Lets do it! Find yourself a double reed diaphragm call, I prefer a white tape call. The white tape is softer than the colored tape. Chew the tape to soften it and I don't mean chew holes in it, just soften it. if the tape doesn't conform to your mouth it will leek air and make learning harder. The call will go into your mouth with the open end of the horseshoe tword your nose. There will be a marking on the frame, a seam or dimple this goes to the bottom or your tongue side. Push the call up between your teeth and as far tword your nose as possible. See if you can hold it in your mouth. It may take some getting used to. If you feel like you are going to puke, take it out. Put it in again, if it is still feeling bad you may have to trim the tape at the back. If you have to trim the tape no more than a 32nd of an inch at a time. When you can hold the call in your mouth and not gag you are ready to begin.
Now starts the fun part! Take in a breath and start a steady stream of air out and say SHOW. High light the sh sound. SHHHHHOW. The reed[diaphragm] will vibrate on your tongue and make sound. At this point you may want to spit it out, it tickles pretty good. You will get used to it. Now the importance of the sh sound is it puts your tongue in the right place to make sound. You are not going to use the very tip of your tongue, but back a little bit. If you got sound you are on your way, if you didn't put the call more forward in your mouth if you can. And start again. I have only had one person where this didn't work. Ok now you have sound, perfect.
Step two. To learn control of the reed. If you can get sound without saying SHOW, take in a breath, start air out and keep the sound going the entire length of the breath. If the pitch goes up and down a little that is OK for now. The thing we are looking for is to keep almost no pressure on the reed and have sound. This is the basis for the low tone of a bugle. Now to get the pitch to go up will be done with the tongue. Blow a steady stream of air out and slowly put pressure on the reed with your tongue, the pitch will go up. And do it again, the pitch should rise to a higher pitch. Now you have 3 notes. You want to be able to start at the bottom note and go through to that high pitch and hold it, then go back down. Once you have this 3 note progression up and down YOU ARE READY TO ELK CALL.
Basic cow call: Start with the high pitch and drop to the low pitch, saying NEEAHH. I use other word to change the way the call sounds but this will do to start.
Bugle: This is a 3 part deal. Part 1 Low tone on the reed, add to this your voice[2 tones], take your voice and go as low as you can and say errrr, then take your voice up in pitch and errrr again. 1 low pitch reed, 2 pitches voice together err-^err. Part2 Stop your voice and go up to high pitch, low med high, in 3 steps. Part3 Now stop the reed sound and go to a low voice pitch and say AHHH. This is the end of the bugle and the start of the grunts.
Grunts: We won't get into the difference of grunts and chuckles now.Basicly they are done the same way, just different timing and sound. You just hit low voice, now go up to high pitch and drop back to low voice saying ahhh. Again high pitch to low voice saying ahhh. Now there is another part of the grunt that worries a lot of people. After high pitch to low voice ahhh, YOU SUCK IN AIR, and you do this between all grunts. This gives your grunt a real sound, but people worry about swallowing the diapragm. I have not swallowed one yet. Learn the high to low first, then add the breath later. You can practice each part of the bugle by it's self, then put it all together. This is a lot of info, take it a step at a time and it will all come together in time. Once you start you will want to hear somebody doing this, buy elknut1's tapes, I am telling you they are a great tool. You will have questions along the way, by all means ask.
Gselkhunter