Bone Frogger

Sorry..long time since my last post. Other projects have gotten in the way.

Here's one way to think of practicing, it's a little like playing frogger...












Not the first part (with the cars) but the second with the lily pads. Well, at least sort of...

Suppose you're learning a new technique like......double tonguing. You can think of each stage of the learning process as a lily pad. You hop from lily pad to the next.
Like this:














Start with something natural, like saying "da-ga-da-ga" quickly.
Now blow air against your hand using the same syllables.
Now buzz it on your mouthpiece.
Now play it on one note on your horn.
Now play it with moving notes.

If you get stuck on any one lily pad, simply jump back to the lily pad before. If that doesn't work, jump back again.

Just don't tense up and fall in the water.

Gap or Overlap?

I remember Tino.

Tino was this talented, charismatic, annoying, endearing trumpet player I once went to school with. We were in a brass quintet together. It seemed like every fast piece we played, Tino would say, "Guys we need to take that faster, it's right on my break." I would joke that Tino had a great double tongue ... at a metronome range of, say, 136-144. Everything else: on the break.

I'm not blessed with a fast single tongue. Thus I had to learn to double tongue at lower speeds than my friends. I think this has become an advantage.

Where am I going with all this? LEARN TO DOUBLE TONGUE SLOWLY

Instead of a gap (too fast for single tongue and too slow for double tongue)...

...have an overlap:

In other words, have a range of tempos where you can comfortably single tongue or double tongue.

Choice is power.