Flute Articulation: Where to Tongue and Where to Connect

Play G–A–B with a fresh tongue attack on each note. Then put one slur over the same three notes: start G with your tongue and connect the changes to A and B without another tongue attack. The pitches still change twice. What changes is where you articulate.

This lesson is for a concert C-flute student who already plays G4, A4, and B4 with a teacher. You will turn slur groups into a simple attack map, compare two readings of the same line, and keep the written rests. The numbers name octaves: G4 is the G above middle C. You need no new fingering for these examples.

Use this elementary convention throughout: tongue the first note of each slur and each note outside a slur; connect the remaining notes inside a slur. T means tongue start; C means connect. These are practice labels, not standard score markings or accents. There are no repeated notes inside slurs, ties, or dots under slurs here.

1. Secure the notes before adding articulation

Begin with the four quarter notes below. Name them before playing: G, A, B, A. Use the fingerings and sound your teacher has already established. If one pitch is unreliable, work on that change together before adding the slur-reading task. Knowing where to tongue cannot fix a note you cannot yet find.

Start with G4–A4, then B4–A4, giving every quarter note one beat. These four notes occupy two bars of 2/4. Use the sound and fingerings you already know with your teacher; the first check is that you can find the pitches and keep two beats per bar before deciding how later examples connect.

Count two quarter-note beats in every bar. In these 2/4 examples, an eighth note takes half a beat, so four eighth notes fill a bar. The eighth note shows the flag, beam, and two-notes-per-beat relationship. Its four-beat examples are a rhythm refresher; our bars stop after beat 2.

The University of Puget Sound’s meter lesson distinguishes the beat from its division. Put that distinction into action: tap two steady beats while saying “1 and 2 and.” Do not make four equal syllables into four quarter-note beats. The “ands” fall halfway between the taps.

First count without the flute. Then read the pitches in rhythm, and finally play. These are separate checks: correct names, correct timing, and a dependable sound. Return to whichever check breaks down rather than repeating the whole line with the same uncertainty. You are preparing familiar material for one new reading decision.

Keep a pencil beside Flute: One Slur, One Starting Attack. Its comparison of the same melody with different articulation makes a useful starting page. Leave its attack map until you can follow the notes and rests; then add the tongue decisions to music you already recognize.

2. Separate the tongue’s job from the fingers’ job

A tongue attack starts or articulates a note; a finger change helps move to the next pitch. Those events can happen together, but a new pitch does not automatically require another tongue attack. Yamaha’s flute guide introduces tonguing as a tongue motion while blowing. Keep the articulation your teacher has taught you; this lesson decides where to use it.

G–A–B under one slur: start G with the tongue and connect to A and B. The eighths arrive on beat 1 and its “and”; B lasts through beat 2. T and C describe articulation decisions, not lengths. The same group contains three sounding notes, two pitch changes, and one tongue start.

Read the labels under G–A–B: T, C, C. G begins the group. A and B remain separate written notes, each arriving at its own rhythmic position. “Connect” means move to the next pitch within the slur, without adding a fresh tongue attack. It does not mean stay on G until the curve ends.

The tongue and fingers have different schedules within one G–A–B slur. The fingers change pitch twice after G, while the tongue supplies one starting attack. This is an event diagram, not a physical fingering chart or a rhythm grid. Read each row separately before coordinating the actions on your flute with your teacher.

The UMass flute-techniques syllabus treats air as central to articulation and describes the tongue as releasing it. For this reading task, keep one connected sound through the pitch changes. Let your teacher diagnose any physical adjustment; an extra bump can be heard more reliably in person than inferred from a printed label.

Point along the three columns of the diagram. Your finger-change plan reads “set G, change to A, change to B.” Your tongue plan reads “start, connect, connect.” Say those plans separately, then point without speaking while your teacher plays the slurred group. Speaking is a reading rehearsal, not something to do while blowing into the instrument.

If your fingers arrive late on A, isolate G–A slowly with your teacher. If you hear three separate starts despite reading T–C–C, ask the teacher to demonstrate the intended connection again. Avoid solving either problem by speeding up. You need to hear what changes when one action is corrected.

3. Mark the first note of each printed slur

The flute teacher Rebecca Fuller describes slurring as starting with the tongue, then changing fingers without tonguing again. Follow a slur from its first notehead to its last. Write T below the first note, then C below the remaining notes it covers. Move to the next curve and start again. Notes outside every curve receive T under our convention. Scan the entire line before playing so the next group does not surprise you.

Read the group starts from left to right: G and B in bar 1, then B in bar 2. There are three tongue starts across seven notes. Every C remains a sounding note at its printed time; its label tells you to connect within the curve. Follow each slur to its endpoint before moving to the next group.

