asd

Hi,

I was wondering how most of you warm up for a gig in these two areas. I know its confusing becuse these day's, many players do both types of gigs.

Having made my choice in life years ago, I no longer perform or really practice (except for technical studies) in the "classical" area although I'm an active composer. (I did play the Hummel and Charlier #2 on my EVI recently, and even with the different fingering of the EVI from the trumpet, I sounded great!!
Could never do that on the trumpet at this point!!)

But back on topic, I wonder what you jazz folks do as a warmup before a gig.

For me, its minimal, especially if its hard blowing quartet or small group stuff. If I'm playing fourth in a big band (my chair of choice!!) I usually will even practice that day (unless there is a lengthy sound check, which seems to be a buzz word for rehersal these days.) I try to get the flow going, and that means playing lengthy jazz lines in all of my registers, and I find working in a cup mute helps a lot.

When I was at Eastman, I remember going to a Barbara Butler trumpet class and she talked about being in situations where a warm up was impossible and that it was necessary to go on "cold." She encourged us to practice playing without warming up to experience this idea.

And it did happen to me last year: I was returning to Toyko from Minneapolis (where I was a visiting professor in Japan) and I had a gig the night I returned. I had just enough time to get to my apartment, pick up my horn, get on my bike and get to the gig which I did with about ten minutes to spare and that was after a 32 hour trip which tracked as: cab from my home to air port in Fargo; flight from Fargo to Minneapolis; flight from Minneapolis to Detroit; flight from Detriot to Narita (Toyko); 2 hour (in traffic) bus to Toyko; cab ride to my apartment; bike ride to club--and there I was, a couple of scales in a cup mute--a fast burbon (yes, I deserved it) and on stage for a three hour quartet gig. I am sure that this has happened to lots of you here on the TM. But this is extreme. Under less stressful curcumstances, I just do some flow studies appropriate to the gig and just play. If it was hard blowing, and i don't have a gig the next day, i usually take the day off now that I'm getting to be an old guy.

Please share your warmup/practice routines on the day of the gig.