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A 'Note' on Articulation

By: Janis E. Kenderdine ©2005

Introduction
Forget everything you ever learned about tonguing
   - King “Tut” is a 3000 year old dead guy
   - Bell-tones and other ringing noises
   - Swing and all that jazz
   - The Triple-Tonguing Myth
Staccatos
   - Christmas Staccatos in Whoville
   - Separations vs. Simply Staccato
Phrase Endings
   - The Clean Halt vs. the Train Wreck
Breathing
   - Do not Breathe under Penalty of Death
   - Sneaking breaths
Conclusion

Introduction

One of the things that sets some corps and musicians apart from the rest of the “ancient” fife & drum community has to do with some very basic musical concepts that differ from how fife & drum has been taught from generation to generation. As someone who grew up in the “ancient” fife & drum community and has learned these tricks, I’d like to impart this knowledge to anyone who will read, listen, or learn from it.

I have heard time after time of people complaining that they just couldn’t recreate the musical sound of other musicians and corps, chalking it up to difficulty. And many get frustrated when they try a seemingly simple tune, and they still can’t recreate the sound. It rarely has to do with how fast you can tongue, or how nimble your fingers are, I’ve found. Every musician at every level can improve their playing ten-fold with these techniques, by simply paying attention to detail in matters such as tuning, articulation, and breathing!

Forget everything you ever learned about tonguing

King “Tut” is a 3000 year old dead guy

When I came to MCV, I had learned all the music in the repertoire, but it still didn’t sound as refined as everyone else, and everyone could pick out that I was an “ancient” fife & drum fifer, and more specifically, a “competition” fifer. I played fast, I played loud, and I “tutted”. What does this mean?

When I learned how to play the fife, I learned in the “ancient” fife & drum style – “tut tut tut” each note, making them clear, sharp, and loud. And when it came to triple-tonguing, we learned “tut tut kut.” That’s not to say this way is wrong – but it is very different from most of the classically-trained world. After years of trying to ignore it and keep doing things the way I’ve done them, I learned that there’s something to this “other” way of doing things.

Tut. Notice the final “t” on the end. Now – think about what your tongue is doing when you “tut.” It starts on the roof of your mouth, and ends on the roof of your mouth, making a very definite stop of the air-flow. To use Sarah MacConduibh’s metaphor, imagine you have a faucet. You turn the faucet on, it puts forth water. You turn the faucet off, it stops the water. Now imagine doing this very fast, and you end up wrenching the faucet on and off repeatedly – not very graceful!

Bell-tones and other ringing noises

In MCV, we “da.” It’s a very gentle “da,” too. Sarah says, “Now imagine you turn the faucet on, and you flick your finger through the stream of water. You interrupt the stream, but it’s only a gentle interruption.” Not a sharp Ta, but a Da. Say it – “Dah-dah-dah-dah” and compare it to “Tah-tah” or “tut-tut.” Very different, eh?

If you sat in during an MCV rehearsal, you may hear reference to “bell tones.” This is generally what they’re talking about – letting the note “ring” for as long as possible before starting the next note. The idea is to play the note for its full value, rather than cutting it short.

Swing and all that jazz

The easiest way to play dotted “swing” patterns quickly is to double tongue. That is, the old “tut kut” – but we’re getting away from that, eh? So for dotted notes, we say “dah-guh dah-guh dah-guh.” Make sure the G isn’t too harsh. We’re going for Guh, not Kuh – think light, bouncy, pleasant notes...

The Triple-Tonguing Myth

I’ve found the more musically I could master the other techniques of articulation and tuning, the less I needed things like triple-tonguing to “show off.” But, since it’s another thing I’ve learned to perfect, I’ll include it. After having learned to tut-tut-kut my way to a Northeastern medal back in 1993, and thinking I’d finally mastered the suckers so that they were fairly clean and even, I met with the brick wall of logic presented to me by a fairly accomplished and classically-trained flautist — “Why on earth would you try to make something as lop-sided as tut-tut-KUT into an evenly-executed triplet?” The biggest obstacle I had to learn in cleaning up my triplets was making them even, because as any triple-tonguer knows, it’s really easy to make the kut longer than the tuts!

Imagine your tongue while you say “tut-tut-kut” - it taps the front-roof of your mouth twice, and then suddenly jerks, shifting gears to touch the back-roof of your mouth with the back of your tongue. Pretty inefficient, eh?

