Originally Posted by lonelyangel

Sorry to say guys but he does mean 20 minutes and IMHO that is most certainly NOT too long. I would say that long tones, in one form or another should form about one third of your practice time. Therefore, if your daily practice routine lasts more than an hour, then 20 minutes of long tones is not enough. If you practice 2 hours a day, think of 40 minutes of long tones.

Cat Anderson's method is a beautifully efficient way of achieving this almost zen like in its simplicity. I find playing one note for this long far from boring or depressing in fact it works the opposite way, raising awareness, calming and focusing the mind, opening the ears and concentrating the breath and feeding the sound.

Of course there are countless ways of playing long tones - or of achieving the same results. For example, I would say that the Vizzutti warm up consisting of the mouthpiece work, the tonguing routine, the long tones and finally the Clarke study variations can be regarded as long tones in disguise. There are many methods where the same could be said to be true. The common thread being that you play long and slow using a full breath and 'as if you were playing one long note'.

There are no two ways around this, you have to play your daily long tones.

If you don't like the calm, meditative approach, then look for variety or play long, gently undulating flow studies. Failing that stick a practice mute in and sit in front of the TV, what ever it takes, 'just do it' (thank you nike) and you won't look back.

All the best. Noel.