Greetings!

Now that I am retired, I have time to learn and perfect my playing weaknesses. I can single, double, and triple tongue well on a single note, but when it comes to fast passages like those in Rolling Thunder, I am a total passenger train wreck. Any ideas? Thank you!

Hi, martinfan!

Try taking the individual elements of playing apart. Firstly, buzz the notes of the passage on your mouthpiece, because if you aren't producing the right pitches, your tonguing and slide will hardly matter.

Next, focus on your tonguing. Make sure that you are effectively closing the air off like a valve, not just striking your tongue percussively. Go back to the basics.

Next, go over your slide positions until they are automatic. In fast passages, if you have to actively think "1st, 3rd, 4th", you will be too slow. Understand that muscle memory comes over time, but try to make your positions come as automatically and naturally as possible.

Begin putting these three elements together. Fast playing only comes when all of these are sturdy, and most importantly, locked in together. I'm not a professional, rather an all state (Wyoming) first chair high schooler, so don't take this as doctrine or anything, but I would give it a try. :)

One thing that worked for me was to learn to multiple tongue SLOWLY and play runs and scales in this slow double/triple. Once you can play the multiple tongue run slowly you can bring up the speed. It's a matter of synchronizing slide movement with the multiple tongue. Some of the more advanced Arban exercises do multiple tongue on scalar passages (if you still have your Arban's).

I like to use small chunks of chromatic scales, like 4 notes at a time, and work up speed (and accuracy) on just that much.

Bracketing half speed and full speed alternating helps a lot. Bracketing is working through in small chunks that you repeat without rest ad infinitum. Do half speed until it feels smooth and the details are right, then try full speed. After that wreck, bracket some more half-speed until the full speed works. Move to the next bracket. After all the brackets, stitch it together.