In the example, bar 1 contains two pairs: G–A, then B–A. Their labels are T–C, T–C. Bar 2 contains B–A–G under one curve: T–C–C. Count three tongue starts across seven notes. The final G is still played; its C label tells you how to reach it, not to omit it.

Use Ties vs Slurs if the curved lines look confusing. Its examples contrast a held pitch with connected changing pitches. On that worksheet, T means tie and S means slur; those are different labels from our T for tongue start. Its language about “key presses” addresses keyboard readers; on your flute, read each pitch while applying the tongue map. A slur changes the connection between notes without adding their durations together.

The Puget Sound explanation of ties makes the same duration-versus-connection distinction. We leave ties out of the playing examples so you can concentrate on slur boundaries. Do not add a tie rule to this map simply because both signs are curved.

Make the map before playing: read the events, mark the starts, and check the connections. Then trace each label back to the music. A total count can confirm your work only after you have located every start; the same number of attacks can belong to different notes when a slur boundary changes.

On Flute: One Slur, One Starting Attack, trace the curves before consulting the table. Count the starts you marked, then check each against the printed first note of a group. A matching total is useful, but placement matters too: three attacks on the wrong three notes would still give the right number.

The handout has eleven sounding notes in both versions. Its separate version needs eleven starts; its grouped version needs four. In the grouped table, the second slur begins at sounding note 4, A4. Those numbers count sounding notes only, leaving rests unnumbered. Our T–C notation uses C where the handout uses a dash; both indicate connection inside a slur.

Keep T small and below the staff. Do not draw an accent over each start or circle the notehead so heavily that you hide its position. The pencil mark is a reminder about articulation. It does not ask you to make the first note louder, longer, or more forceful.

4. Compare tongued and slurred G–A–B

Play the following two-bar line using our convention for notes without slurs: tongue each note. There are six starts, one for every written pitch. Keep the eighths and quarters in their places. An unmarked note here receives a tongue attack, but the lack of a curve is not an instruction to make it extremely short.

Separate-start version: tongue all six notes, following the elementary convention printed for this lesson. Count “1 and 2 and” in each bar while holding the quarter notes through beat 2. No staccato dots appear, so the diagram is not asking for six extremely short notes or six accents. Bars 1 and 2 have aligned Count and Tongue lanes. Each Count lane places 1 and & at the eighth-note starts, then 2 at the quarter note; the hold line continues through the following &. The Tongue lane marks attacks independently of those counted subdivisions. Follow each T upward to its notehead and count number. The second & in either bar lies between the quarter-note start and the bar line, so it has no new notehead or T beneath it. Keep that final subdivision in the count while the quarter continues.

Now play the next version at the same comfortable pace. Bar 1 has one slur over G–A–B; bar 2 has one over B–A–G. The map becomes T–C–C in each bar, giving two starts. The quarter-note B in bar 1 still occupies beat 2; the final G in bar 2 does too.

Grouped version: two tongue starts replace six while the six pitches and their timing stay the same. Start G in bar 1 and B in bar 2, connecting the two pitch changes inside each curve. Compare the duration of the two versions as well as their articulation; fewer attacks must not make this line finish sooner. Bars 1 and 2 have aligned Count and Tongue lanes. Each Count lane places 1 and & at the eighth-note starts, then 2 at the quarter note; the hold line continues through the following &. The Tongue lane marks attacks independently of those counted subdivisions. The C beneath each quarter note marks the connected arrival on beat 2. The hold line above carries that same pitch through the next &: it does not request another finger change. Compare the Count lanes directly with the separate-start version; their six note onsets occupy the same places.

Alternate the versions once, then stop to describe the difference. The first has six tongue starts and the second has two. Both contain six notes over four quarter-note beats. If the slurred version finishes sooner, you have changed the rhythm as well as the articulation. Recount it with The eighth note.

Andrew Hugill’s orchestral manual, made with Philharmonia players, distinguishes connected flute playing without tonguing from individually tongued articulation. Use that contrast as a listening goal. For our comparison, ask your teacher to preserve the notes and pace so your ear can focus on the difference in their starts.

Two pairs inside one bar need starts on G at beat 1 and B at beat 2. A beam organizes the written eighth notes, while the slurs specify the connections for this task. Check both curves rather than assuming that an entire bar must use one tongue start or that every beamed note belongs to one slur.

Next try the two pairs in one bar: G–A and B–A. This needs two starts within the same bar, on beat 1 and beat 2. A bar line is not what creates the group; the printed slur does. Likewise, a beam joins eighth-note stems for rhythmic reading and does not by itself tell your tongue to connect them.

