DCI messes up embouchre?

[Martybucs]

I've heard pros and cons on warming down, especially if pedal tones are used.

Supposedly causes the tissue to swell.

I've been advised that it is wiser to gently cool down your chops after a workout on the horn. This actually works very well for me and I find faster recovery from using periodic application of cold, (not ice directly on the skin), right after playing.

Usually a cold can of Diet Coke works.

But to each their own. Whatever works.

[kickhaltsforlife]

We warm down to get the blood flowing again, which would cause swelling. but you can't just warm down, if you don't take care of your chops after that it could be awful. Always make sure you are keeping something on your lips, like DCT. Especially during the day, like during vis block. Stay away from Lip Medex during the day, that is good for overnight. Vitamin E is also a god overnight thing. NEVER DURING THE DAY OMG! But yes to something cool. If you feel like your lips are swelling a lot, just wrap some ice cubes up in something and set it on your chops. Also IBP is a great over night thing. it keeps swelling down. Swelling can be caused by any number of things when playing. Sunburn, to just over working your chops. Warming down is a great thing because it will get the blood flowing to start the healing process after a long day of playing. In addition to that warm-down after the parade, they gave us 400mg of IBP each to keep swelling down.

Keeping your chops in good condition is a tough process, but if you do it right you will have great chops after the season hen you go back home. But seriously you have to take care of things.

Recommended products:

DCT

Vitamin E

Lip Med Ex

Chop Saver

Blistex Complete Moisture

IBP (this also helps with other pains related to drum corps, lol)

Anything with SPF 15 or higher to protect your chops during the day from the sun.

I actually apply DCT before playing, and during. It does not effect my playing, in fact it helps it, but I do know that it is not always recommended.

During the off-season though, i just use DCT to keep things fresh.

I'm very protective of my chops (i like the sound they produce, and so do others) so i do everything in my power to protect them.

But now back to embouchures...

[crazymello]

My routine is basically warm down with low tones, ice on the lips before bed. It seems to work for me.

[rayfallon]

This isn't as nuts a topic as it sounds. I've been at rehearsals that probably caused psychological damage as well as emouchure issues, but I don't think it's because of DCI. I sat on a hill in Canton, OH and watched a young instructor announce from his scaffold (to a borderline finalist playing a difficult piece on a hot hot hot day, over and over and over again) "That sucked! Do it again!" Sure enough, after an hour, they had perfected Suck! I'm pretty sure it became permanent. That was it, no clarification, no explanation, no water, no nothing. Just do it again, and again, and again. Yeah, this is 14 years ago, but I'll bet every one of you has witnessed or experienced something like this.

Has anyone here NOT experienced rehearsals where there was just way too much exposure to sun, way too little hydration, way too much playing, especially in certain tessitura, way too little attention to the actual warming up and down, graduating the work load, etc.?

Maybe there's less of this now, but many DCI corps were taught by (essentially) kids, albeit bright and talented, who just didn't have enough experience to be responsible for 50 - 70 people playing constantly.

I'm not sure it's fair to point out Peter Bond or Goober and say that that's proof that you can't hurt yourself playing in a drum corps. This is why I think it's vitally important for brass caption heads to be deeply involved in the pedagogical side of the brass activity.

I think this was a good question, and while I don't disagree with the heart of the responses, I think that it's another area that is not nearly as simple as it seems on the surface. BTW, folks like JD, Gino, Wayne and many others are not the potential issues I'm alluding to. But there are a whole bunch of corps taught by a whole bunch of people out there. Keeping the chops and the air protected have to be huge considerations.

Couldn't agree more with whoever it was who mentioned playing on some of these instruments all summer. If that can't throw your air out of whack, what could? I played on a Smith baritone (I think they named it because they were embarrassed to use their real names - sort of like people checking into motels in New Jersey?) that made you want to give up playing!!! And there have been many others as you brass guys know!!! That can't help!!!

[kickhaltsforlife]

Has anyone here NOT experienced rehearsals where there was just way too much exposure to sun, way too little hydration, way too much playing, especially in certain tessitura, way too little attention to the actual warming up and down, graduating the work load, etc.?

I'm not sure it's fair to point out Peter Bond or Goober and say that that's proof that you can't hurt yourself playing in a drum corps. This is why I think it's vitally important for brass caption heads to be deeply involved in the pedagogical side of the brass activity.

I think this was a good question, and while I don't disagree with the heart of the responses, I think that it's another area that is not nearly as simple as it seems on the surface. BTW, folks like JD, Gino, Wayne and many others are not the potential issues I'm alluding to. But there are a whole bunch of corps taught by a whole bunch of people out there. Keeping the chops and the air protected have to be huge considerations.

To your first thing, actually no... our rehearsals were ran very professionally all season long. There was one instance where we went to long without water. Just one, and it was an honest mistake.

Second: I agree. SOOO MUCH

Third: I really hope that all of those teachers are getting weeded out of drum corps.

