Articulation is the use of the tongue or glottis to modify the style in which notes are started. Unfortunately, articulation is an aspect of brass playing that many teachers and musicians misunderstand. Therefore, it is an area of focus in my own private teaching.
Like certain other aspects of playing, articulation is an area that calls for live, one-on-one guidance. It’s difficult to learn by watching videos and reading articles. To give you a sense of what to expect from me as a private teacher, let me offer some comments on a few online resources. You can see what I like or dislike about them, and judge for yourself whether you agree or disagree.
Overall the article provides excellent information. I think some points deserve to be highlighted, and others call for some clarification or expansion.
I like this point especially:
“Students should certainly demonstrate fundamental abilities to maintain their air stream, set their embouchures, and buzz on their mouthpieces before adding tongues into the equation. Yet, introduced and practiced properly, articulation should build on those skills rather than interfere.”
Notice there is a distinction between buzzing and articulation. If a player can buzz without using the tongue, then clearly articulation cannot be the mechanism that starts notes. Remember this whenever you hear or read advice about articulation based on saying syllables, like too and doo. People talk far too much about syllables when they’re explaining articulation on brass instruments.
The author goes on to say: “Fundamental articulation comprises three styles: slurring, separated tonguing, and connected tonguing.” I think that’s a good summary.
The stylistic indications legato and sostenuto are examples of connected tonguing. The indications marcato, staccato, leggiero, and secco are examples of separated tonguing. Slurring does not involve the tongue or glottis but can still be considered a form of articulation.
In addition to those, I think of the breath attack as another form of articulation. In fact, in my own playing I use the breath attack as the default way to start notes unless there is a specific reason to do otherwise. This goes back to my (possibly obsessive) preoccupation with minimizing extraneous noise when playing.
Later in the article, there is a discussion of syllables like too. In context, it’s clear this is a shortcut to help beginning students place their tongues in more-or-less the right position inside their mouths.
In my opinion, we should explain the syllable is a mnemonic device to help the player get started with articulation, and articulation as such isn’t about saying syllables. Except for very young students, everyone should be able to understand a straightforward explanation of tongue position and tongue movement without recourse to syllables. When we play music, we are not enunciating syllables into our instrument.
The article doesn’t mention articulation with the glottis. I think most teachers wouldn’t mention this until they get to the subject of double and triple tonguing, and I think that’s the reason so many players have difficulty with those forms of articulation.
In my opinion, players should practice basic articulations at a slow tempo using both the tongue and the glottis, including playing double- and triple-tonguing patterns slowly. As they learn to articulate faster and to use multiple tonguing techniques, they don’t feel as if they’re doing anything special or different than usual; just faster.
Players who never practice articulation with the glottis except when double- or triple-tonguing rapidly tend to play sloppily and to have difficulty transitioning between single and multiple tonguing.
In this video, euphoniumist Algirdis Matonis explains and demonstrates basic tonguing technique. I appreciate the way he explains the purpose of thinking about syllables when learning tonguing technique without making the subject entirely about syllables, and how he distinguishes between the front and back of the tongue. The video also explains how the tongue moves without focusing too much on pronouncing syllables.
The demonstration includes an X-ray video of a player executing single-tonguing techniques in low, middle, and high registers. The placement of the tip of the tongue and the horizontal movement of the tongue are clear, as is the position of the back of the tongue in each register. This is an excellent explanation and demonstration of basic tonguing technique. Although he does mention syllables, he doesn’t dwell on this to the extent most other people do.
He uses the term “front of the note,” as does Example 3 below, and I’m not a fan of that. What we’re really doing is controlling the envelope of the sound. I think the latter is a more accurate and useful description of what’s happening.
In my opinion, this well-intentioned video has the following issues:
The title of the lesson reads, “Tonguing and Articulation,” but there is never any explanation of the difference.
The presenter says each note has a beginning, a middle, and an end. He then explains how to use different syllables to start a note in order to achieve various styles: Too, Toh, Doo, Duh. The idea of a beginning, middle, and end is reminiscent of the envelope of a sound, but doesn’t really explain that concept accurately or completely. He speaks of a “front” to each note, and describes how each of these four syllables affects it.
This is sorta-kinda superficially not-entirely-wrong, but it is wrong enough to lead inexperienced players down a path from which they will have to return and begin again, sooner or later. Notes don’t have a “front.” A sound has an envelope which consists of the attack, sustain, decay, and release.
An articulation of some kind may be applied to the attack to achieve a given effect, like staccato or legato, but the articulation is not what starts the sound. We start the sound by starting the buzz. When we start a note without articulation, it’s called a breath attack. What syllable do you say to perform a breath attack?
After offering a verbal explanation, the presenter demonstrates various articulations on the cornet. His note initiation is clear. It’s possible he is not aware that he is doing two things when he initiates each note. He’s thinking of the articulation and the act of starting the note as the same thing.
His thinking that way does not appear to interfere with his playing, but in my view it’s better to understand what’s really happening. I’ve heard players who conflate articulation with starting the note who can’t perform a breath attack. Sometimes they attack notes too strongly or sharply in musical contexts where that is inappropriate.
The author goes overboard (in my opinion) with the idea of syllables. When we articulate, we are not pronouncing syllables into our instruments.