Return to the two-bar versions above, “Tongue each written note” and “Same pitches and rhythm, fewer attacks.” In their first bar, B is a quarter note: count “2 and” while it lasts. There is no extra note or tongue attack on the “and.” If you put a new start there, your tongue has followed every spoken subdivision instead of the written events. Count silently while playing and keep the longer value intact.

A slur can continue across a bar line. Here B starts the second group in bar 1; A on the next downbeat connects because the same curve continues over it. The bar line adds no tongue attack. There are two starts across five notes.

The first curve joins G–A; the second joins B–A–G across the bar line. B begins on bar 1’s beat 2, A arrives on bar 2’s beat 1, and G arrives on beat 2. Read T–C–T / C–C. Each quarter note keeps one beat, and the A on the next downbeat continues the existing group rather than starting another. Follow the same curve all the way to G before choosing the next attack.

Isolate B–A–G across the bar line. Count “2, 1, 2,” giving each note one quarter-note beat, and use one starting attack on B. Then restore the opening G–A pair without slowing the pulse before B. If you accidentally tongue the next A, point back to where its curve began before trying again.

Return to Flute: One Slur, One Starting Attack and compare its two versions without changing the melody. Point to each T before playing. Then follow the same path silently while your teacher listens. The goal is a deliberate difference you can reproduce, rather than a lucky smooth attempt.

5. Keep every written rest intact

A connection ends before a rest. In the next example, G and A share beat 1, and a quarter rest fills beat 2. Count “1 and 2 and,” keeping beat 2 silent. The next B arrives on the following bar’s beat 1 with a new tongue start. Do not carry A into the rest to make the line sound smoother.

Bar 1’s quarter rest fills all of beat 2. End the G–A connection before that silence, count through it, and start B on the next bar’s beat 1. The rest is not a missing attack to replace with a held A. The two slurs belong to two sounding groups separated by a full silent beat.

The Rests introduces silence as counted time. Its quarter-rest example gives you the value needed here. Point to the rest as deliberately as you point to a note. Silence belongs in your map even though there is no tongue-start letter to write beneath it.

Beat 1 contains two sounding eighths; beat 2 contains one quarter rest spanning both “2” and “and.” The repeated word rest names two silent subdivisions of that single written rest, not two separate rests. Keep the pulse going while the sound stops, then read the next bar’s start at its own time.

The Puget Sound duration reference presents the corresponding note and rest symbols. Apply their values before thinking about the shape of a phrase. A slur does not shorten a printed rest, and the wish to keep a musical line connected does not erase a written silence.

Try counting the example while tapping only the two note onsets in bar 1. Your hand taps at “1” and “and,” then stays still through beat 2. Keep counting until the next bar. This exposes a common reading slip: treating the quarter rest as an empty space to skip rather than a full beat to measure.

Wait through “1 and,” tongue G on beat 2, and connect A on beat 2-and. The next bar starts a new B–A group. A silent first beat still counts as music, and the first sounding note still needs a start even when it arrives later in the bar. Count the entrance separately before playing.

The second example reverses the challenge: the first beat is silent and G–A enters on beat 2. Wait through “1 and,” start G on “2,” and connect to A on “and.” The next bar begins a new B–A slur. Starting after a rest still requires a clear first-note decision.

Use The Rests again if you rush the entrance. Work on the count away from the instrument, then return to the flute. These examples map articulation and rhythm, not breathing. Plan where to breathe with your teacher.

6. Read mixed two- and three-note groups

Read the four bars below before lifting the flute. Bar 1 contains two pairs; bar 2 contains a three-note group; bar 3 contains a pair followed by a quarter rest; bar 4 contains another three-note group. Write the map in that order instead of assuming the first pattern repeats throughout.

Group sizes run 2, 2, 3, 2, 3. Start G and B in bar 1, G in bar 2, A in bar 3, and B in bar 4. Preserve the quarter rest on beat 2 of bar 3. Three notes under a curve do not become a triplet: the eighth–eighth–quarter groups still total two quarter-note beats.

Tongue or Connect? Read the Flute Groups gives you short cells to mark before performing longer lines. Cover the answer area and decide note by note. The sheet asks you to write T in tongue-start boxes and leave connected-note boxes empty. For each T, point to a slur beginning or a note outside every slur. For each empty connected-note box—C in this article’s map—show the curve that contains the note.

At each event, first decide whether it is a rest or a sounding note. For a note, find its place relative to the printed slur and choose T or C under this lesson’s convention. The guide does not cover repeated pitches under curves, ties, or combined articulation signs. Bring those other markings to your teacher.

