Articulation

1. 1.tip of tongue to front ridges on roof of mouth
   

2. 2.Not teeth or through lips
   

3. 3.Articulation should be taught after students have a concept of sound, embouchure, and support.
   

4. 4.Syllables for tonguing: Tah and Dah for dropping tongue and opening throat, Too and Doo for embouchure. Perhaps “Door” for a combination.
   

5. 5.Dah is less percussive than Tah.
   

6. 6.Double-tonguing: Dah-Gah
   

7. 7.Triple-tonguing: Dah-Gah-Dah, Dah-Gah-Dah OR Dah-Gah-Dah, Gah-Dah-Gah
   

8. 8.Common problems: Huffing notes, tonguing with throat, Nanny Goat, Stopping and starting air (strive for continuous flow of air), Anchor tonguing.
   

9. 9.Practice blowing on hand and then briefly interrupting the airstream with the tongue.
   

10. 10.Practice half-notes, quarters, eighths, etc. for same placement of tongue and consistency of sound.
    

Vibrato

1. 1.Should not be taught until all fundamentals are solid.
   

2. 2.Most “bad” vibratos come from the upper throat and are very fast. Lots of tension.
   

3. 3.Vibrato is created with abdominal muscles pulsing.
   

4. 4.A good exercise for feeling this is panting like a dog.
   

5. 5.Practice on a single pitch with a metronome, increasing the tempo until the puffs connect creating a smooth wavy line, not accented.
   

6. 6.There are basically two elements to vibrato: frequency and amplitude. They can be changed to create four basic types of vibrato: high frequency and high amplitude, high frequency and low amplitude, low frequency and high amplitude, and low frequency and low amplitude.