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Hello everyone. We're going to talk about doodle tonguing today.
Doodle tonguing is a way that you can play really fast on the trombone,
using a kind of articulation that's appropriate for jazz music,
and in that way it's different from double tonguing, different from triple tonguing,
and it's a technique that's great to have
to play legato and swing feel.
Now, people think
that doodle tonguing is hard because it kinda sounds hard initially.
Maybe they've been trying to do it and it feels hard but it's actually
not hard. It's actually very simple, just fast.
And, it's important to remember: Let this thing
take the time it needs to develop
in you. What you're doing is training yourself
to have a new form of
expression in your body, your tongue, everything.
You're training that, and that can take a lot of time. In fact
the time that it may take is
probably going to be measured in maybe
weeks and months, not necessarily in minutes or hours.
Now, the first thing we're gonna talk about is the word "doodle."
This, I think, is the main reason why people have trouble with doodle tonguing.
The word "doodle" implies that
that is how you speak it but it actually is
This enables you to have a much more precise control
and non have this kind of lazy aspect to your playing.
It sounds like the name Tuttle.
So, think about that. Now we begin
with the simplest of exercises. I start with
one note.
tah-dah-dah-dah-dah
tah-dul-dah-dul-dah
I play this
in various positions.
and so on, making sure to go all the way down
and in different registers on the horn.
You might try starting from B flat.
And starting from D.
And sometimes,
we'll begin to do very simple two note
exercises that are adjacent.
What i'm saying is:
Tah-dah-dah-dah-dah, Tah-dul-dah-dul-dah.
Once you've played this
all over the horn, then you begin to add speed.
Start with phrases that lie easily on the trombone.
Start with phrases that make
use of the trombone's inherent structure,
so, you want to start with a phrase that fits into
a narrow range of positions without a whole lot of jumping around.
Something like this.
You might even try phrases that have no positional movement whatsoever,
something like this.
Now all I'm saying is
tah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah
tah-dul-dah-dul-dah-dul-dah-dul-dah
I'm not really moving my slide,
just crossing over the harmonics,
and I'm getting used to playing with that kinda swing,
easy feel here.
Then, just like we did before, add speed later.
Now, we start with
phrases that lie easily on the trombone, NOT scales.
Don't start with scales. Scales may seem
like they're easy, like they're suited
to the initial phase of developing,
but they're not.
Scales come later.
Start with phrases that lie easily on the trombone.
I'm going to show you a little side view of the instrument,
because we want to demonstrate now
a concept that is going to be invaluable
for picking up this kind of tonguing,
and making it work for you on the trombone. Its called "fretted" playing.
Fretted playing is basically where you take a phrase that has a specific
look in terms of the way the slide is moved, and then apply it
to another position, and another position. It's basically
having a visual reference for a phrase
that's the same, and it may work for three
or maybe even four positions. In this case,
We'll be playing a very simple phrase using the tah-dul
tonguing, and then doing it in four keys,
and just going down the frets.
So, fretted playing is going to give you an enormous
advantage, as you learn this
kind of technique with your tongue, and
just moving around the instrument, and and learning how to play in different
keys.
So, as you apply it to the lessons learned so far,
it'll be really easy to find those phrases that lie
easily on the trombone itself, and then
moving them up and down the frets using the same patterns.
Something like this.
Of course, there are going to be countless phrases that we can do,
and one of the fun things is going to be
making up your own phrases, but frets
are going to give you a lot more for less.
Let's review what we learned today.
We start with simple
"tah-dul-dah-dul-dah" exercises on one note.
We interchange them with normal legato playing.
These work great
on the trombone.
Don't be a one-trick pony. A one trick pony
is a trombonist that gets attached to one,
and only one kind of articulation, whether it be
doodle tonguing or some other kind. Your solos may
call for you to use all
of the kinds of articulation that are available to you. Single tonguing,
double tonguing, triple,
Tah-dul tonguing, or even against the grain bumping,
without your tongue in order for them to
really play what you're hearing. Now once you get all these different kinds of
articulations on your belt you be a much more complete musician.
Thanks for stopping by :)