TromboneChat

Our family dentist told my wife the other day that the tongue continues to grow as we age. I checked some research and this is a fact (our ears and nose also get bigger for most of our lives).

Is this perhaps, another factor in why it is difficult for older brass players to maintain their top playing as they age?

I was advised in my college years to continue playing fast-tonguing exercises regularly as I grow older. My teacher believed that a person's ability to articulate quickly diminishes as they age. I also remember seeing a video in which Jay Friedman stated that he now uses double and triple tonguing on passages that he single tongued in his younger years. He was fine with it because he thinks it is one of many things that he has done to become "more efficient" as he has aged.

Let's face it....growing old sucks! Our lung capacity diminishes, our tonguing gets slower, our hearing diminishes and assorted parts of our bodies start to falter. I think musicians need to be crafty and find ways to be (as Jay Friedman states it) "more efficient" as we age. The beautiful thing about growing older is the wisdom that we gain.....or at least I HOPE that I am getting wiser as I age!

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I agree! My concept it to train for better co-ordination and one of the ways is by getting better at putting my foot on the beat and my tongue/slide on my foot. Ear-training is also more important. I believe I can still make large improvements in basic musicality, if not high-end technical advances.