Question:

How can i tongue faster!?

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I play the flute and am going for my grade 6. The pieces are very fast and i am finding my tongue can't keep up with my fingers so i end up slurring some of the notes that i shouldn't be slurring, please help!

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  1. Do you have a private flute teacher? You can ask them about double tounging.  It is difficult to explaine online.  That will help with your problem. It has to do with the foward pressure and back pressure of you air flow. You may be able to find some info online.


  2. practice practice practice!!!! You will get there  - good luck!!!

  3. Practice man, practice. Good luck.

  4. HI LFish.   I love this question... or it might be better to say... I love to be able to help you.   Well, you know,  double-tonguing is a flute player's skill.  It takes months to get good on basically because your tongue has to grow stronger and it will gradually,  by consistent and focused practice.   I am a flute teacher and I look for the skills that most players are weak at,  like playing in the keys of sharps, or tonguing or sight reading.  Then I work my student very hard to overcome those weaknesses to be stronger than their competition.   I will tell you just exactly what I have my student do to become stronger and faster at double-tonguing.   There are a couple of things you will need.  The first is a metronome.  If you don't have one it is critical to much serious practice... so go out and get one today.  The second thing you need is a double-tongue etude.  I suggest the one in the Selected Studies Etude Book by Voxman (if you cannot find it I can somehow email you a digital picture of the piece) page 60.   Set your metronome to 112.  If you can play it at this speed without too much difficulty this is fine.  Now play only the first page @ 112 three times through.  If your tongue is starting to get tired the 3rd time around... this is a good thing.. we want it to get tired.  (It is a muscle, and like the same for weight training... the muscle gets tired and then it gets stronger)  You will be building up strength in your tongue which then in turn will get faster.    Practice @112 every day for a week.  After 7 days it is time to move the metronome up.  Move to @116 and repeat the exercise for one week.  What we are trying to do is trick the tongue in to moving faster without scaring it to pieces :)).   If on any week your tongue gets too tired on the 2nd time around...  you must set the metronome back but once your tongue starts getting stronger... moving it up by 4 points should just give it that little bit of challenge and you should be able to get almost through 3 times.  Now I am suggesting that you set the metronome to 112 because I do not know the tempo you can play at without hearing you... but if this is too fast... go to a speed that you are able to play... if it is 72 or 88 or whatever... you have to start where your tongue can play or it will not work.   The point is to play at that tempo, repeating 3 times, for one week and then set the metronome to 4 points higher.  Again, we want to work that muscle and tire it out every single day.   When you can set the metronome to 184 and play through the entire etude, you will know where my advanced students can play.   If you cannot find that exercise, do email me and let me know...   I hope this helps your to accomplish your goals... but I already know that it will... as it has worked for every one of my students.    Good Luck... and happy fluting  :))

  5. darn!

    thought this question wub be

    SAUCY

  6. Just Practice more

    Youll get used to it

  7. I never tongued when playing the flute. Just blow the notes out.

  8. d**n my heart started to beat faster when i saw how can i tongue faster.

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