In my brass octet we are playing an arrangement of Sibelius's Finlandia. In the fanfare section, the bass part has a a run of low E flats that need to be double tounged and I just cannot make it work. Any tips?

The long answer is that it's almost certainly not a tonguing problem but a tone production problem. But getting into that is not going to be very helpful on a forum, and there are many bass trombone players in the world who have that tone production problem and play at high levels.

That said, try less of a Ta-Ka articulation and more of a Doo-Goo. Even Loo-NGoo or Noo-NGoo. Keep lightening the consonant until you get something you can do at that speed in that register. You might be surprised at how clear that can sound out front.

This is true even if your tone production is not really the fundamental issue, and it's a great thing to practice in the low register in any case. Start at soft dynamics and maybe let the sound be a little less focused than usual. You might find that your embouchure makes small adjustments to get this to happen...go with them; don't fight them. What seems at first like it might only work softly will work at louder dynamics if you stick with it.

But that might be too long a time frame for your immediate needs...

Here's a work-around that's slightly crazy...and I've done it...if you play in independent valve instrument, try switching your valve slides. This might allow you to get both valves tuned in F, and then you can do the repeated Eb's as valve articulations - no tongue at all! Just alternate between the two valves. This also takes some practice, of course.

I've done this lick in orchestra by starting the thing on "ka" rather than "ta". It will feel funny at first, but ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka--ta--ta works for me.

[quote="GabrielRice"]The long answer is that it's almost certainly not a tonguing problem but a tone production problem. But getting into that is not going to be very helpful on a forum, and there are many bass trombone players in the world who have that tone production problem and play at high levels.

[/quote]

:clever:

This was my problem for years and years. The articulation wasn't great, either, but it was impossible to improve without first fixing the underlying issue.

[quote="GabrielRice"]...

That said, try less of a Ta-Ka articulation and more of a Doo-Goo. Even Loo-NGoo or Noo-NGoo. Keep lightening the consonant until you get something you can do at that speed in that register. You might be surprised at how clear that can sound out front.

...
[/quote]

It's surprising how in some places this "ng" kind of movement can make an articulation without disturbing the pitch.