| Every time I pick up the horn I do some type of warm-up. These warm-ups can vary significantly depending on what my playing activity will be and how I feel.
Maintenance Routine:
Let’s say I’m getting ready to do my standard maintenance routine for the day. If I’ve had a stressful day at work and my little boys are arguing with each other when I get home, I may be carrying more tension into this session than normal. I will target this during my warm-up.
1) Listen to some familiar music to get a strong concept of sound going in my head (I like Cecelia Bartoli or Renee Fleming). This is also very relaxing and helps to remind me how effortless music making should sound. About 3-5 minutes depending on the song.
2) Spend 2-3 minutes using a breathing bag. This is a great way to get the breathing mechanism going (relaxed inhale and exhale) as well as the secondary benefit of reducing accumulated daily tension.
3) Play the mouthpiece / leadpipe combination with the focus on immediacy of response. This is extremely important to assure sound production is working easily. Spend about a minute on this.
4) Play the Caruso 6-Note exercise using breath attacks at a comfortable dynamic and focusing on immediate response and ease of sound production. I may play this twice through if I feel I need it. This may take 2-3 minutes.
So that's about 10 minutes (and sometimes I'll just do 3 and 4 depending on how I feel).
Continue to my normal maintenance routine
Prior to a Lesson:
My weekly lessons are right after work and my first note of the day is at my instructor’s house. It’s about a 20-30 minute drive from work giving me time to listen to music as well as play the mouthpiece / leadpipe combination in the car (at traffic signals and on backed-up on ramps).
I will do a brief 6-Note exercise focusing on immediacy of response and ease of sound production (about 2 minutes) followed by a short rest. I will then do some single tonguing (about 1 minute) followed by some lip flexibilities and easy scales in the key of whatever I’m playing first in my lesson over my entire range (about 2 minutes). I’m ready to go in 5 minutes.
Prior to a Rehearsal or Concert:
Similar to a Lesson but I will arrive at least a half hour prior to the show and I go through about 15 minutes of playing and resting as described above and then look at the tricky passages or familiarize myself with the various transpositions on the concert.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona |