Multiple Tonging Slow to Get Fast

[Wayne]

Over the last 4 to 6 weeks is the first time I have done daily work on multiple tonguing that wasn't doodling.

I am using Rich Willey's material as a set of daily drills and they include working on multiple tonguing.

I have been doing the work at far below the speed that might be the threshold between comfortable single tongue and needing to multiple tongue.

I remembered a chamber music coach explaining that in his opinion multiple tonguing was for clarity, not speed.

So I worked the multiple tongue over the last weeks to be very clear and also very easy/relaxed feeling.

The result is that if I want to rip off some fast double or triple, I don't have to think about it. It just goes and sounds pretty nice.

Does it make sense that working on the coordination, comfort and precision without worrying about going fast would lead to speed too? The other part of using Wiley's material is that I am doing triple tonguing and the like up on a high F. Nothing came out the first time, but now it works. That may also be part of why I didn't have to work fast to get fast- it is very hard to clearly multiple tongue in extreme registers so the middle areas work better too?

[tbdana]

There is no lower limit to multiple tonguing speed. A lot of people don't think about that. But it's really good to practice multiple tonguing slowly, and to actually use it slowly out in the wild. It really locks it in, and gives you the full range of use. Otherwise, folks get "stuck" in the narrow speed range they practice in.

I think your post makes perfect sense.

[JTeagarden]

What the OP says makes sense, as long as its actually "scalable" and works at fast speeds, otherwise, you could easily multiple tongue with a very long tongue stroke between the syllables that breaks down on you when you speed it up, perhaps the Wiley exercises take this into account.

[Wayne]

There is a lot of verbiage in Wiley's Focal Point book. He re-explains a lot of the pivot method ideas in ways that are easy to grasp. He does deal with efficient tonging.