Tongue help

[Jimdog]

Hello. I’m new to the forum. I just wanted to get some advice or help with how to learn to double tongue ao I can also eventually triple tongue. I have been playing for a couple years and would call myself an intermediate player. I have been getting into Mexican tuba and Banda tuba but they do lots of really fast drops and licks that are articulated so they must be double tongueing. Big bandas like El Recodo or Banda Limon and Costena are some of my favorites and I already know licks and my scales and stuff but what’s stopped me is my tongue! The most I can do is single tongue and it sometimes works but it is hindering my potential not knowing how to double tongue and make it sound good. It sounds really muted and it almost slows my playing down and makes it sound muddy and unarticulated. When I do the ku or the ka at the back of my mouth it’s hard to keep it up to speed and I don’t know what to do.

[bloke]

Make the double tongue and triple tongue sounds with your mouth when you're driving around in your car or some other place where you're sort of in private but so also sort of stuck with not much that you can be doing.

[Kevbach33]

Firstly, welcome aboard!

I, too, have trouble with this, and single tonguing only goes so fast. The best thing to do is to grab your metronome, put it at a slow tempo (like quarter note=60) and practice lightly at first. You can use the quarter notes to alternate between "da" (or "na") and "ka" (or "ga") articulations in the beginning. As you get more comfortable, start picking up the tempo and/or subdivisions, reverse the articulations, and build volume last. The goal is to make these soft articulations sound the same, not necessarily with the harder "ta" attack if that's your hangup.

For triple tonguing, figure out which combination of "da" and "ga" articulations works best for you first, and then repeat the above. You'll find yourself using fast more of your tongue than you realize.

Good luck!

Also, what @bloke said.

[Mary Ann]

You have to be really forceful with the ka; like, it's going to take some time to develop the actual strength required. The methods given are what will work.
I say that having come from horn, where a delicate tongue worked fine. Not so on tuba. Have to wham it.