TromboneChat

I've been thinking for a while that my ad-hoc practice could use a bit of structure. Something to play through every day to make sure I cover the bases.

I came across David Vining's Daily Routines the other day which seems to have slightly mixed reviews - has anyone here tried it and have any thoughts on its effectiveness?

Otherwise, what other resources would you recommend?

Obviously depends a lot on your playing level, challenges that you are working on and what kind of playing you do or want to do.

At least for advanced players I would typically expect more of a toolbox than a really fixed daily routine.

Some things that I cover regularly, but obviously not all of it every day:
- Some mouthpiece buzzing (for warm-up only)
- Scales and intervals over the whole range
- Vocalises such as Bordogni
- Long tones (actually quite a lot...)
- Some etudes and repertoire that I am working on
- Specific exercises e.g. on doodle tonguing

More concrete examples of some basic technique books that I am using:
- Urbie Green one hour a day (I don't often go through the whole book, but 1-2 x per week play about half of it)
- Some of the Charlie Vernon and Remington stuff
- Some specific exercises, especially on connecting ranges and intervals that I got from one of my teachers
- Phil Teeles long tone stuff (again I don't do exactly that, but follow the idea)

I really think you can't go far wrong with the Remington sample daily routine from the Hunsberger book.

Brad Edwards Lip Slurs book

This:

I do Marshall Gilkes' daily routine. You can find it online, and there's a thread about it here. It makes me play the entire horn, every day.

Oh my god, I lost all daily routine. Had a good system 40 years ago and it slowly disappeared over the years. I never do the same from day to day. I liked that video from mr. Smith. I like to try different things so I often look some trombone videos on youtube and try different peoples approach every day. As Smith told I try to sing whatever I play so there is always a bordogni or some other simple melodies. Lately I tried the four videos from Jim Markey. Great! But I wish I had some more system like I had before. I admit it became too boring for me. This was not helpful, but the singing approach and do what we need that day because of shape and program. And always be focused. Wich Im not...Maybe set a time where we are super focused, and some time where we just have fun and play whatever?

Leif

A local fellow, a multi instrumentalist, but best known as a jazz pianist, recommended dividing your practice into quadrants. The quadrants need not be equal. I thought about it in terms of my trombone practice and came up with the following:

Quadrant 1: Stretching breathing buzzing, some easy warm-up

Quadrant 2: chops, including high range, tonguing, flexibilities that sort of thing.

Quadrant 3: New stuff such as upcoming repertoire, minor II-Vs around the cycle

Quadrant 4: Stuff that I’m familiar with, eg Bordogni, jamming on IReal Pro, excerpts

This advice resonated with me.

GabrielRice wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2024 5:48 am I really think you can't go far wrong with the Remington sample daily routine from the Hunsberger book.

If you're just starting out with a routine, the simplicity and straightforwardness of Remington is a great place to start. You may want to start adding more stuff to that as you go - Vinning a Brad Edwards are both a couple of good examples. That are more great examples online.

I find that I like to keep a simple routine of mostly long tones and lip slurs that I mostly stick to, and then I add things that I have discovered in other studies that help me with specific elements.

I think a mostly simple routine allows me to focus on sound, articulations (legato to staccato) and pitch. Building out from there allows me to work to expand range, and technique.

I would also separate warm-up from routine/technical practice. It's a good idea to not feel like you need to play an hour of stuff before you have to play a morning rehearsal, but also, it's important to carve away time to practice things that build greater range and technique. Those things don't always have to be all part of the same session, although they can be if there's time.

Jim Scott

Agreed with the other posters on the Remmington routine beging great. on the Remmington side I really like Peter Ellefson's "If I only had time routine"

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... p+1999.pdf

It's a really nice combination of Remmington ideas with Marstellar and a few other things. Second Harrison on Brad's book- his Trombone Craft book, and the tecnh builders in particular, is also really great as a routine. I'm also a huge fan of the Marshall Gilkers routine mentioned above as well as Peter Steiner's. They both have some really great kind of common "studied with Joe" elements but with differening perspectives/needs.

The Michael Davis 10/15/20 minute routines are a big staple for me- I really like the strictness of rhythm/pitch that the play alongs enforce as well as the strictness of time. I find it really helps keep me focused and in shape when I'm got time restrictions from travel or comp deadlines. Playing along with a great player really keeps me in line. The 10 can also be a 30 minute one and they work really well as a mixed play list for a longer routine.

On a similar coin, i really like to use James Thompson's Buzing Basics. I mostly skip the buzzing part and just use the play alongs as it's essentially just Schlossberg excercises with tracks. It's also nice cause the tracks are on sondcloud so you can sort of just figure out what to play without the book.

mgladdish wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2024 4:56 am Otherwise, what other resources would you recommend?

