To Grind or Not to Grind (Practice Hard or Easy?)

Routines can be something that we love and hate. Do we need to do them? What kinds of things need to get touched? What’s the most important thing to focus on?

Does anyone actually know anything about this damn instrument?

What I do know is this; a daily routine is an excellent way to develop your coordination as a trumpet player. Better coordination equals greater efficiency. Greater efficiency equals improved range, power and endurance. All-in-all, some kind of daily routine is a worthwhile idea.

A typical routine consists of a few basic exercises performed with variety, but in more or less the same way every day. Examples of said exercises include lip slurs, scales, long-tones, articulation drills…you get the idea.

While routines can be a great addition to any trumpet players life, they can also screw ya up. How? By pushing every single drill to the outer limits of range and endurance. IMHO, this sucks! And typically, the only reason we approach the horn like this is because we are afraid that by neglecting some drill on any given day we aren’t going to get any better.

But, this is simply not true.

If our goal is greater efficiency and ease in playing, then it behooves us to take the time to go back and correct inefficiencies as they arise – rather than continuing to push our range and technique.

I mean, let’s face it, everyone has gotten results at some point by pushing the upper extremities.  But, if you do this all the time, you’re asking for it. Always be mindful that we have to be more or less FRESH to make strength and musical gains.

Next Time, Try This

The next time you are working on your lip slurs and you find that portion of your playing range where the throat and/or oral cavity starts closing up, STOP and REST. After a few minutes you can come back and try again. But keep in mind the objective of remaining somewhat open and relaxed. If you are still tightening up, STOP and REST again. If on the third go-around you get it sounding and feeling more open and free, good job. You are done for the day. It’s all about making tiny changes in the right direction every day.

By keeping yourself fresh and feeling good about practice time you can guarantee DAILY results. the main takeaway here is that fatigue isn’t as necessary as players tend to think that it is. Our bodies aren’t ‘breaking down to build up.’ They are figuring out what to do.

In other words, if you’re going to test your mettle – save it for the gig.

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