flexibility

[baileyman]

I feel like I have a tiger by the tail these days. On my stand right now is Scott Whitfield's book "Blow Freely". It's available from him and the last time I was at Horn Guys they had it. I see it on their website

https://www.hornguys.com/collections/tr ... racietunes

The section on flexibilities has a number of exercises that kind of build on each other to the last. I do them each day with a metronome, raising a tick each day and dropping back to begin the week. It's fun to do things that get better all the time.

I keep thinking there may be more specialist studies out there. I can think of some extensions to do, such as apply the patterns and rhythms to chord tones that fall on different partials, instead of staying in one position. But maybe someone has already gone gonzo on it and written it down. What do you use?

[auni53]

Brad Edwards' lip slurs book is the one I'm using, but I was thinking of grabbing the book you're using as well (because I want to be Scott Whitfield in 80 years). The book has a lot of helpful advice and good tips for a lot of the exercises. In addition, it splits into three sections: slow exercises where you can take your time and focus on tone air; fast exercises you can work on to be able to play faster; and lip slur etudes that allow you to practice the decision-making process across an actual line.

[baileyman]

Brad's book is now on my stand as a regular rotator after a flex workout. What I like about it is that it forces new coordination pathways because the sequence of notes is new compared to workout exercises. The major part of that is to lead the next note with tongue tuning. Then they follow effortlessly. Leaving the metronome on has additional benefits.