrical 16th notes (1ta, ta 2, te ta, ta te...) or long 1 te ta 2 te ta passages like Honey Boys on Parade (die DEVIL MARCH!) (no Youtube video, tear...)

[trumellotonium]

Double-tonguing on brass and woodwinds are very different techniques. It is certainly possible for reeds to learn, but much more difficult to perform well than it is for brass players. Articulate the first note the same way you usually would, and then articulate the second with a "k" sound in the back of your throat. It'll take some amount of playing around by yourself to get it to sound consistent and to really find the feeling, but if you're patient, it can be done.

As for flutter-tonguing, I disagree with flutegirl. The one real way to flutter tongue is the first way she mentioned, by rolling your R while you play. The other methods she mentioned may create a similar sound, but they're really not the same and I would especially recommend against the saliva method.

Rolling your R (or flipping your tongue, however you want to call it) can be difficult for some people to learn, but is sometimes done accidentally while trying to repeat a D syllable very quickly... again, something you'll have to be patient for and spend some time learning.