LLD

is there anything overtly unhealthy about pulling an all-nighter as far as playing trumpet goes?

I have a (relatively unimportant) performance tomorrow morning but will be working all night.

I'm just wondering if my lips will be putty. or whatever other sort of material that's no good for trumpet-playing.

Dave Mickley

years ago when the earth was still cooling and I was in high school Doc came to our school as a Getzen performing artist and took our jazz band aside for a 2 hour talk. One of the main things he stressed was that playing the trumpet was a physical activety just like sports and we need to treat our bodies as if we were playing sports - keep in shape, eat healthy and get plenty of rest. He said at that time [1967] he always took a nap before a performance so that he would be well rested for the physical activity that he was going to be doing. you probably will get by but I definately would not make a practice of missing rest before playing. Dave

__________________
formerly known as old geezer Dave
C7
Yam. 231 Fl. 15383
King Master Cornet 295628
Weril Cornet Lo 7535

derekkress

Totally agree!Being healthy is so important.Where possible your routine should be early in the day.I learned this lesson the hard way from Erik Schultz.My first lesson with him was an all-nighter the night before, bar hopping and all.Thinking once hitting the pillow at 5a.m. we would go to the studio around 10-11am I figured I could recover a bit. To my surprise awoken at 7a.m. and off to the studio about 15mins later.As you can imagine my first note was a little shaky(or was that my body?).Anyways after warming up a bit he said"This is your first lesson, no matter what you do the night before you must start your day on the horn!If not the rest of the day will be wasted since there are so many little distractions that occur."I've continued this early morning routine to this day.Whatever time of day you choose make sure it is "your time" and get a good rest in between.Nobody will disagree that practicing is important but practicing efficiently is key

__________________
Celebration Bflat by Flip Oakes
Early Yamaha Flugel prototype(Guido Basso)
GR and Stork mouthpieces

et_mike

As long as you don't make a habit of it, and you are in relatively decent shape, you should be fine, this time. Just do me a favor and avoid some advice I've seen on other threads here... DO NOT chug an energy drink right before your performance. I could go into all the physical (not to mention health) reasons not to do this... but I won't bore you.

rowuk

First - the trumpet can be very unhealthy and we need to keep an eye on ourselves to prevent self destruction.

Second - there is no such thing as a relatively unimportant gig. Many of us meet the person we spend the rest of our lives with at a gig. (Ed Carroll has a great story here!) You may also get the next "much better gig" through this playing experience - if you do a good job.

I am not sure if you are working graveyard shift and THEN playing trumpet or if your gig will last the whole night. It is safe to say, if you party hearty then your concentration will not be optimal. If you play the whole night, your lips will probably be putty at the end, but playing all day has the same effect.

Take care of yourself, your audience will be very appreciative!

__________________
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.