Mexican Hat Dance Tonguing

[Zooter1940s]

Hi, right now I'm learning the Mexican Hat Dance and I'm a little unsure how to proceed in learning the tonguings for the beginning of the song. I started learning the beginning of the song doing the triple-double tongue approach (tkt ktk), but I've found that at higher tempos I sometimes have trouble controlling the accents correctly and then it starts to sound a little weird. I've been thinking maybe I should relearn the beginning section using a triple tongue approach (either ttk or tkt). I'm wondering what you guys suggest the best appoach for tonguing is and if anyone knows if Mendez double or triple tongued that beginning section of Mexican Hat Dance.

And on a side note, should I learn to play it in one breath? Was that playing in one breath more of a gimmick to show off Mendez's breath control or was it an actual performance requisite for the song?

Thanks,
Chris

[herbievantetering]

Mendez was able to play very efficiently with little air and a soft tone. However, you may also attempt circular breathing like Mendez does.

[trpt.hick]

I prefer to play the Allegro vivo (opening) section like this:

two pick-up notes = single tongue
2 triplets that follow = TTK TTK
next bar all single-tongued
w triplets in next bar = TTK TTK

I am not sure if this is what Mendez did or not.

Mendez demonstrates this long passage in one regular breath on an educational video called We Make Music: The Trumpet. You can find it on YouTube. He does solid triple-tonguing in the video, so there is no alternation of single-tongue and triple-tongue. If you don't have the breath control to play this 40 second passage in one breath, play it as written, sneaking in quick/small breaths after the quarter notes.

David Hickman