How to apply articulations to a piece
How to decide T vs. D in real music:
basic rules, and when to break them
You’ve learned how to play a clear yet light T and a gentle D. Now what? Sitting in front of your score, you’re thinking: How am I going to articulate this piece? Where does T go? Where does D go?
This article focuses on single tonguing—T and D—and how to apply them so that they support both the composer’s expression and your own musical ideas. The goal is to let the music speak.
Playing the recorder is like telling a story. In order to have well functioning vocal cords that stay healthy and make our voice sound clear, stable and resonant, we need proper breath support and correct use of air. Otherwise, we may become hoarse or lose our voice, or we may sound too high or wobbly. The same is true for the recorder: the air is the foundation of our musical narrative: without air, we have no support for the words we will pronounce. Without air, we cannot make our instrument sing as it best does. And it needs to sing before it speaks. We need to sound before we pronounce. Articulation is thus the pronunciation of the consonants, whereas air enables the creation of the vowel.
As in speech, we have hard and soft consonants, calm phrases and agitated ones, suspense and humor. Here lies the magic of making music: we can tell a story, and depending on how we feel, that story will be a little different every day.
But this is no monologue: it is a dialogue with the composer. They wrote the story, and we read it out loud—with our pronunciation, our timing, our taste (and sometimes our ornaments).
A quick analysis before you choose articulations
Here is a little guide to get you started. It consists of a basic list of rules, which you can break for musical reasons, and some guidelines for those musical reasons. When starting a new piece, it is a good idea to analyze it. Nothing complicated—just enough to orient your ear and your choices:
Melody: where does it rise, fall, repeat, sequence, leap?
Phrases: where do they begin, breathe (comma), and end?
Harmony (if accompanied): what intervals with the bass; where are the dissonances?
Character: is it singing, dancing, speaking, sighing?
Make a few pencil notes in the score; they’ll guide your general comprehension of the story and thus of the T/D map.
The baseline rules (start here)
Use these as your default. You’ll break them later—for musical reasons.
T (or Di(d) for low notes where T is too harsh)
Jumps: intervals of a third or larger (Thirds can go either way—sometimes better with D, sometimes with T.)
Repeated notes: to keep clarity
Dotted rhythms: T on the short note, D on the long → ti–di, ti–di
(Think: The Pink Panther.)
D
Stepwise (seconds): scale-like motion wants to flow → di di di di
Remember: D does not stop the air; it just brushes it.
About thirds: they’re a borderline case. In chains of paired thirds (C–E, D–F, E–G…) a D often sounds more lyrical. In dramatic leaps or accented places, a T may serve better.
About repeated notes: usually T, but keep it light—separating, not punching. (This should be a general rule for all of your T’s, in fact.)
French Baroque inégalité—clear and simple
An important exception is French Baroque music, where the scale-like movement must be played "inégale," "unequal."
In moderately fast, stepwise passages, French players often alternated strong/soft or T and D to suggest elegant “unequalness” (inégalité)—not rhythmically rewriting the notes, but giving the suggestion of subtle swing to them.
Following Hotteterre (1707): when notes move by step, alternate a light ti with a gentler di, placing di on the stronger positions, ti on the weaker ones. (The “r” was still a tongue-r in France by then, so we replace it by D.)
How to apply it (feel the “walk vs. run”):
In a run of quick stepwise notes, think: Ti ti–Di ti–Di (on weak beat: ti, on strong beat: Di. Only the first Ti is used to start the musical line).
If there’s a slower note value walking alongside (e.g., even eighths under faster notes), keep them regular (ti ti ti ti), and let the faster line carry the inégale articulations.
What it’s not:
It’s not a rhythmic rewrite into a dotted rhythm.
Instead, it’s a subtle articulation pattern that suggests a certain “swing” without disturbing the rhythm.
Practical tip: In a French piece, mark a few ti/di in the first runs until your tongue “learns” the feel. Then remove the marks.
T is not tied to the downbeat
The strong beat doesn’t automatically need T. Kees Boeke’s The Complete Articulator shows this beautifully: the T shifts through groups, while your air shapes the gentle direction toward the strong beat. (Do it subtly, or you’ll affect tuning.)
A useful habit: in a fast group leading into a strong beat, keep D on the final approach note—even if it lands on a downbeat. Let the air give that note its weight.
When (and why) to break the rules
Once you understand these rules well, you can decide to break them on purpose. As long as your decision makes musical sense, the narrative will remain coherent.
This is where analysis comes in:
Melodic: How does the melody develop, when does it change, when is it repeated, what is it "telling"?
Harmonic: What tonalities and modulations appear? What intervals are there in arpeggios or with other voices?
Possible reasons to deviate:
Surprise in the melody: sudden change of direction, larger leap, or modulation
Dissonant intervals (augmented 4th, 7th) or harmonic dissonance with the bass
Cantabile lines: let them sing—even across wider intervals—by favoring D
Sequences: shape each repetition differently (wider/narrower, brighter/darker)
Repetition: same pitch or sequential—vary the color (T ↔ D) for contrast
In French Baroque, we have to be more faithful to inégalité (and read Hotteterre’s short, clear Principes). Elsewhere, let analysis + character justify your choices.
Sometimes it is just a personal decision, like when we give a personal touch to a story we’re telling. But a sad story is unlikely to be told cheerfully, and a sentence full of suspense is likely to be told in a low voice and some dramatic pauses. Just so, the written music gives you the words and the basic story, and your analysis of those words will help you decide how to express them.
A tiny checklist for practice
Map phrases and key intervals (2 mins with a pencil).
Play the line slurred first (air + fingers smooth).
Add default T/D.
Adjust for character, dissonance, direction.
In French style, apply ti / di inégale to fast stepwise runs.
In dotted rhythms: ti–di (short = ti, long = di).
Record yourself: do the words (consonants) match the sentence (phrase)?
Closing thought
We could look at hundreds of examples and they would all lead to different solutions, depending on their musical context. Often there is no “right answer”, but rather a matter of making musically cohesive yet creative, personal choices. Over time, you will find that they become more spontaneous, as part of your dialogue with the music, which can vary from day to day. Some experimentation with different possibilities is a great way to get to know your music and your expressive possibilities on the recorder!
