Quick Fingers!

[drumstix909]

See, the "a few clicks on the met each day" approach is the obvious answer, but I always hit a breaking point. Say, I can play it at 150, but at 152 I break down entirely. Anyone else ever have this experience or know any ways to overcome it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You know, I haven't had that problem so much with playing my horn...but I was a drummer back in high school, and I DEFINITELY had that problem drumming. It's exactly how you describe. Learn something slow, then take it up a few clicks every day...at some point I would hit a "breaking point" where I just couldn't play it faster. And I'm not talking 200 bpm...it might be 120 or 145 or 156, depending on what I was playing. It was VERY frustrating. I never really found a way to overcome that barrier, which is why I learned to play brass for drum corps...because I always hit that stopping point with my drumming.

[kevingamin]

See, the "a few clicks on the met each day" approach is the obvious answer, but I always hit a breaking point. Say, I can play it at 150, but at 152 I break down entirely. Anyone else ever have this experience or know any ways to overcome it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That might be more of a mental block than a physical one. Something about the nice, round number of 150 and your brain says "OK, that's as good as you're gonna get!".

What if you had a friend set the metronome at a random starting tempo, then increase it as you perform the run? That way you won't know (although you might feel it) when you hit that breaking point.

[murppie]

The best thing you can do is practice it slowly with a met. As the first response mentioned practice it slow enough till you're making no mistakes. Otherwise your brain is just storing up those mitakes for that one time you're performing it. (we all know thats when they come out) Its gonna suck playing it slowly but it will work out in the end. Remember, practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes PERMENANT!

[Trumpetboy]

Thanks all!

[ECJ_Tuba]

Try to find any type of melodic sub phrases with in the run, if you do it that way, melodically it will make sense and you will ( in due time) have the run melodically set in your head, so your chances of fracking the note will be diminished substantially . Also like others have said, start off slow and work your way up. Its all about dexterity memorization with in your fingers (muscle memory), once you got that down your golden my man. B)

[cheezedogg 23]

I just play all the hard fast stuff slow over and over again. Making 100% you are 100% focus in the music of it, and just repeatition of it, keeping music in mind, You body will speed it up when its ready. At least for me it does, my trumpet proff taught me how. I'd do it to a slow tempo on a MET the first time, then just try to keep there without the MET and just naturally as my body gets used to the fingerings it speeds up on its own.

[84BDsop]

All great bits of advice....butg don't forgetg the mechanical aids...good valve oil, for one.

Dream's Phil Norris - a pro musician in real life - turned me on to T2 valve oil. He cleaned the valves and applied the stuff back in May (when I was still in the line), then I got DM and stopped playing.

I just checked my sop...valves run fine & dandy...re-oiled them and they move like lightening!

$8 a bottle, but worth it!

I believe Nick Rail Music in Riverside, CA carries it....you just need to wipe away all the existing valve oil from the exterioe and interior of the valves, and the interior of the valve casings because 2 different oil formulas may congeal...

[SoonerMellophone]

Go out and buy a copy of the Clarke technical studies for cornet and practice them everyday.

The second study is probably the single best way to develope and maintain good finger technique.

You will be amazed at how quickly they will help. I noticed a huge improvement after about 3 weeks, and it only gets easier with more time. As Clarke mentions, you should skip the lines that you can play easily and concentrate on the hard ones.

[Robbie Ellis]

A suggestion one of my trumpet teachers gave me when I was in high school was to take the runs BACKWARDS a few times. For some reason, playing it backwards helps your comfort level when playing it normal.

This does work as well as taking it slowly, a few notes at a time. Relax when playing and play in tempo. Everyone tries to rush a run to make sure it fits. It will, in tempo.

[ravedodger]

I think all of this is great advise, but everyone has missed one thing.

All your runs will be based on some sort of mode, a scale. The secret to playing everything in music is to know exactly where the music is going before it gets there. I would also call this another secret of sightreading.

Knowing all your scales and arpeggios at a minimum of 120 (144 or better is ideal) would help your fingers. Yes, increasing your speed slowly is encredibly important, but once you have those scales and arpeggios down, reading the music just becomes another technical exercise. The fun comes in finding where the composer throws in that little twist--an accidental in that run where was usually a major scale, but he decides to suddenly change it just a little bit.

This happened to me the first time I played Tchaikovski's 4th, arranged for concert band. It was minor all scale runs. All I had to do was memorize where he changed from melodic to harmonic or natural--or what ever order it was.

Edited October 24, 2004 by ravedodger