MahlerBrass

Hello Mr. Laureano, I've been playing this excerpt regularly for about three years now, and although I think it's been really well for the most part, the opening triplets are the hardest thing for me. My tongue is to slow for me to single tongue them at the speed I want them, but when I triple tongue them, the articulation is not clear and a lot of times they just sound like a blob of sound. I've practiced this a LOT, and am just pretty frustated at the fact that these triplets are holding back the entire excerpt, no matter how well the rest of the piece goes, those triplets keep haunting me, suggestions?

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tpter1

I would venture a guess that you may need to spend more time in Arban doing the triple tonguing studies. Practice them slowly; pretend you are first learning to multiple tongue. It may help also to go into the Clarke studies and practice the "k" syllable, by "koo"-ing entire excercises. Give yourself a rest when you feel fatigue or stiffness begin in your tongue. Play them piano! I have a student who is experienceing difficulty with the "k" portion of multiple tonguing, and have seen some improvement by sort of varying Mannys's "tooh" approach and saying "kooh" as in "koo koo". (she thinks I am anyway ).

As an aside- Manny- your Tooh approach and puppet excercise have been in use here with my students this week. What a difference all around! Helpful to ALL instruments (especially percussion)! Thanks from all of us here!

This post has been eddited ffor speling errers! And also to clarify a point or 2 so as to not kerfugeltate and befuddle any further readings.

Manny Laureano

Mahler,

Most of us that play this piece as standard repertoire play with the following artculation and it works brilliantly and dependably:

TooKooToo Toooooh,
TooKooToo Toooooh,
TooKooToo TooooooooooooH.

Etc.

Try that and you'll be happier, trust me.

ML