Video transcript
Art Bites - Brass practice - 04. Improving your articulation for brass players

[music playing]

BRAD LUCAS: In this video, I'm going to talk to you about something that I am very passionate about. It is articulation, or tonguing, on a brass instrument. And, you're probably sitting there going, why on earth are you that passionate about this topic? But, it's because I see so many students working so, so hard when they're playing, and not getting the results they deserve, because they don't know how to effectively, efficiently, articulate a note.

So, I'm going to give you my most common issues, or problems, I see in people's playing, and give you solutions to how you can practise this, to make sure that your articulation is clear and efficient. And, we'll even get to a point where we can start speeding it up.

So, the most important thing, that is going to be something I come back to for this whole video, is that our air has to be constant. And, this is the most common issue I see with young brass players. They think that when they start a note, they have to start that note - start the air - and, then they have to stop the air, and then start it again to re-articulate the next note.

So, I'll demonstrate that.

[playing]

If I did it without the instrument, it would be like this.

[blowing]

Now, you can see my chest working really hard. That's very tiring. I'm already exhausted. Yet, I see so many students out there who do this for an entire band rehearsal. Do it for a whole lesson. Do it in all their practice. I don't know how you guys do it. It's so much work.

And, just imagine trying to get that faster. Imagine trying to do semi quavers at 80 beats per minute. Dut, dut, dut, dut, dut. You'd have to do this.

[blowing]

There's no way that that's the way to do this. So inefficient, and so tiring. I'm getting lightheaded here. OK? So, if that's not the way to do it, what should we be doing? Well, I'm going to come back to this idea that my air is constant.

[blowing]

With that, so too should my note. So, I'm going to play a constant F.

[playing]

So, that's my baseline. Everything I do from now on is going to be built on top of that. OK? So, have a constant air stream. And then, what I want my tongue to do is not start and stop that air, but actually just lightly flick the top of my mouth, like I'm saying the syllable dah. And then, quickly get away from my roof of my mouth.

Going to get nice and down, so I can play a beautiful, open, resonant note. So, if I was to say this, it would be like this. Dah, dah, dah, dah. It wouldn't sound like this. Dah. Dah. Dah. Dah. That, once again, is going back to that starting and stopping of my air.

So you can hear - dah, dah, dah dah. It's one constant note. But, my tongue is just lightly touching the roof of my mouth and getting away. So, in your practice, you can even try this. Try saying, dah, dah, dah. Any pattern, rhythmic pattern, you want to do, that's our approach to when we bring it to our instrument.

If we want to do this with just our air, we could do it like this, by blowing on our hand. And, you should feel a constant air stream all the time.

[blowing]

My air never starts - never stops, sorry. Now, let's take that to our instrument.

[metronome]

[playing]

OK. So, I have constant air stream now, which is sounding great. Now, the other big problem I see with a lot of musicians out there, is that they articulate a note beautifully. But, the problem is that they actually stop the note with their tongue. So, it kind of sounds like this.

[playing]

You can hear that my beautiful resonant sound gets constricted, and closed off at the end. That's because I'm sticking my tongue forward to touch the back of my teeth, or even my lips, so it stops the vibrations. That's not what we want to do either.

We want to make sure that we have this constant air stream. And, all we have to think about is not stopping the note, but just think about starting the next note. So, instead of going ... Daht. Daht. Daht. We just go ... dah, dah, dah.

[playing]

So, you can hear now that each note has the maximum resonance. It's a beautiful sound, for as long as it can be. Now, how do we get our articulation, or our tongue, to be faster? Well, firstly, we need patience, because it doesn't happen overnight.

But, we need consistency in our practice. To begin, we can do a very simple exercise. I'm going to do quavers at 80 beats a minute on my B-flat major scale.

[metronome]

[playing]

And, so on, and so on. If that's going well, I can start getting a bit faster. I can push it to - let's try 90 beats.

[metronome]

[playing]

If I'm comfortable with that, and I'm still making sure that my air is constant, and I'm not starting and stopping the note with my tongue or my air, but I'm thinking about starting each note nice and clearly, I can then slowly increase that tempo even more.

And, each time, I like to have a little notebook in my practice, where I write down, 'Today I managed to get to 110 beats per minute.' And then, it gives me something I can aim for in my next practice, to see if I can beat it. I wonder if I can get 111 today?

By slowly practising like this, you will see your tongue speed get faster. You'll maintain beautiful control. And, it means that when you get into your pieces, into repertoire, you're going to have the technical abilities to be able to play much more exciting and enjoyable music.

So, I hope this helps with your practise of articulation. And, please remember, the most important thing - keep that air flowing and stop -

[blowing]

Starting and stopping your air. Hope this helped.