Fudleysmith

Hi,

I'm a comeback player (away for 28 years, back for 1.5) who plays with one group or another six nights a week (Friday is date night con mi esposa ). I need more endurance for most of the gigs.


I never have discomfort that lasts more than 5 minutes, and I can always play the next morning. Am I babying my chops too much?

What are YOUR warning signs that you have pushed your chops beyond the point of building strength into destruction? How much do you persevere into fatigue/stress?

Thanks,

Greg

thetrumpetmaster

Well my former teacher Mike Miller always stressed that you'll never get any better if you don't push yourself to the limit. The way I always interpret that is push yourself hard, as if running a race. If you are racing for a million dollars for example, you would run hard until you couldn't anymore, but you also wouldn't run yourself to death. I never play to the point that it hurts, unless it is a particularly stressful performance. In daily practice, I play until I am not exactly comfortable, but I never play if I am having to fight my lips to produce sound.

I hope that makes a little sense...

-Julian

Fudleysmith

Thanks trumpetmaster for the response and the analogy.

Manny Laureano

Greg,

Do you have Top Tones for The Trumpet by W. Smith? If you want to develop serious chops, that's the book, amigo. Also, page 44 of the Arban's is great if you're creative and go a bit past what is written.

ML

bigtiny

hmmm....I'll try to answer your question a different way. If you need more stamina, the question is not really whether you're pushing yourself too hard, I think. Rather, it's "what can I do to build more stamina?"

- I know for me (and some others) a regular, gradual, warmup routine can make the difference between playing well all night, or wrestling an aligator after an hour on the gig.

- the afore-mentioned top-tones and Arban's exercises. There may be others that help you build stamina. I'd recommend a lot of long tones and slow lip slurs also.

- when you practice (believe me, with schedules what they are today I know this is easier said than done) try to break up your practice sessions to more than one big session. this will give your chops a chance to recover and might help to develop more stamina (it works for me)

- never hurt yourself when your practicing or playing

- if you find your chops are tired, take another night a week off. I know that when I get 'tight' I'll take a day off and MAN! The next day I feel great....again, I know this is sometimes easier said than done with playing committments and all....

Hope this helps,

bigtiny

trpt2345

That's a serious book that will kick your booty. Makes Goldman look easy.

Michael McLaughlin


Bulls sign Ben Wallace!

PH

...........

trpt2345

Talking about Walter Smith had me look through my stack of books and pull it out. I just did Numbers 1 thru 4 plus number 8. Boy, that's a workout. Keeping the chops up over the holidays. I'll feel good tomorrow.
Speaking of books good for technical development, the Aaron Harris Daily Routines is a really good one, and his book of 30 Duets (both part of the the Complete Charles Colin Method) is superb.

Michael McLaughlin

"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter."
Mark Twain

Fudleysmith

Thanks for all of the tips.

I usually have 4-6, 30 to 45 minute practice sessions each day.

I'm still looking for that "surefire" indicator that I've achieved the maximum benefit from each session.

When I was weight training I would perform a set of exercises until the muscles failed to respond. I do the same thing with the Carmine Caruso exercise #2 (play until muscle failure, rest for 15 seconds and return to the failed part of the exercise), but how do you assess the accumulated fatigue level for a 40 minute practice session to assure that you have gone far enough, but not too far?

I tried exercise #22 on page 44 of Arban's, but I wasn't able to complete it. I only got to the 1st valve D to F slurs before I couldn't "flick" my embouchure any more. I stopped before I started using pressure or intra-oral contortions to get the slur.

Patience in a virtue, but I want to make the most of the time that I am devoting to studying/practicing.

Thanks again for your inputs,

Greg

Bugler

"Good trumpet players know how and when to rest" (not a direct quote, but pretty close) - Bob Nagel, former student of Ernest S. Williams.

Further more: Every passage you play if followed by an equal amont of rest will enable you to play all day long. Example: 8 bars of playing, 8 bars of rest. 24 bars playing, 24 bars rest. Not always practical, but try this in your practice and you will see the results.