Practice routine

[Bassbonechandler]

Hey all,

I was wondering how your practice routines are set up. After switching to music performance, I am giving my practice routine more attention than I ever have and constantly hear different opinions on how it should be set up. I would just like to know what your thoughts are. Mine is currently set up like:

Morning practice - warm up, long tones, slow slurs, flexibility, articulation (I normally split up long sessions into 45 minutes with 15 minute breaks) (1-2 hours)

Afternoon practice - arbans exercises, bordogni, tyrell tuba etudes (1-2 hours)

Evening practice - Solo, excerpts (I have recently only been focusing on a solo due to a audition for the contemporary music festival coming up very soon) (1- 2 hours)

[harrisonreed]

Lots of Brad Edwards. Lots.

[BurckhardtS]

I usually do 2 or 3 sets a day, depending what I need to do. First set is warm up/routine/mechanics, second/3rd set is etudes/music. I time my practice dependent on the day, I alternate hard days and easy days. Easy days I usually only warm up for 15-20 minutes, and the 2nd and third set are not super long, usually an hour but with a long break splitting it up in two 30 minute chunks. Hard days is usually twice as long. The concept is on easy days, you're fatigued from heavy practicing and taking it easy. Hard days you will feel fresh from the easy day before, so it's easier to play and do things correctly, and play a lot. I'll also take into account rehearsals. If I'm playing heavy lead in big band that day and also doing a 2 hour rehearsal of something hard in large ensemble, I'll consider that part of my 'hard day'. I count back from the day of a performance, and try to make the day before an 'easy' day.

[Doug Elliott]

If you're working on solos and excepts don't wait until the end of the day after everything else. Unless you're planning on auditioning after a full day of practice. Not a good idea.

I like BurckhardtS's routine.

[BrassedOn]

Rather than a routine, I'll add a comment on 'approach'.

One tip from Chris Olka, tubist, was of course start with your basics: long tones, slurs, tonguing, digital work on scales and arpeggios, a bit on range, but soon you'll know which aspect of playing is not happening for you on that particular day. Devote time to work on the aspect that is weakest on that particular day. For example, in your warm up, you find that your tone is not happening, then work on tone, record yourself on some nice slow legato lyrical playing, check your posture and breathing, stretch. If you are having a bad day for pedals, then ease into your pedal range and work on some slow slurs and interval exercises to connect your pedal range to your mid range.

If you imagine your peak days and weak days as kind of a sine wave, the idea is to make the troughs less dramatically different from your peaks and raise the overall level of performance. The great players have a very flat sine wave at a very high level of performance. Midlin players have wildly shifting peaks and troughs.

I believe Christian Lindberg draws from literature only, not etudes. So if you need to work on lyrical passages, forget the Rochuts, go for lyrical literature, vocal arias etc. If you want to work on technical exercises and tonguing, pull out those trombone features like Arthur Prior stuff. A big help in this area is to learn to read different clefs and transpositions so you can draw on vocal, string, and woodwind lit and not depend on transcriptions. Bb treble and C treble are very useful in other contexts.

[Doug Elliott]

I believe Christian Lindberg draws from literature only, not etudes. So if you need to work on lyrical passages, forget the Rochuts, go for lyrical literature, vocal arias etc.

"Bordogni was the author of a published singing method, and composed many sets of vocalises which remained in use for singers for a century afterwards." (Wikipedia)

They ARE "lyrical literature, vocal arias etc." There's a good reason Rochut used them for trombone.
Sure, there's lots of other stuff too, vocal and instrumental - classical, jazz, ethnic, and popular music that can be used the same way.

[AndrewMeronek]

I practice with a fairly non-strict schedule, although I wouldn't recommend this to someone who isn't already completely familiar with their playing. Discipline does help a lot of things. It depends on what gigs I have coming up.

As a general rule, if I'm not working toward something specific, I just work hard on the things that I want to improve. I no longer do some of the standard exercises like slow slurs because I no longer really get benefit from them, in the sense of practicing specifically slow slurs. They just work. And I end up doing them all the time in other playing anyway. Things I do work on regularly include:

Range
Speed
Alto trombone sight reading
Learning jazz tunes

I will also tend to switch which horns I use for calisthenics (range, speed) from day to day, so I don't get rusty on one particular horn.

[AndrewMeronek]

I believe Christian Lindberg draws from literature only, not etudes.

I tend to go this direction as well, but it depends on what I'm working on. Working on sight-reading alto trombone, for example, I just read whatever I can get my hands on. But working on speed, I practice patterns that I'm likely to play in performance, not just stock scales that I'll never want to play in a jazz solo. Range, though, is purely a strength and control exercise, and there are a few specific etudes I like to use for that. I'll also play tunes I'm likely to play that have range - especially if that involves transposing jazz tunes.

[Bassbonechandler]

I've noticed with significant focus on long tones my sound is much more steady than it ever has been. I've noticed my technical playing could improve. It just seems like no matter how much I work on my technical playing it doesn't get much better.

[Savio]

There is lots of books on how to practice and what to practice. There is internet and youtube with even more answers . What to trust?

My answer is to get a good teacher! You get more inspiration, suggestions, personal advice, faster progression.

But then, where is a good teacher? I would say go to the nearest symphony orchestra. They give an answer where to go next, no matter level.

Leif

[BurckhardtS]

Another value of timing my practice for me lets me not get stuck on one thing and keeps me focused. I break down and plan my practice so that I have a goal to accomplish in each session.

[BrassedOn]

I believe Christian Lindberg draws from literature only, not etudes. So if you need to work on lyrical passages, forget the Rochuts, go for lyrical literature, vocal arias etc.

"Bordogni was the author of a published singing method, and composed many sets of vocalises which remained in use for singers for a century afterwards." (Wikipedia)

They ARE "lyrical literature, vocal arias etc." There's a good reason Rochut used them for trombone.
Sure, there's lots of other stuff too, vocal and instrumental - classical, jazz, ethnic, and popular music that can be used the same way.

Yes, Rochut are Bordogni. Have we seen vocalists performing them lately? Anybody brass players performing these in recital?

[henrikbe]

As an amateur player with family and full-time job, I'm happy if I can squeeze in 15 or 30 minutes on one day.

Therefore, I usually organize my practicing in (approximately) 15 minutes chunks, where each chunk consists of a couple of minutes warm up, followed by one of five different routines (long notes in the high register (4th partial Bb and up), long notes in the low register (2nd partial, all positions, and the two or three pedals I can play), fortissimo in various registers, lip slurs, and speed (usually scales)).

I pick one of the five based on what I'm most motivated to on the given day, but try to cycle through them as evenly as possible.

[baileyman]

As an amateur player with family and full-time job, I'm happy if I can squeeze in 15 or 30 minutes on one day.

...

In the same situation, Al Hermann strongly suggested getting up early, putting in a good practice mute and doing the long tones before everything. Then anything else actually builds on a bit of base.

It works.

[Redthunder]

Yes, Rochut are Bordogni. Have we seen vocalists performing them lately? Anybody brass players performing these in recital?

So because people don't perform them in recitals, they don't carry any value?