Posted by GC on May 24, 2001 at 11:27:25:
In Reply to: Poor Tonguing posted by Robert Nowell on May 24, 2001 at 05:08:29:
Like some folks are gifted natural athetes, some folks are gifted with natrual speed in tonguing. Most people are not. Gaining tonguing speed is a much slower process than most other skills on an instrument. You can learn range, articulation styles, and other musical skills relatively quickly, but tonguing and top finger speed reach early plateaus. According to theories I've seen, some of this is attributable to the speed of one's nerve reactions, and some of it is due to the ratio of fast twitch/slow twitch muscle fibers.
You CAN increase speed, though, and you have to work at it steadily. Just expect results to come slowly, and don't let frustration get to you.