A young boy comes home from school. While talking with his mother, he exclaims, “Today we learned how to spell ‘banana,’ but we didn’t learn when to stop.”
The “Banana Principle,” (get it? banananananana…hahaha) or knowing when it’s time to stop is one of the not-so-obvious challenges of trumpet playing. You know that pushing your embouchure too far makes playing a drag. And when playing is a drag, we can easily turn into huge grumpopotamuses. Therefore, this article flushes out how the Banana Principle might look in your daily routine, then gives practical solutions for creating guidelines in practice.
Knowing When to Stop: Embouchure Fatigue?
Determining when it’s time to set the horn down, trumpet players often jump right to the concept of embouchure fatigue. And it’s no wonder: when the muscles of the face get tired, playing gets tricky. Endurance, gone; range, gone; playing in tune — a fantastic luxury. Looking like a talentless hack? Check.
Naturally, we worry about our chops:
How do I stay fresh all the time? No pain, no gain? How much do I need to practice? How much is too much? Overly-tired chops means learning I’m bad habits? What am I doing with my life? WTF AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?!?
But don’t worry about it, ’cause we’ve got some solutions right here.
Practical Solution #1: Practice Governors
Because it’s difficult to know how much fatigue is too much when it comes to achieving our goals, we can switch our focus to certain playing results. We then use those habits/results as guideposts in the practice room.
The concept of a practice governor is simple. Find a habit you want to fix and use the first signs of it creeping in as a signal for when it’s time to take a break. Using these little habits as guideposts: mouthpiece pressure, screwing with the chops for high notes, mental focus, the Skill of Chill, etc., you’re able to effectively rewire the nervous system and learn new playing habits.
Say you want to reduce mouthpiece pressure in the upper register. As soon as you notice additional pressure creeping in, that’s your red flag. Stop playing and set the horn down, even only for a brief moment. Then try again, paying attention to the use of pressure. Set the horn down when you notice it. That’s the Skill of Chill. The point is to teach the body, “Hey, we don’t cram the mouthpiece through our face anymore. Figure it out.” Not overdoing it physically then becomes a bonus side effect.
Long-Term Banana Solutions
If you’ve committed to the long haul, you are fully aware that it can be tough to know when it’s time to move on. I can only speak for myself, but I sometimes worry whether I’ve learned something thoroughly enough. And my entire life I’ve been crippled by the need to hold onto everything I learn*. This makes deciding whether it’s time to spend that time and energy elsewhere a challenge.
*The lengths I’ve gone to this futile end are somewhat inspiring, definitely neurotic and ultimately very sad.
One option for improving the situation is to practice not caring (now that’s, The Skill of Chill!). Recently, while on a Master Class panel, a student asked, “How do you know you’ve gotten everything you can out of (a particular drill, song, transcription, etc.)?” I wanted to know the answer too. Luckily, it came from a very creative peer who shared he simply didn’t think in those terms. So far, he’s followed his interests, used practice time to solve problems and trusts the work to influence his playing in whatever way it (the work) sees fit.
If that’s a bit too far out or hippy-flippy for your taste, try committing to 30 days (or more) of daily practice on a particular skill. After laying an initial foundation, practice that skill more occasionally, say, twice a week. If you like this approach, a solid way to keep getting better is to use those 30 days to practice your greatest weakness. After that gets pretty good, pick the next greatest weakness. Wash, rinse and repeat until you’re the shit*.
*”The shit.” Noun. Hip vernacular meaning “the best.” Not to be confused with “shit,” meaning “bad/the worst.”
Chop Inflation: The Trap of Getting Better
OK, now that you’re getting really good at the trumpet, we need to discuss a hidden death trap.
You know the idea of lifestyle inflation, where people basically just spend all the money they make? Well, there’s something like that with trumpet playing. As we get better and become more efficient players, we can’t experience the full benefits of that efficiency if we always push ourselves to the limit. OK, now brace yourself, because that one bears repeating: Ahem (long pause), when you become a more efficient trumpet player, you can’t experience the full benefits of that efficiency if you keep pushing yourself to the limit. At the end of the day it’s all good, but having some chops leftover in your back pocket ain’t bad, either. And it sure can make playing a heck of a lot more fun.
Be Well & Play Good
So, there you have it. Having some guidelines in place for knowing when it’s time to stop will help you play better and get more out of your practice time. Next time you evaluate your practice routine, remind yourself about the Banana Principle. I’m sure you’ll find some positive tweaks you can make.
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