Improve single tonguing on trombone?

    
Improve single tonguing on trombone?    18:58 on Friday, March 27, 2015          

Ragusauce42
(1 point)
Posted by Ragusauce42

Hey guys so I just wanted to know if there are any ways or exercises to improve single tonguing on trombone? My fastest speed is 88-92 BPM comfortably and it really bothers me. So if there are any effective exercises to improve my speed to at least 120 BPM that would be great, thank you


Re: Improve single tonguing on trombone?    14:34 on Tuesday, December 8, 2015          

guardsman
(3 points)
Posted by guardsman

I have just found this site and thought that I would try to offer a little advice.
The tongue is a muscle, just like any other muscle in the body and requires exercise just like any other muscle.
Although we use it daily for talking, it is a generally lazy muscle.
My advice to you, and I still find this beneficial today is to play the scale of "C" if you play treble clef, Bb if you're a bass clef player. Play a bar of 16 quarter notes at a comfortable speed descending a bar at a time down through the scale. Set your metronome to a steady speed. Practice at the same speed for a whole week. The next week increase your metronome by 10 bpm and continue doing so each week. You will gradually see that your single tonguing becomes faster as the tongue muscles become stronger. The fastest single tonguing I have heard is 160 bpm, but don't worry, not many trombonists can single tongue so quickly. Hope this helps.


Re: Improve single tonguing on trombone?    15:00 on Tuesday, December 8, 2015          

guardsman
(3 points)
Posted by guardsman

I recently posted you my advice on improving on your single tonguing.
Being English and using different terms for notes this side of the pond I must apologise for an error I made in notation values. What I meant was, to practice 16th notes and not quarter notes. Sorry my friend, we call them
semi-quavers here.
Good luck and hope this helps.

The trombonist who can single tongue is someone by the name of Andy Martin. You may be able to find something on Youtube about him.


   




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