BflatAnklan

Dear Manny,

I'm sorry if this has already been adressed, but I was wondering what you do daily to maintain your playing?

Thanks!

__________________
Matthew Anklan

www.myspace.com/matthewanklan

Anonymous

I'm almost sure that has been talked about. Look around this forum a bit!

Manny Laureano

Matthew,

To be fair, I have a feeling that the posts about my daily practice might have gone bye-bye during the hack job that was done to the site during the Christmas holidays.

So here it is as far as what I'm doing these days:

1) Long tones that can start just about anywhere on the horn from middle C to low F#. When I say long tones, I mean it in the manner of the Cichowicz exercises that slowly crawl around the range, in a very melodic fashion. Brief rest.
2) I like to get out the metronome and play tonguing exercises either from Arban or Goldman and, alternating playing and resting, increasing the tempo after each brief rest. Lately I've been increasing it during the course of the study. The goal is to be at quarter equals 112-116 or so by the end of all the tonguing.

During all of this I'm going for the cleanest articulation I can make in every register.

3) If I want to, I'll play some flexibility exercises out of Arban or make something up. Rest.

Now, I just play whatever it is I want. Etudes, solos, orchestral music. I'm preparing for a couple of solos so I have to get through the Brandenburg a couple of times and the Neruda as well. There's also another piccolo solo, Andre transcription, that I'm working on to play with an advanced student group, so, this is the most small horn work I've done in a while. It's good for you and I believe all working pros should stay in good contact with the small horns in balance with the big ones. The idea is to make switching mouthpieces and horns a casual event always and not allow it to become an anxiety-ridden event.

Mouthpieces? Oh, okay... lately I've been the C 1-5M in the orchestra. It's like my old Bach 1B that I played for so many years just more efficient and nicer-sounding. I have a B 1-2 for my Bb and the piccolo is a B 5LM. At least, that's what it is this week! As you can tell, I try not to make the mouthpiece too serious an issue. That's just me, however. Maurice Andre once said "I am fidelity itself regarding mouthpieces!". Everyone has a different take on how they relate to mouthpieces.

Okay, have a good day.

ML

BflatAnklan

Thanks Manny,

Sound pretty similar to what I do.

I totally agree with you on the issue of horns. I don't get to play my "smaller" horns that much. Actually, since I've been on vacation from my regular gig (Maritime Jazz Orchestras) I havn't been playing my flugel that much. I used it on a couple of recent gigs and I felt like I was back in high school trying to hack my way through it! Ok, you talked me into practicing with it. (I go back to the lead chair on Monday the 21st!)

I like mouthpieces!

I'm currently using some old Monette's (I like the one's with more mass on the shank). I don't think changing the design helped them any - didn't make the worse though. My favorite all around mouthpiece is the B4, but I use a B2 some days. Depending on the type of big band music I'm playing I'll use the B4L or B5L. Just depends on how I think I want to sound that day...

If I ever make it back up to MN, could I look you up for a lesson?
Thanks!

__________________
Matthew Anklan

www.myspace.com/matthewanklan

Manny Laureano

Mattew,

Of course. Give me a call through Minnesota Orchestra (612) 371-5600 or e-mail me at mclaureano@aol.com.

ML