Playing the saxophone Double Tongueing

[Jonnysaxc100]

Can I please ask if anyone can help me with this?
I have spent about 3 weeks following the larry teal method of tongued note then throat note ie Ta Ka and I am getting square root of nowhere!

I eventually managed altissimo, and cicular breathing and I do want to sort this for some faster passages , but maybe not if it uses up all my practice time and the give to get isnt there?

cheers!

 

[Jeanette]

Hi

Welcome to the café, do introduce yourself in the doorbell section 🙂

Jx

 

[aldevis]

I have spent about 3 weeks following the larry teal method of tongued note then throat note ie Ta Ka and I am getting square root of nowhere!

It never worked for me, at least with my normal setup.
I must also say that I never actually needed it.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Try tuh huh instead of ta ka. Ta ka is more for brass.

 

[Nick Wyver]

It never worked for me, at least with my normal setup.
I must also say that I never actually needed it.

Same here.

 

[kernewegor]

Listening to Mingus' Boogie Stop Shuffle the other day I was reminded that as a kid I used to play the guitar riffs on the old Batman theme on tenor with alto and trumpet doing the rest of it over the top... in a moment of nostalgia I thought I'd play it again and couldn't manage the tonguing for more than a couple of bars!

So here's a challenge... I'm now going to have to play around with the opening bars of BSS too...

 

[MandyH]

I found this thread because I wanted to ask the same question....
From the few responses last time, I'm guessing that there are not many takers?

I have a fast passage (allegro Vivace) full of staccato semi-quavers on Bari. My gut feeling is that if I keep practicing, I can tongue these just fine, and maybe it's my fingers currently slowing me, rather than my tongue.

But how does one double tongue on a saxophone? And should I try to learn said method. (Come to think of it, I think I have Larry Teal's book somewhere, maybe I should check out his advice, as mentioned by the OP?)

 

[Jazzaferri]

Teal's explanation is as clear as any. A number online too. It does work but it takes more than a few weeks to get it down unless one is practicing it several hours a day

 

[Guenne]

Maybe follow the Rudy Wiedoeft method of single tonguing up to quarter note 310 (but don't drink as much).
Or learn "diddle-tongue" (upstroke-downstroke).

Cheers

 

[Jazzaferri]

I can get to about 360-370 single tonguing but cant stay there very long FWIW couple of bars and it starts to slow a bit and get sloppy. Why anyone would want to write several bars or more of fast staccato notes is beyond me.

 

[jbtsax]

 

[MandyH]

thanks @jbtsax I'll watch that again with the sax in my hands tomorrow. It's pretty much the same instructions as Larry Teal, but useful to see and hear.
I guess it will take a while to get this, so I'll start slowly and build it up.

 

[Jazzaferri]

The joy of being a Funk Blues and R & B sax player is no one writes stuff like that and I cant imagine playing an improve line that way.

 

[Colin the Bear]

It's handy in the Indian restaurant after the gig ordering a Pukka tikka massala with a Peshawari nan.

 

[jbtsax]

[At the risk of calling Targa] At one clinic I attended the instructor suggested saying, "Here-----------kittykittykittykittykittykittykittykitty" to get the tongue moving to double tongue. Part of the reason this works is that the "k" part of the sound is on the strong part of the beat which seems to help it to be more equal to the "t".