Double Tonguing for beginners
Double Tonguing On Bassoon
The important thing and your goal should be when the audience listens to your double tonguing they cannot notice that you are actually playing with double tonguing. Double tonguing should be smooth and play like single tonguing. There are many different kinds of exercise to practice double tonging, but students can find the way it works for them and also teacher can help them to find it. Practice slowly and find out how your tongue is associated with producing the sound from the throat.
Syllables for Double Tonguing
As we know, we are using two syllables for double tonguing. Bassoon players choose and use the syllable to practice double tonguing and I can say mostly people commonly use syllables for example, tu-ku, du-gu, ta-ka, da-ga, and tic-ket. These syllables help to produce a sound. When you speak the t and k and d and g, you can notice that t and k are harder constant sounds than d and g which means d and g is a smoother sound.
Tu-Ku
Du-Gu
Ta-Ka
Da-Ga
Tic-Ket
In order to double tongue, you need to have a thinner tip reed. By contrast, if you are going to play with the reed which has a thick tip, it will be hard to produce double tonguing quickly.
A bassoon reed must respond in all registers easily and quickly.
Double Tonguing Exercises
Here are some exercieses that I can suggest!
Practice slowly and find out how your tongue is associated with producing the sound from the throat. You need to have a metronome before practicing this exercise. You are going to play sixteenth notes with different syllables and repeat them over again with the different tempi. You can practice “Tu-Ku” in sixteenth and triplet rhythm pattern and remember practice these legato. When you say “tu” you are using the in front of your tongue, and when you say “ku” you are using the back of your tongue. Please open your throat. Please do not forget to make sound equal and matching. You need more air support for “ku” and make these sound constantly for double-tonguing. If you cannot, you should slow down the tempo and repeat over again. My other suggestions is to please record your sound and you need to listen to it carefully and adjust the problem. Repeat them! Make sure to separate these syllables. You can build the tempo from daily practice!
Double Tonguing on Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro
Double Tonguing on
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro
You know that most of students are practicing double tonguing for the bassoon excerpts Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” for auditions at college or professional orchestral auditions. The goal of playing this excerpt, is to show your tonguing technique and your speed of tonguing technique. Tempo marking is presto and you can take the tempo from 138 to 144, which is very fast. There are single notes: middle D and middle A in this excerpt with Forte and Piano dynamic. But, we are going to work on how to double tonguing with middle A with forte dynamic today. Practicing a single pitch will help to improve the technique.