dbacon

This is a simple but effective warm-up in two exercises.

EX. ONE=

Classic Cichowicz Flow Study in half notes, downward pattern. G-F#-G-A-C-A-G-E-C. Rest as long as you play, continue down by half steps seven times ending on low F#. Full free sound, constant air flow, sound like Phil Smith.....or as close as possible!

EX. TWO=

Tonal Area Phrase Ascending and Descending. Take a tonality (Maj. Pentatonics for example), begin with low C and ascend one octave up and descend back to the lowest note on the horn. C-D-E-G-A-C-A-G-E-D-C-A-lowG. Do this pattern up by whole steps (everyother one, D Maj. Pent. would be next) through your playing range. Since this is not a range exercise but a warm-up, play until the tone production is easy and natural. I like to alternate slur/tongue, slur the first tongue the next and slur the next etc. If you start with C today, start with C# tomorrow to cover all keys. Practice each study slowly but with motion, using easily all the air in your capacity. Go from the center of one note right to the center of the next.



If part of a longer work out routine it would be easy to go on to Lip Flex next, tonguing and technique, range studies, etudes, etc. But for a ten minute warm up this works pretty well. You can go through many tonal areas over time, Minor Pentatonics, 7th chords, Dim. Scales, Major/Minor Scales.

musicalmason

I like ex two alot, I just might try that.

bent trumpet

On days when I don't have to go to work, I warm up 30 - 40 minutes, practice for 30 minutes, then rest for a while. I do the 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off for 5-6 hours. My question: How much rest time would require another warm up? If I rest for a couple of hours, should I warm up again that day?

dbacon

Depends on your present state of development, but if you are practicing well you won't really need much warm-up. As a matter of fact, play well when you can without a "warm-up." This happens all the time, you drive to the gig and because of traffic or whatever, you go from the box to the stage and hit it. If you have your imagination really working, have a terrific sound really ringing in your mind a warm-up is not neccessary. Practicing fundamentals early in the day works well, but sometime get up in the middle of the night and play the Hindemith straight through (alert your wife before hand), or do Charlier as your first practice session. If the mind is on, the body responds!

lonelyangel

Hello, I agree with Dave in so far as that if things are going well and you are playing regularly, then you shouldn't need much time to warm up.

If I go to the gym to work out then I first do a little stretching and then hop on an exercise bike or a cross trainer for 5 minutes. This is to get my heart and lungs working and to get the blood and oxygen flowing to my muscles.

I take pretty much the same angle when it comes to trumpet practice. Anything over about 5 minutes is not really a warm up it is a workout or music practice. That is not to say that I do not have a daily routine involving similar excersises to the ones outlined above but I do no think of them as warming up.

My daily routines vary according to my playing schedule but they would include, amongst other things, a gentle conditioning workout, more strenuous strength and stamina 'circuit training', technical consolidation and extension work, repair and recovery therapy etc. All of these practice routines are tools for maintaining, building and refining the physical aspects of my trumpet playing and (although they do overlap) distinct from my musical practice.

In my warm up I like top concentrate on the essentials of getting the air moving, getting my muscles warmed up and oxygenated and on achieving a fat and lively vibration in the tissues of my lips. I think it is a common mistake to try to warm up too low, too quiet and with too pretty a sound.
If I can play a quiet, controlled low C with a great sound straight out of the box, then why on earth would I need to warm up? That is what I aim to be able to do after I am warmed up, not before hand.

If you are looking for a 30 to 40 minute warm up / conditioning routine as a touch stone or foundation for extended daily practice then I really can't recommend the Allen Vizzutti method highly enough. For me personally it has been a God send since I was introduced to it several years ago.
What I love about it is the energetic and no-nonsense approach it encourages. For a start the first part is all on the mouthpiece. The glissando excersize was a revelation - I can now play almost anything within the bounds of my abilities if I have first spent 3 or 4 minuts on this part of his routine. The mouthpiece work will always sound strange and terrible - raspy, thin and functional. There is no danger of picking the trumpet out of the case, trying to play a few notes and then being so disgusted with the unrefined racket you are producing that you lose heart, put it away and decide to go fishing instead. You just revel in making the most vibrant, full blooded buzzing sounds on the mouthpiece and then when you finally get to play the trumpet it is going to sound infinitely better by comparison.

The first notes you play on the trumpet are fat, forte and hard tounged. A real trumpet sound with energy and impact. You really kick into the tounging excersize with gusto and purpose and this leaves you with a really good tingle in your lips and with your lungs really pumping. The third and fourth parts of the routine, long tones and Vizzuttis variations on the H Clarke technical studies are by no means essential to a pre performance warm up but are great if you plan a longer work out or as a transition into practicing musical excersizes.

Underlying all aspects of the routine is the emphasis on moving large quantities of air with confidence and control. The warm up routine in full is really long tones in disguise and whats more it is fun to play! :)

In addition to the musical material the text in these books is really excellent - almost gospel as far as I am concerned. I would tend to agree with most of the ideas he expresses here and in particular his assertion that lip flexibilities are best avoided during a warm up (as a matter of fact, lip flexibilities are one thing that I have never practiced and I am not convinced that I ever will - but that's another story).

I hope that's of some interest. Please come back with any questions or comments.
All the best. Noel.