Double tonguing is a technique I've taught myself in the long time since I'd had a teacher, and so I really have very little idea if I'm going about it the right way!

I have found, however, that while I can hit and get notes out, providing I'm moving my fingers fast enough, the tone quality is very brittle and unreliable! This isn't a problem on genuinely fast passages of semi quavers, as you're not hanging around on the notes long enough for it to be that obvious, but I find it very difficult to switch back to single tonguing for quaver passages when it is noticable, and get in a terrible muddle on occasions where I'm switching between the two!

Is this normal, for the tone not to be so good, or does it come back to simply more practise, and the case of pieces with a variety of rhythms, thinking very carefully about how you tongue specific passages?

Any advice or reassurance is appreciated!

Are you using t-k or d-g? If it's the former, try switching to d-g, as this will lengthen the notes slightly. T-k can lead to a very dry, bitty sound.

I'd agree with that - I use t-k only when playing really fast abrasive bits in modern pieces, d-g for a smoother double-tonguing sound. (And d-d'll most of all, but that's for baroque music on a recorder - it is really, really soft, very quick and for me, the easiest.)

I always find all the t-k d-g stuff a bit of a misnomer. If anyone can actually get any kind of half decent sound out of a flute while saying "tuh-kuh" I'd be amazed... although it's very useful for getting across the concept of the tongue movement required.

I might well try duh-duh though. That's two very quick flicks, both at the front of the mouth, which might make for a slightly less bitty sound. Looks like I'm going back to experimenting! I've always found tonguing on the recorder far easier, though never attempted any music ambitious enough to require double tonguing!

Sometimes it's really infuriating not having anyone around wh plays the flute better than I do. It's impossible to know if I'm doing things completely wrong!

Isn't duh-duh just single tonguing, though?
There is a difference between t-k and d-g, and you can use combinations as you describe to give a varied articulation - and there was somewhere a thread in which Piers Adams' technique was described in more detail - he can go unbelivably fast.
I can see that the technique would vary when comparing flute and recorder, though at least neither instrument uses the kinds of pressure other woodwind players need to call on.
D-d'll, the method I use most, is actually described in a flute tutor from the 18th century...

I find double tonguing easier on the recorder because you don't have to concentrate on maintaining an embouchure at the same time. Support must come into it as well, because double tonguing is easier on the descant than the treble.

Tamsin, I assure you that most of us do say tuh-kuh or duh-guh when we double tongue. It's worth practising the k or g by itself as well (as if you were single tonguing using k/g), as this strengthens the 'back stroke'.

My teacher told me to try and imagine I was saying doo goo rather than a harsh duh-guh

Been thinking about this whole t-k, d-g thing, and it's interesting, because unless I'm much mistaken the difference between them is that the second pair are voiced, rather than anything else, at least in normal speech, yesno? (T and d and be either off the teeth or the palate but again that applies to both of the letters) Now as I presume that using one's vocal chords when playing the flute is usually a bad thing, when one uses d-g, it can't be THAT different from t-k. Which suggests it's one of those cases where you sort of tell your body lies to get it to do what you want it to do, and the difference is something other than what we think it is, I think?

Maybe it's just me, but I find that fascinating. Who cares as long as it works, of course, but it's strange all the same.

Ooh, getting myself confused here. Just wrote some stuff about double tonguing on another thread and was perhaps thinking of this question rather than the one on the other thread, hadn't spotted there were two on the go.

Hazel, having yet another Flossie (who's apparantly dead anyway) moment

If she's dead then I'd imagine a Flossie moment is even worse than a Senior moment!

Shouldn't worry about it, people will probably see both threads

I know where you're coming from, Sarah, but in fact your tongue changes shape as well - the tip is flatter for d than for t, and the middle section pushes up more steeply for k than for g. It also could depend in which language you're saying these consonants! I remember learning the French d -how soft it is, and how when a German person uses his/her own native d in speaking French, the result is really harsh.