Tonguing????Difficulty

[simon_andrews]

I having difficulty getting this right it just seems like all i do is get spit down my mouth piece.
I dont really understand how your supposed to do it.Can anyone help

 

[RedBottom]

Start without the mouthpiece.

Keep your lips slightly open, touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, just behind your front teeth. Then just make a soft 't' sound (like when you're teaching kids to read). Once you've got the feel of it, do it without the sound.

Then take your sax. Put the mouthpiece into playing position and blow. Then stop the sound, not by stopping blowing, but by putting your tongue back into that 't' position (it will now be against the reed rather than the roof of your mouth). Then just make the 't' sound to release the air flow again, and thus start playing your note.

That's the best way I can describe it.

It's not easy when you're starting out, but when you're used to it, it becomes second nature. Honest!

 

[suethesax]

I prefer a softer 'dah' sound to the 't' otherwise exactly as Redbottom says.

 

[Lisa]

Uh-huh, I agree. It's a good exercise to play a long note and interupt with lots of tut, tut, tut, tuts. You'll find you soon get the hang of it.

I had real trouble but now find it difficult to get out of the habit of tonguing every single note! So in a few weeks you'll be asking how to get into slurring better! (ie; one note to the next without tonguing.)

L

 

[RedBottom]

I'm now trying to get the hang of double- and triple-tonguing. I can manage it a couple of times but then I lose the rhythm and it sounds like a wasp on prozac. >.<

 

[suethesax]

You can't beat a bit of flutter tonguing 😛

 

[RedBottom]

SueTheSax wrote:
You can't beat a bit of flutter tonguing 😛

Now, I can do that. That's a piece of proverbial. Never even had to think about that one.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Lisa wrote:
Uh-huh, I agree. It's a good exercise to play a long note and interupt with lots of tut, tut, tut, tuts. You'll find you soon get the hang of it.

I agree with that, see:

http://www.petethomas.co.uk/saxophone-tone-exercises.html