DOODLE TONGUING IN A JAZZ CONTEXT

In the previous articles in this series, I have talked about the fundamental of doodle tonguing, basic and advanced exercises. Doodle tongue is the perfect solution for all jazz trombone players who want to be able to play fast and precise legato lines.

This time I want to share some patterns and exercises that I have found to be very useful. This is stuff that I use a lot when I play improvised jazz solos. Let´s get started! read more »

BUILDING UP ON SPEED AND STRENGTH

Doodle tonguing is the perfect weapon for jazz trombone players who want to play fast and smooth melody lines. It is a technique for legato playing with built in swing phrasing!

Once you have the basics in place, and feel comfortable playing with doodle tongue, it is time to work on speed and strength. I use these exercises a lot, both to improving and maintaining my doodle skills. They are very useful, regardless if you just have begun mastering doodle tongue, or if you have been using the technique for centuries.

Use a metronome, and pick a tempo where you can play the exercises with great control and precision, and increase the tempo as you improve. Don´t to set the tempo too high! That might make you feel cool in the practice room, but you will sound bad on stage…

Playing these exercises is actually quite hard, and you will read more »

DOODLE TONGUING – BASIC EXERCISES
This is the second part of a series of articles about doodle tonguing, and this time I want to share a few basic exercises to improve both speed and precision when using doodle tongue.

I recommend that you take a few lessons with a doodling trombone player if you are new in this field to ensure that you get it right from the beginning. As usual, it is a lot easier to learn something the right way right away, rather than changing bad habits later!

The main use of doodle tongue is when you play fast legato lines, but to get there you should make sure that you can play it slow as well. The following exercises are all basic, and are designed to allow you to focus on getting the attacks perfect. read more »

INTRODUCTION TO DOODLE TONGUING

If you are a trombone player with some interest in jazz, chances are great that you heard about doodle tonguing. It is a technique that enables you to play fast lines much smoother than with double tongue (this is NOT double tongue for brass players!).

Playing fast lines on the trombone is actually more a question about articulation than being able to move slide fast enough. Since trombones don´t have keys or valves, we have to articulate different than other wind players, tonguing all the notes, possibly combined with natural legato where possible. read more »