How to Improve Tonguing Speed on Trumpet

hey what's happening gang bobby spellman here for another thrilling and mind-expanding episode of [Music] in today's episode i'm gonna do a super quick little tutorial on my favorite way of improving your tonguing speed all right now this is a very simple and sometimes very tedious technique but it's the one that i've always used and i find it extremely useful for just gradually improving your speed of articulation so here's how it goes first of all you want to make sure you've got your metronome all right your metronome is going to be your best friend in this it's going to tell you where you're all wrong and it's going to be a tough master but i'll tell you what if you could become a friend of the metronome you're going to be better off in the long term all right here's how it goes you're going to start off at whatever tempo all right we're talking about single tonguing now all right so we're talking about single tonguing you're going to start off at whatever tempo you can comfortably single tongue eighth notes all right so i'm going to start off here at 120 bpms but whatever is comfortable for you you're going to start there as you practice this exercise there are two things that you want to remember one you want to keep your airstream consistent your air is really of paramount importance in these exercises you want to make sure that you're maintaining a consistent airstream which is going to allow your tongue to nimbly skip over your consistent airstream all right with an inconsistent airstream all these exercises become extremely difficult the second thing is you always want to be paying attention to the specific rhythmic timing that you're operating in so you want to be listening to the metronome really feel it internally and try to subdivide that beat now when i'm talking about subdividing i mean hearing the beat and really hearing in your head those 16th notes or 32nd notes that divide up the quarter notes that you have in the metronome okay so as you're going you're teaching your muscles how to operate within a specific time frame if your muscles can learn how to operate within a particular time frame at a particular tempo it's going to be much easier to be turning that metronome up gradually to increase the speed at which you can articulate all right so i'm going to start at 120 bpms and i'm going to be doing uh eighth notes single tonguing so we're going to start there and we're going to then gradually increase the metronome here we go as you go if you find that you're able to maintain a consistent tempo at whatever speed you've got we're to turn it up turn up the metronome now do it gradually you want to do it a little gradually but for the benefit of not making this video you know ridiculously long i'm going to do this in big steps okay but now i'm up to 160. again i'm maintaining a consistent airstream and i'm really trying to hear the time feel the time and get my tongue right right on those eighth notes in between the beats all right we're going up to 200 here we go now if you get up to the top of your metronome and you're feeling that you're at a consistent speed you can then bring it back down to a slower speed and divide into 16th notes so we were at 200 so i'm going to bring it down to 100. okay so we're gradually increasing the speed of the metronome are you getting somewhere with this all right hold with me stay with me here all right we're up to 120. all right we're getting to the top of where i'm starting to get comfortable where i'm comfortable here all right let's bring it up to 160. we're going to see what happens we're going to see what happens when we overdo it now you can hear at this point i'm no longer able to keep up with the metronome i'm no longer able to keep a consistent rhythm as i go you might find that your rhythm is starting to falter a little bit you're not doing consistent 16th notes now you're moving around at that point you got to go back you got to turn the metronome back down and find that sweet spot where you're able to hold on to that specific rhythm for as long as you can one two three once you find that rhythm you're going to want to hang out in that space for as long as you can just continue take a little break from time to time but just really practice having your tongue really hit those rhythms right in time all the while keeping that airstream consistent sometimes it also helps just to put a little bit of an accent on the downbeats when you go just to make sure that your body is right in time with where that metronome is you can really feel where that time is not every note has to be perfect but the idea behind it is to really continue to exercise that muscle and be able to single tongue in time with the metronome and a consistent airstream with everything being exactly the way that you want it you want to make sure that you're really teaching your muscles how to operate in time now over time you get tired you're going to find that you're going to start to get tired and you're going to start to fall off that time once you notice that you're no longer writing those 16th notes or 8th notes or even quarter notes whatever is comfortable for you you're going to want to take a little break or turn the metronome back down again but you know rest is always your friend in these things all right is this some great earth-shattering new piece of advice no it's fairly straightforward but i'll tell you it's a big help in just developing that consistency of the single tongue speed and the clarity of your articulation all that really counts is that you're using that air to really create a consistent airstream and that you're really thinking about subdividing those beats and really hearing that rhythm as long as you're keeping your tongue in rhythm and you're able to gradually increase the speed of the metronome you'll find that very quickly you'll be able to improve the speed of your single tonguing and it's going to make your life all kinds easier over many different genres of music and styles and approaches whether you're playing classical music or whether you're improvising or any number of other things all right gang there it is it's a little tedious nothing too special on that one but it's a big help to me and i hope it's a help to you all right gang have a wonderful time practicing and we'll catch you on the next one [Music] all right folks thanks so much for checking out this video if you found it useful or informative or just entertaining be sure to give us a like subscribe to the channel leave a comment if you've got any questions or if this video helped you out or be sure to send it along to any of your trumpet playing friends we're currently offering lessons online and you can visit our website at www.ridgewoodschoolofmusic.com we're also offering lessons in person in the brooklyn queens and greater new york city area be sure to send us a message and we'll get back to you just as soon as we can you can also follow me bobby spellman on instagram at bob spellman on facebook at bobby spellman music or on twitter at bobby spellman for some more trumpet fun lastly if you found this video useful and you'd like to give a little donation to the cause you can find us on venmo at ridgewood music all tips will go to the creation of more videos like this one and we really appreciate it thanks a lot gang we'll see you on the next one and happy practicing [Music]

Channel: Ridgewood School of Music

Views: 19,468

Keywords:

Id: D6pUId76Zw4

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 15 2021