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Originally Posted by gchun  Michael-
Good to see you posting here!! How about sharing your experiences being on the road?
I keep hearing the classical teachers talking about the benefits of lyrical playing and letting the sound guide you. That applies here as well. In additional to all the "heavy lifting"-type exercises, we (meaning "me"!) often forget the benefits of lyrical playing for the general mechanics of trumpet playing, regardless of style. It also helps balance out all those strength exercises that can have adverse affects to our sound. I fell into the "all strength" exercise trap and that ended up burning chops rather than conditioning. Everything got too harsh, too tight and too strident. The lyrical stuff, along with rest and flexibility routines, helped to regain the "balance."
And gradually moving those lyrical routines up the range of the horn gives us mental "models" of how it feels when it's easier (lower registers) to more challenging. (higher registers).
Hope some of this helps-
Garry |
Hi Garry,
Practicing on the road ... I found, a long time ago but it still helps to keep it in mind, that it served me well to practice things opposite the gig requiremenst. For example, on Maynards band I was playing the 3rd trumpet parts mainly. Very loud "hard" playing in the middle & low registers. So, on a day off and in warming up I'd practice 'softer' than I normaly would and a lot of flexibility studies, technical exercises through out the entire range of the horn. to keep "balance" as Garry put it. On the last tour I did, lead trumpet for a tribute to the music of Ray Charles Tour, it was a lot of 'high' loud hard playing. So on days off and in daily practice I'd play soft in the middle & low registers ... make sense?
All the best.