Principaltrumpet

I have been practicing ALOT lately. Finally found my motivation I guess. But I have begun to notice that every time I have a rough day, the next day feels exceptionally good. Does anyone else observe this in their own practice life? Is there a correlation between the amount I am working in order to produce the best trumpet playing I canon a bad day and the ease of playing the next day? I hate those bad days, but man the good ones sure are great!
JR

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bagmangood

Maybe thinking about what was going wrong helps us?
I don't know, but I definitely have the same thing happen to me

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Vulgano Brother

Assuming routines and such, and consistent practice, I would suspect that rather than a physical thing, you are experiencing a mental thing on your good days. For me, a good part of the mental thing is attitude, and I love the aviation definition--the "direction we lean."

I have not found the secret to turning every day into a "good day," but I know every day can be one!

Have a good day!

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RGood

I always experienced a corollary issue - with lessons: when I prepared the hardest & had practiced the most - my teacher was least happy with my playing - the next week I'd come back in - hardly practiced and with a "who cares" attitude - I'd get nothing about praise about how well I was playing.....

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hubnub

.....Funny, thats how i got through college too.....

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Bloomin Untidy Musician

I get a bit like this sometimes after daily heavy blows in band, and i find after one day off or a light blow, i have chops of steel. For me, i am conscious of the fact that i have too much tension in my neck and too much MPC pressure after long periods of playing. I think a consistant warm up and warm down routines would help. Also ensure that you rest as much as you play (20mins then have a coffee etc.), but i think more than anything don't practise until you have a swollen lip and feel tense. I have the urge to do this sometimes. I could practise 2-3 hours solid and end up with sore chops,tense and achieving relatively little. For me i think it is a good aim to have chops feeling refreshed and worked at the end of a practise session rather than knackered and abused. Abusing chops with heavy practise will undoubtedly make you more inconsistent. I always had the temptation to practise blowing the guts out of high note passages, and once again all i achieved was tension and a sore lip after 15mins. Personally, i find pp practise on high note passages is superb. It saves the chops and i also find it reduces tension, and improves accuracy when i go to play it at the written volume.

Nordic Trumpet

I guess this depends on which level you are. I've certainly experienced this in the past. Not so much now.

I remember practicing long and hard every day in when I was in the military, never getting anywere until I started taking a day off after days I've been practicing really hard. The rest I got really did me good and my improvement improved so to speak. Of course back then I really didn't have a good practice routine.

A well thought out routine is going to help you with concistency on a day to day basis.

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veery715

I 'm with Vulgano on this. It is mental. And just a few minutes of the right kind of practice accomplishes much more than hours of the wrong kind.
There's a book by pianist Kenny Werner, Effortless Mastery, which is well worth reading and which applies directly to what you are experiencing. It's a fantastic read.

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oj

I've heard things like this about that book. I finally got it. It was a big dissapointment.

veery715, perhaps you could tell me what was fantastic with it?

Ole

tunefultrumpet

I think days off help. I never agreed with that quote from some famous trumpet teacher, was it Clarke?, I don't remember, but it went along the lines of how you couldn't afford to miss a day's practice because it would set you back. Our chops are muscles and need time to rebuild.