Castle Bravo

Manny -

I don't know if this has ever happened to you...

You get to rehearsal waaaaay early as usual, warm up, things are looking good. Chops in shape, positive attitude, awesome warm-up and ready to conquer the world.

All starts well. Then the conductor keeps getting sidetracked with some irrelevant nuance in some other section and you find yourself feeling less and less "warmed up and ready to go" with every entrance, like the wasted time has somehow convinced my chops that playtime is over. It feels like I need to warm up again after about an hour and a half or so...

Or maybe you have an extended break... or a rehearsal in the morning (that you left feeling great with awesome chops) followed by a gig or two in the afternoon and the chops feel TERRIBLE coming back after the 2 hour lay off - and re-warming up sometimes just doesn't happen.

Any suggestions? Thanx!
(BTW have been playing for 22 years solid, and is my current occupation)

Manny Laureano

It's a mental game and if you make yourself more aware of the lapse in time than you need to, you're at a disadvantage.

It's all about acknowledging that it's not about time spent on the lip. It's about what you're going to do when you put it on your lip. Also, if it's not the greatest quality when you play, so what? The concert is what counts, not how much you impress the section or sections around you.

Acknowledging your abilities and being happy with them supercedes the illusion of time. Whenever you play, you really play.

ML