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Technical
Clinic The Warm-Up Part 1 Basic
Principles
Why do we warm-up? The warm-up serves several purposes. It is important to "limber-up" a bit, in much the same way an athlete stretches before a strenuous workout, but if you don't have to start your playing day on a fortissimo high C then this is probably not the most important function of your warm-up. More important for most people is to take a little time to remind yourself of all the correct techniques you should be using. Starting with breathing, then focusing on a correct setting (embouchure), correct hand positions (both left & right), a beautiful sound, good intonation, good articulation, smooth slurs, etc. A good daily routine can provide an opportunity to cover all of the basics of horn playing, but must not become a crutch. Never allow yourself to use the fact that you "didn't get a good warm-up" as an excuse for not performing well. An emergency warm-up can even be done away from the horn, since breathing properly and being mentally sharp are the most important benefits of an effective warm-up. Where to start: A number of my low-brass friends start their warm-up's away from the instrument with breathing exercises. Breath in for 2 beats keeping your throat open and relaxed. Then breath out, maintaining that relaxed open throat and using ONLY your lips to create resistance. (Like whistling, but without making any sound.) Completely empty out the air in 4 beats. Gradually increase the number of beats you use to exhale. (4, 8, 12, 16, etc.) Some people prefer to incorporate breathing into their long tone practice, rather than separating it out, but it must be a major focus of your daily practice. If your breathing is smooth & relaxed, everything else is easier. This is the stage where you see so many tuba players using the breathing toys, breathing bags, etc., but a great deal of good can be done just by focusing your attention on the breathing mechanism. There should be no 'hitch' between the inhalation and the exhalation, and everything should feel smooth and relaxed. When you pick up your horn it is best to begin your warm-up in a comfortable range and at a comfortable volume. Some people like to start with long tones, but I prefer to begin with scales & arpeggios. I feel they help me to loosen up more, and it helps to get my mind into the game right away. The best rule is to keep it simple so that you can concentrate on do everything as perfectly as possible. Remember, your warm-up is for you. For those with busy performing schedules this may be the only time you get to really focus on just what you need to do for you own maintenance. For instance, if you have a tendency to tense up and push for the upper register, use this time to try to work your way up totally relaxed and miss as many notes as you need to. Gradually increase both the pitch range and the dynamic range, covering as many different kinds of patterns as possible, until you feel as if you've played everything you might be asked to do on the horn. I've included the warm-up I've been using for several years on a separate page. It is not entirely complete, because it doesn't show the one-octave scales and arpeggios I use at the beginning or long tones. I also allow considerable variation by inserting snippets of pieces I will be playing that day in a variety of keys, or simply making up another pattern to substitute for one of my regular ones for variety. If I have a particularly troublesome passage coming up in a performance I will often take that phrase through all twelve keys somewhere near the end of my warm-up. There is also some confusion between the terms warm-up and daily routine. Many people refer to their complete maintenance routine as their warm-up. It contains everything they need to practice every day, and may take over an hour. Others only refer to that relatively short period of limbering up the muscles of the face, which can often be accomplished in a few minutes as their warm-up, and the rest of the material they use to maintain playing efficiency as their routine. It is important to remember that their is absolutely no magic in the notes. While there is such a thing as a badly designed warm-up, their is not one definitive set of exercises that will fix your playing if you are not mentally engaged in what you are doing at all times. The quality, and therefore the effectiveness, of your warm-up will be determined by the extent to which you work at making a beautiful sound from the first time you pick up the horn, and by your insistence on correct technique, regardless of what specific series of notes you play. The Structure of the Warm up: While this is not the only way your session can be structured, it should provide some guidelines for you in developing your own daily routine. The Short Warm-up (the physical part) 1. mp through mf long tone exercises, and revolving scales. The long tone exercises are all in the mid-range, start at a comfortable mp, crescendo to mf, and decrescendo again to mp. I try to do about 8 beats (at 1/4 = 60) for the crescendo, and 8 beats for the decrescendo. Choose the notes randomly, but do not go out of the range that feels most comfortable to you. By Revolving scales I simply mean to go through all the scales in a regular pattern. You can go up a half step each time, go through the circle of fifths, anything you like as long as you vary it from day to day. The point is to actually be thinking in each key, & not just playing a memorized pattern. 2. Lip slurs, begin expanding both pitch and dynamic range. See the first few exercises on my daily warm-up. I always do them on every available crook. That means starting open F, then going through 2nd valve, then 1, 1-2, 2-3, 1-3, 1-2-3. I then start back on open F side and ascend through the shorter crooks available on the Bb side (T-23, T-12, T-1, T-2, T-0). 3. Add articulations, expand both pitch and dynamic range to maximums. My warm up may look like it moves very quickly to very loud playing in extreme high and low register, but there are 2 things to remember about that. First, if you are taking your time to play each exercise deliberately and listen carefully on every crook those first few exercises actually take quite a long time. Second, I'm playing a lot every day. When I'm coming off a vacation, or for some other reason have taken a few days off from my regular playing schedule I need to move more slowly. The Extended Daily Routine 1. Stopped horn. Not only actual excerpts from the literature, but practice playing common melodies you know this way. Make sure you do both loud and soft, as well as high & low register. (especially low register) 2. Flexibility/Lip Trills. Even if I'm playing music with lots of trills, I still find it helpful to spend a few minutes a day on basic trill exercises. Especially fast start practice (play just the principal note with one upper neighbor as fast as you can) and gradually increasing/decreasing the speed (start playing quarter notes, accelerando until it is a trill, then slow down gradually until you're at quarter notes again). I feel much more comfortable starting a trill in context if I've spent a minute or 2 every day doing these exercises. 3. Range Extensions. My basic warm-up covers the entire range I currently have (& therefore extends a bit beyond what you see on the next page) but that range will start decreasing if I don't spend at least a little time on range extension. One of my favorites is to simply extend the arpeggio exercises upward through the Bb horn fingerings. (Open F = C: T 2/3 = C#: T 1/2 = D: etc.) 4. Extreme dynamics. You can return to long tones, or do this with excerpts. It is important to push the envelope, both loud and soft, in your practice sessions. Otherwise you will never be able to control any dynamic that doesn't start with mezzo. The important aspect of this practice is to work for control. Don't just blast as loud as you can, but play your loudest controlled sound and try to crescendo while maintaining a good sound. Do the same thing soft, keeping a nice dark focused sound until it becomes inaudible. 5. Multi-phonics. O.K., this one's a bit of a circus trick, but if you ever plan to use it on stage you need to start doing it regularly at some point. I find it also helps me to play more centered if I put in a few minutes on this, and it's great ear training. 6. Etudes and Technical Studies. Why do these come last? Because you could train a monkey to play lots of notes, but basic control of the instrument, a good sound, good pitch, good articulation, and good dynamic control are what good horn playing is all about. Besides, you can use etudes to work on many of the items listed above. In fact, any well written etudes will address some specific aspects of horn playing if you will simply focus on them. |