chop building excersises

[Mersinger3]

who has some good one , i need like 8th note high register bass cleff baritone (t.c. is fine but i dont reading it) fastt!!! i hav a camp next weekend and my high register is not very good

[Littlehendrix]

srry to tell u this but a week isnt really long enough. Where are u going? Lip slur arpeggios thats what i do...i play trumpet and have a consistent high g (second g above the staff)

[ironlips]

Check www.xtremebrass.com

You'll find some very useful things there.

[Drew Wilkie]

Brass playing is 95% coordination, and 5% strength...never forget that.

[ironlips]

I couldn't agree more with Drew. (And that other great Wilkie player/teacher, the incomparable Gus, would no doubt second this thought.)

[Martybucs]

Brass playing is 95% coordination, and 5% strength...never forget that.

Was it the great Herbert L. Clarke that said, "Cornet playing is 90% endurance"?

[Martybucs]

OK, so now you've built your chops and range...

Don't ever do this:

http://sssd.k12.ar.us/band/stuff/tasteechristmas.mp3

Merry Christmas

[vferrera]

check this out:

http://www.r-o-d-d-y-t-r-u-m-p-e-t.cc/catindex.html

playing long tones as softly as possible with minimum pressure and tension will help train your embouchure to work efficiently. That should improve your range, endurance and tone quality.

I've always had problems with range and endurance, not to mention having a forced, airy tone rather than a relaxed and musical sound. I've recently started using a warm-up where I start by playing a low C as softly as possible and with almost zero mouthpiece pressure. Then very gradually and slowly slur up and down until I can eventually go from low C to high C at ppp using no pressure. This forces the lips to work as efficiently as possible, which basically means that the embouchure does not change except for controlling the size and shape of the aperture. It takes me about 10-15 minutes to start gettting a decent sound. Then I take a short break after which I resume with scales and other warm-up drills. During the course of a practice session, whenever I start to have difficulty with tone production, I go back to playing long, soft low notes and things tend to fall back into place.

Another thing I do when I'm feeling good is to play from high C to high G (C-D-E-F-G) at mp/mf without using the valves, just lipping the notes. This exercise forces you to focus on controlling the size and shape of the aperture in the upper register, which is impossible to do if you are using a lot of mouthpiece pressure. I find this is much easier on a G horn than a Bb, probably because the absolute pitch is lower on the G horn and the slots are much wider.

Edited December 7, 2006 by vferrera

[Martybucs]

check this out:

It takes me about 10-15 minutes to start gettting a decent sound. Then I take a short break after which I resume with scales and other warm-up drills. During the course of a practice session, whenever I start to have difficulty with tone production, I go back to playing long, soft low notes and things tend to fall back into place.

Interesting site. The last page of exercises is insane! No doubt Cat Anderson could scream up there.

You say it takes you 10-15 min. to start getting a decent sound. Is this just when doing the exercises? What do you do if you get there late to a gig and have to pull the horn out and perform?

Just curious.

[Einstein On The Beach]

Chop building exercises? Here's what I do.

First, I jam the horn in my face and play a double C. Then after I play about 20 of those, with a horrible tone of course, I go to the nearest music store, buy any trumpet book that doesn't have a picture of Maynard Ferguson on it, and then I burn them and have my dog urinate on the flames. After that I play a couple more double Cs, and I'm done for the day.