Doodle Studies and Etudes digital edition

Doodle Studies and Etudes by trombonist Bob McChesney was first published in 1992. For more than a thousand students and professional players it has proven to be an extremely valuable tool in improving fast legato skills on the trombone. Covering all aspects of the doodle tongue technique, this book was written for students, teachers and professionals alike. This complete method explains the fast legato technique in a step-by-step fashion, from how to correctly form the syllables to complex patterns incorporating natural downward slurs.

• A complete course of study in doodle tonguing
• 140 pages of step-by-step instruction
• 141 Exercises and Ten Etudes
• Included – a 52 minute digital recording (no CD) with demonstrations by the author
• and play-along tracks to practice with (replaces both cassettes)

A common belief is that fast, clean legato playing is difficult to achieve on trombone mainly because it is difficult to move the slide fast enough. Actually, the issue of fast legato playing on trombone is much more one of articulation than slide movement. Because there are no valves or keys, the trombonist must articulate differently than other wind players (i.e. tongue every single note, or use a combination of tonguing and slurring to avoid smearing). With the doodle tongue technique, articulations can be executed very fast, smooth (with each note connected and long), and very evenly with each note matching in envelope, often making minor slide inaccuracies unnoticeable. This is because as speed increases, both timing and similarity of note envelopes (or lack of similarity) is easily perceived by the listener. At the same time, as speed increases, intonation becomes much more difficult to perceive. While intonation in general is very important, from the audience’s perspective, clarity in faster passages comes more from the quality and evenness of articulation – an area in which all trombonists should strive to improve.