Articulation on a Wind Instrument

Articulation is a fancy word for “tonguing” on a wind instrument. Because the tongue is a muscle, it needs to be worked and trained like any muscle. It often doesn’t behave in the manner that’s desired because the performer isn’t consistent enough in “practicing” tonguing exercises.

In the spirit of weight training, let’s look at the tongue like a body builder does with strengthening arm muscles. He/she will do several “reps” of a certain exercise and then take a break. Doing the same thing over and over only tires the muscles. As a wind instrumentalist, you’ll need to do exercises in the proper order.

Now… you’re ready for the steps:

• Tongue position DOES change in various registers so choose a note in the middle register. The tongue is in the easiest position for articulation to be successful. Keep jaw from moving and watch in the mirror to make sure that the embouchure stays as steady as a rock! Do this until it feels comfortable on a single note. Then, try it on other notes.
• Contest time! See how many times you can tongue a note in one breath. For every four tongues, put a mark on paper. (Have a parent help with this.) Add them up and multiply by four. This will give the total. Try to keep the speed steady and consistent. 
• Once you can do this on one note, add several more notes to the game.
• Practice ascending slow five-note scales (with a metronome set at about 60 or less) by tonguing four times on each note of the scale. Too many notes will tire the tongue out so DON’T do full scales yet!
• Continue tonguing four times per note on a five-note scale with increased speed. When you can get up to 112 per quarter note, you’re now ready to add more notes.
• Add one-octave scales and keep at same speed as you did with five-note scales.
• Begin again in the MIDDLE register of the instrument with a five-note scale and add simple rhythms. Set metronome at 60 per quarter and gradually speed up as tongue muscle gets more consistent.

a.      Rhythm #1 -- Two measures of 4/4 time on ONE note: quarter – eighth, eighth – quarter – eighth, eighth.

b.      Rhythm #2 – One measure of 4/4 time on ONE note: four eighths – half.

c.       Rhythm #3 – One measure of 4/4 time on ONE note: eighth, eighth – quarter – eighth, eighth – quarter.

•         Switch to cut-time and add full scales when tempo reaches quarter = 120. The above three rhythms then become regular articulation practice. Choose at least four one-octave scales per day.
•             In addition, each instrument has method books with various exercises that work the tongue. However, the key is to keep the exercises short. For example, if there is an entire page of tonguing, consider playing one line at a time with a measure of rest between each line. This will act as a “rep” in the same manner that a body builder will do so many sets of the same exercise with a break between.

A POINT TO REMEMBER: The tongue is a muscle. If you do the same thing over and over without giving it a rest, eventually it will rebel against you! This is why various repeated rhythmic patterns help build strength in the tongue muscle. Think of the various exercises as repetitions like a weight lifter does with “sets” of exercises.