Now, I think back in the day things were a lot worse. But nowadays there is so much more professionalism in teaching and performing.

But it is still possible that things are not being taught, and rant he way they should be.

[G-horns]

Ray has touched on something that I have NEVER understood. Instructional staff - in drum corps, marching band, sports, [your discipline here] - that make the troops "do it again" without ever telling said troops what needs to change. Teams with that kind of staff usually aren't very successful.

As for my take on warmups and warm down...

I do about 3 to 5 minutes to get things moving before I jump into playing. Sometimes, if the venue is right, I'll add a can of Coors Light to the routine. Warm down is about the same length, low tones at mezzopiano. Again, Coors Light optional.

[rayfallon]

Ray has touched on something that I have NEVER understood. Instructional staff - in drum corps, marching band, sports, [your discipline here] - that make the troops "do it again" without ever telling said troops what needs to change. Teams with that kind of staff usually aren't very successful.

As for my take on warmups and warm down...

I do about 3 to 5 minutes to get things moving before I jump into playing. Sometimes, if the venue is right, I'll add a can of Coors Light to the routine. Warm down is about the same length, low tones at mezzopiano. Again, Coors Light optional.

Because I've only had 5 beers in my entire life, all of them one night when I was 17, I'll have to pass on the Coors Light part of your regimen - I know that the regular Coors beer was very popular with flight crews in Viet Nam, but I could never get myself into the taste.

As to the warm up and down times and intensity, it surely varies from player to player as well as day to day, but I think there is one inescapable fact - however long you take to get the motor switched to "ready" mode, you still don't plough into Double Cs at FFFF as soon as you've thrown the switch. There is a science to pacing your playing demands over time. I agree with the poster above who lauds the increased professionalism among staffs today, but I still think that at times we cave in to the caveman approach, throwing raw hours of rehearsal at challenges that could better be met with a sclalple than a sledge hammer.

And that's all I've got to say about that...

[TallAZEuph]

In my opinion, you can not generalize that "DCI" will ruin your embouchure.

Marching in DCI will only "ruin" your embouchure if you play with poor technique. What would I personally define as poor technique? Using a lot of tension to play at louder dynamics, while forcing the sound out by pushing the mouthpiece too hard against your mouth. We were all guilty of it at some point in our playing career, but we tend to over hype by letting our emotions take control, and influence our musical decisions throughout the show. Generally, if it feels "hard" to play loud, you are using too much tension. My former teacher would always preach, "Tension kills sound." And well, he was a founding member of Empire Brass, and an author of a best-selling educational supplement for musicians called, The Breathing Gym. Additionally, I've personally found that visual demands can prohibit me from using proper sound production. Especially early on in the season when still working out the various demands of a show.

Additionally, every corps has their own unique idea of the ideal "hornline sound." Some like it hot, some like it cool, and some like a delicate balance where the sound approaches the "redline" of quality, but never passes it. Naturally, every corps teaches slightly different techniques for playing a brass instrument. You can be your own "police officer" and make sound decisions on proper brass technique throughout tour, if you understand how to play a brass instrument well to begin with. It depends on your own maturity as a brass player, and your fundamental basis for brass pedagogy, along with the approach adopted by your chosen corps.

So go out and find a great private instructor that will develop your basic fundamentals of brass playing, and hang onto those principals throughout the summer, and you can come out the other side a better player.

[idontwan2know]

Ray has touched on something that I have NEVER understood. Instructional staff - in drum corps, marching band, sports, [your discipline here] - that make the troops "do it again" without ever telling said troops what needs to change. Teams with that kind of staff usually aren't very successful.

In general, this is very true, but there are occasions where too much instruction is worse than too little.

It just depends on what you're trying to get out of a given rep/rehearsal. When I've been working with a group towards something specific and they achieve it, I will ask for a few more quick reps to "lock it in".

Other times I will not give any specific instruction myself, but ask the performers to pick, as individuals, what they're going to improve on the next rep. This encourages healthy self-criticism which is critical to creating great performers. Staff can't hear/fix everything, no matter how big or talented.

Another example would be reps to build endurance/confidence. If you're really pushing in that kind of atmosphere, too much specific instruction can have a major negative impact on attitudes and morale.

Finally there are simply the "brain fart" reps where lack of focus/effort cause mistakes. When that happens, I'm not gonna belabor the specific things that went wrong...the performers know perfectly well where they made mistakes and how to fix them. This is where the majority of "do it again" reps come from, in my experience.

[CookieMonster]

Generally, if people say "that sucked" and ask you to do it again, it is because they saw too many ticks that ###### them off, or they noticed a general sloppiness in anything.

As anyone in corps can tell you, after you are told that you sucked, everyone dresses a little cleaner, plays a little more in context, and puts a little more into the next rep. "That sucked" is to be used when the problem is not a conceptual or understanding thing, but when it just "sucked".