Now - imagine your tongue as a see-saw. It rocks back and forth touching the front, and then the back - duh-guh-duh-guh-duh-guh... and remember - we’ve also learned to abandon that final “t” sound, so the notes are no longer chopped short, and we’re using the light sounds of D and G. This sounds familiar... like the double-tonguing! Yes, indeed, this is a double-tongue. The triple-tongue is a myth. The triple is simply how you phrase the patterns together.

Instead of “tut kut tut” we try to do “duh-guh-duh guh-duh-guh.” We can start on a duh or guh, as long as it alternates. Before this, you were essentially trying to string two singles together, and then getting air from the back of your mouth, passing it over a greater distance, and trying to make a fast, even, triple. It’s no wonder triple-tonguing was such a challenge to do cleanly! We weren’t taught how to do it right! Again – I shouldn’t say it’s “wrong” as that’s the way the rest of fife & drum does it – but the rest of the flute/trumpet/orchestral world does it as alternating duh-guh-duh guh-duh-guh.

Staccatos

Christmas Staccatos in Whoville

Contrary to popular belief, not all staccatos are created equally. Instead of simply having very short staccatos with a definitive end (tut), we also have “short” notes that are simply... short. We could write them out “correctly” making you figure out the length of a sixteenth and then putting in lots of ugly rests, but most music is meant to be easy on the eyes. And then there are the staccatos that don’t have a start or stop!

In MCV, these somewhat undefined staccatos have been dubbed “Christmas Staccatos” after the “On Christmas Day” album project where they were abundant. Instead of very short “tut tut” staccatos, or “dah dah” staccatos, we play “ha ha!” That’s right – our tongue isn’t even involved. It’s all a diaphragm exercise. Don’t “cough” them out – you want your airway to be completely unblocked. Since your mouth is shaped for blowing a note into the fife, it’s almost like a “who who.”

Separations vs. Simply Staccato

What we in MCV call a “separation” looks by all accounts like a staccato. It has a dot over it. But again, we don’t stop the note short like a “tut.” We almost play it like a “duh” with a quick breath after it. (Make sure you don’t cut the note short and actually take a breath unless you need to, however.) Basically, it shouldn’t be really short, but there should be a definitive space between that and the next note.

Phrase Endings

The Clean Halt vs. the Train Wreck

There’s nothing quite as ugly as not knowing when to stop — marching, playing, talking... Didja ever hear a bagpiper who stopped playing, and it sounded like a whoopee cushion deflating? Didja ever see a row in a band march into the people in front of them, because they missed the signal to mark-time? Now think of a band or marching unit you respect, and think about how clean it all is - everything ends crisply at the right times, and is “uniform”.

Unfortunately, music is very much left open to interpretation as to when an ending is really an ending. When it says a quarter note, does that mean you stop on the down-beat? On the up-beat? Somewhere in between? This is something your band has to decide, and make known to the whole corps so that everyone stops at precisely the right time. Because nobody wants to be that deflating bagpiper in a parade.

Breathing

Do not Breathe under Penalty of Death

Breathing is another one of those things that can make or break a corps. Many times, breathing isn’t thought of as an essential part to playing the notes, but it can be very important. Make sure if there is a breath written in, the whole ensemble takes it! You don’t want 75% of the corps to take a breath while the other 25% plays through it. It sounds like a mistake. Same goes for certain phrases that seemingly should have a breath, but doesn’t. Make sure everyone’s breathing (and not breathing) in the same places.

Sneaking breaths

If you must take a breath because you’re gasping for air, leave a note (or two) out. Don’t cut a note short to take a breath, because it stands out like a sore thumb. If you leave the note completely out, the listener’s ear isn’t drawn to it as much as someone who’s playing a note and then stops in the middle.

We are Drum Corps

The biggest goal of “drum corps” in whole (fife & drum, DCI, pipe bands, etc.) is to sound like one player. You are trying to sound exactly like the people around you. This comes from practicing a lot with those people, and from doing all the same things the same way. If you’re worried about your individuality, try sculpture or something, because being part of any band is all about team-work. This is what makes drum corps so important to so many people, and why it becomes a “way of life” rather than simply “playing an instrument.”

My hope is that musicians at any level can benefit and improve the art form using the knowledge imparted, so that fife & drum music may be spread and kept alive through quality music.