Vulgano Brother

I'll agree big-time with Manny and Alex: a good warm-up offers us about eight hours of "protection," and there is no substitute. None. Zilch.

That being said, apart from fluttering the lips and getting some good breathing going, the Heimat tone concept of Gerald Webster is extremely good for those (hopefully rare) situations where a "normal" warm-up is impossible.

Gerald Webster discovered that when we play a medium high, medium low, medium loud tone on our mothpiece first thing in the day, the same pitch will come out, our personal "home" tone, or Heimat tone (he discovered this while touring with Edward Tarr in Germany, thus the name). "Personal" means just that, each person has his/her own Heimat tone -- there is no "good" "bad" or "ideal."

Knowing our personal Heimat tone, we can start the quickie warm-up from there, expanding up and down, using mouthpiece or trumpet, and quickly focus in on our natural playing center. We can play with confidence because we know where "home" is.

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Alex Yates

[Clapping] Well said Vulgano. Well said.

k0elw

As long as it takes to kinesthetically sense the balance between embouchure and air.

Long tone 2nd line G played ppp; looking and listening for threshhold of where sound engages; and the horn plays itself. After that chromatic scales in 2 octaves or Clarke technical studiy #2 @ ppp. Randomly pick any Arban tonguing etude to play from memory.
Usually < 5 minutes.

-Ellis

mattdalton

I also studied with Gerald Webster and absolutely endorse the advice Vulgano Brother is giving here. Of course he descibed it better than I could have, because he's older and wiser.

Even if you only play the Heimat tone briefly before moving to another warm-up exercise, it really helps gets you centered, on-track, and sounding 'like yourself" more quickly. I personally use the Heimat tone concept to begin a few minutes of mouthpiece buzzing, because it works best for me. But as Jerry said, you can use the mouthpiece or trumpet.

Don't worry if it takes a few days to find your personal home tone. Just play relaxed, neutral and without any pre-conceived idea of the pitch. If there's a certain song or tonality in my head that's influencing things, I'll go to the keyboard and randomly run my hand across the keys to shake it off, then take a good breath, form the embouchure and blow.

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Matt Dalton

GordonH

Consider warming up on a Berp to start with.
I went through a phase of this and it was very beneficial. I only stopped because I didnt want it damaging my new trumpet.

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"O trumpeter, methinks I am myself the instrument thou playest,
Thou melt'st my heart, my brain--thou movest, drawest, changest
them at will;" (Walt Whitman)

tromj

I use the warm up Ellis describers daily, and then move on to other things. When I have to warm up quickly, I will sometimes play the Ms. Pac Man theme in twelve keys. It takes about two and a half minutes.
For those who don't know it, it's C-E-D-F-E-F-G-E-D-F-E-F-G-E-F-G-E-F-G-A-B-C-B-C. Aw he;, get a quarter and play the game,it's an easy tune.

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