24/7: The time signature of the national anthem of India. Agent: A character how resents performers getting 90% of his salary. Ballet: An art form for people with eating disorders. Bandstand: The area furthest away from an outlet. Big Band: Currently referring to an aggregation of two musicians. Cabaret: A venue where singers do songs from shows that closed out of town. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: God’s way of telling you that you’ve practiced too much. Classical Composer: A Man ahead of his time and behind in rent. Cruise Ship: A place where a musician has two reasons to throw up.…

From the material you have practiced in the preceding post (Double Tonguing) you should have an understanding of the use of multiple articulations. The next level will be using the Tah and Dah attack along with an additional Tah attack. This Tah Tah Kah articulation is called triple tonguing and will serve you well. The basic pattern for triple tonguing is, as I stated before, Tah Tah Kah, Tah Tah Kah, Tah Tah Kah. Repeat this pattern over and over until you feel comfortable with it. Amazing speed can be achieved with this articulation as illustrated by this video of

Double tonguing was developed to increase the speed at which a player could re-articulate a series of notes. From the time of Arban to the performances of Herbert L. Clark the technique was practiced and improved to the point where these musicians were able to accomplish fantastic performances of extremely difficult solos. The level at which they entertained their audiences was amazing. Many of these techniques have been lost or at least ignored and few modern players spend the required time developing these techniques. There are exceptions to this statement as illustrated by this video of

To most brass players, the use of Tah and Dah is enough to comprehend but when you have nothing to do at this time of the morning, you need something more than coffee to keep you going and this next material may be beneficial to you. The many syllables based on the basic Tah and Dah articulation. How many variations of Tah and Dah can we come up with? Tah, Dah Ta, Da (long A sound) Tee, Dee Tie, Die Toe, Doe Too, Doo Notice that we have included all of the vowels including a long A and a soft…

It is now 4:26 AM in the morning of Saturday, January 8, 2011 and you are probable asleep in your bed. You may ask, “Why am I sitting at my computer writing this post”? Moments ago, while laying in bed a question flashed through my head “why do we use the syllable tah when we articulate a note on a brass instrument. I hope to explain this practice by the time we finish this post. What are letters, what are syllables and what are words? In order to establish an understandable vocabulary for this discussion, we will have to agree…

I’m sure that most of you clean your horns at least once a week. SURE YOU DO!! I have to admit that the hygiene routine on my instruments is not what it should be but one area you should address at least once a week is your mouthpiece. Studies have been done to determine how much of a health risk is to neglect the cleanliness of a trombone mouthpiece and it was found that many trombone performers are now contracting respiratory infection because of unclean trombone mouthpieces. It is true that a trombone player is at a greater risk from…

The Construction of Musical Phrases A musical phrase is similar to a sentence in a story. Both are part of a larger whole and is important in effectively telling of the story. By themselves, each will have little impact but when combined with other sentences or musical phrases, the story becomes complete. Too often when players approach a solo, they only consider getting from the first note to the last with the least amount of errors. What true artists strive for is to carefully construct a dialog of information which will comprehensively inform the listener of the complete musical story.…

Musical Changes in Tempi Tempi can be altered just as dynamics in order to be more musical. Many times we play a solo as if we were playing a march. We start at this tempo and we will stick to it to the end, regardless of what anyone thinks. When I speak of improving musicianship through the speed of a performance I am not concerned with the beginning tempo and the major changes at new sections. What I will be addressing in this post are the subtle tempo changes within a phrase and in some cases between adjoining notes. These…

Dynamics vs. Intensity Have you ever wondered why some musicians are more interesting to listen to than others? Have you wanted to learn the secret to true musical expression? Both of these questions should be asked from time to time as we practice our art. Playing music and playing music in a musical style can be miles apart and while pondering this issue, I decided to focus on just one aspect of musical playing- dynamics. Playing with dynamics adds a greater depth to any musician’s performance. Performing a solo without dynamics is like eating a good steak without any seasoning.…