Do a second pass that checks rhythm alone. A three-note group is not automatically a triplet. In bar 2, two eighths plus a quarter fill two beats: half, half, one. The slur groups the articulation while the note values keep their usual durations. Refresh those values with The eighth note whenever group size distracts you.

The second tongue start moves from B on beat 2 in the first bar to A on beat 2-and in the second. Both maps have two starts, but their locations differ. Read the curve endpoints and the standalone final note, then preserve all four eighth-note onsets. Counting attacks without locating them would miss this difference.

Compare the two bars above. Both contain four eighth notes, G–A–B–A. The first has two pairs; the second connects the first three notes and leaves the last A outside that slur. The second start therefore moves from B on beat 2 to A on beat 2-and. Each bar still has two starts, so counting alone misses the change.

The exercise sheet’s comparison pairs each move one slur end while keeping its start. Circle the old end in A and the new end in B, as its instructions ask. Our two-bar comparison also shows how a changed grouping relocates an attack, but follow the printed task when using the sheet rather than marking every visible difference.

Use the comparison pairs in Tongue or Connect? to practice that exact kind of inspection. Read left to right and locate the changed boundary before checking the key. If two versions feel identical when you play, ask your teacher to hear just the boundary you identified, with the surrounding notes included.

7. Ask your teacher to play the same line both ways

Bring your marked line to the lesson and make a specific request: “Please play it with every note tongued, then with the printed slurs, at the same pace.” Follow the score during both versions. Ask to hear one pair again if you cannot yet recognize the connected change. You do not need to identify every subtle articulation shade today.

Choose a small check that matches the problem you hear. An extra start calls for checking the connected notes, a timing slip calls for counting, and an unclear pitch change calls for isolating the pair. These are ways to focus the next attempt; they do not diagnose an embouchure or tongue problem from a sound alone.

If you record your own attempt, listen once for extra starts inside a slur and once for rhythm and rests. Keep those judgments separate. Describe the location precisely: “I hear another start on bar 2’s A” gives your teacher more to work with than “It sounds wrong.” A correct pencil map and a successful performance are two different checks.

Try the unlabeled final line below. Mark it yourself, count it, and play only after those decisions are clear. Then check the answer below. All of its pitches stay within the same three-note range; the challenge is following the changing group boundaries and waiting through the rest. The lower, two-bar check mixes a slurred pair with a note outside the curve, then a rest and another pair. Which note needs T even though no slur begins on it?

Read this four-bar line without the answer letters. Mark T at every group start and C on its continuations, and count through the written rest. Check both the locations and the total before comparing your map with the answer below. The lower two-bar line is a separate mixed check with the same quarter-note beat. Begin its bar count again at 1, then mark its sounding notes and leave its rest silent. Finish both maps before uncovering the solutions; neither row supplies answer letters.

The answer is five starts: B in bar 1; A and A in bar 2, beginning the two pairs; G after the rest in bar 3; and B in bar 4. Bar 2’s two A notes occupy different positions and begin different groups. Mark each location rather than writing a list of pitch names alone.

The B quarter in bar 1 is outside a slur, so it receives T. The full map is T–C–T; rest, T–C: three starts.

Check the written map, the rhythm, and the audible connections separately, using one familiar line. A synthetic pitch/rhythm model can help you find the notes and their times, while your teacher demonstrates and assesses the flute articulation. Repeat whichever check needs attention rather than treating a correct written answer as proof of a connected performance. Keep the marked page available while listening so you can match each sound to its precise written location.

Finish with Tongue or Connect?: mark a fresh cell, check the written answer, then have your teacher assess the connection. Its neutral playback checks pitches and timing; it cannot demonstrate authentic flute tonguing. A live model lets you compare the articulation you hear with the marks you read.

Cover your pencil letters and read the line again from the printed slurs. If your decisions change, locate the first disagreement before playing. Take that location to your teacher.

A Tissimo teacher can check your attack map and listen to the same line in a live lesson. Bring one place where your reading and your sound disagree, so you can work on that specific change together.

Free worksheets for this lesson

• Flute: One Slur, One Starting Attack — compare the melody and map group starts.
• Tongue or Connect? Read the Flute Groups — mark cells, compare boundaries, and perform two lines.
• Ties vs Slurs — distinguish added duration from connected pitches.
• The eighth note — review two eighths within a quarter-note beat.
• The Rests — keep silence in the count.

Sources

• Playing the Flute — Yamaha
• Flute Techniques — University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Flutes: articulations — Andrew Hugill, The Orchestra: A User’s Manual
• Articulation For Flutists — Rebecca Fuller
• Meter — University of Puget Sound
• Durational Symbols — University of Puget Sound
• Dots and Ties — University of Puget Sound