A metronome. Even for long tones, thinking in time and making the note start exactly on time is a core habit to build.

What are your playing goals? How much time per day can you devote to practice?

I vary my routine frequently, but I want my "warm up" to go over all the technical demands I might get asked to play. I want to play low/high, loud/soft, legato/staccato, cover multiple tonguing, etc.

Buddy Baker's routine is one that I often require of my regular students. It's easily modifiable to suit what the student needs to be working on and has some sample routines in it that take varying amounts of time to go through. Pretty much all of it is based on scales and chord arpeggios, so you're learning the building blocks of music and reinforcing that side of things at the same time.

Dave

Thanks so much for all your comments, they're super-helpful. I have a lot to go on.

To answer a few of your questions:

* I'm a pro-level amateur (e.g. I have the lead chair in the London Jazz Orchestra, have depped in the BBC Big Band and the Ronnie Scott's house band etc)
* I tend to practice 60-90 mins a day, usually 5+ days per week
* My goals are to back-fill fundamentals. For years now I've been splitting my practice time between producing a good sound and trying to play interesting lines over changes (entirely via my own toolbox), but have realised I've neglected pretty much everything else

I've tried working through Bousefield's Unlocking the Trombone Code but found it super time-consuming without necessarily much benefit. Although maybe I just need to stick at it for longer :shrug:

I do have some recommendations on routines.

For me, I am a student and I need to do a lot other revisions on my academics (I hate it so much though). The time for me to practice every day differs. I will have serval pillars to work on every day, even I only got 10 minutes to practice (that's impossible!!!).
1. Warm-ups without instrument: Listening to music, sining, dancing, Stretching, mouthpiece (optional for me cuz I am a European sound player)
2. Warm-ups with instrument: Glissandos, Lips slurs, Long Tones
3. Arban (for fundamentals): Slurs, Natural Slurs, Lips Trills, Intervals, Rapid Breathing, Multiple tongunings
4. Vocalises: Phrasing & musicality (normal speed), Breathe control & Intonation (40 bpm)
5. Scales & Appregios: One Embouchure for all registers
6. Repitore: Opening, Intonation, clarity, steadiness of pulse and breathing positions
Extra tip: Record yourself once after practicing for 5 minutes (on that bar or that technique) and take a 6 minute rest for every 24 minutes

In fact my routine is like copying different routines that I have heard of (Christian Lindberg, Jean Raffard, Joseph Alessi, Brain Hect, Martin & Nico Schippers and most importantly my dear teacher)

I do the daily 6 minute warm up in the beginning of the Intermediate Trombone by Brad Edwards. It is just right for me. If I do too much, then I wear myself out and can't play the things that I want to play.

I also have David Vining's Daily Routines for the Student Trombone. It's good, but at this point in my development it wears me out rather than warms me up.

boneAngo wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2024 9:49 am ... mouthpiece (optional for me cuz I am a European sound player)...

Can you elaborate a little on that? What is a European sound and why doesn't it need mouthpiece practice? Not looking for a fight here. Just wondering.

My 2 cents worth. I think of warm ups and daily routines separately. If I have a lot of playing to do that day, or a few days in a row, my warm up is short. Less than 12 minutes. Days I have time to stretch out, I do one of Paul Faulise’s routines. Around 40-45 minutes. I usually do the ones he wrote for me 40+ years ago. Different than the published ones somewhat.

Eddie Clark

Fridge wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2024 12:58 pm My 2 cents worth. I think of warm ups and daily routines separately. If I have a lot of playing to do that day, or a few days in a row, my warm up is short. Less than 12 minutes. Days I have time to stretch out, I do one of Paul Faulise’s routines. Around 40-45 minutes. I usually do the ones he wrote for me 40+ years ago. Different than the published ones somewhat.

Eddie Clark

Oh absolutely. Daily practice routine != a warmup. Most days just one note is enough to satisfy myself I'm warmed up and ready to play. That won't backfill my fundamentals very much!

SwissTbone wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2024 11:25 am

boneAngo wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2024 9:49 am ... mouthpiece (optional for me cuz I am a European sound player)...

Can you elaborate a little on that? What is a European sound and why doesn't it need mouthpiece practice? Not looking for a fight here. Just wondering.

Actually there isn't a specific sound called "European sound" as every trombonist has different mouthpiece, instrument and also mindset. It should be called a "European embouchure". To be honest, the difference between two kinds of embouchure (US embouchure and European Embouchure) is so small but it affects the sound a lot (US embochure sounds more powerful but the sound is stucked; European embouchure sounds more open and singing like but it is relatively weaker and requires more control). What they do behind the embouchure are completely the same. This is a brief introduction of so called "European sound".

So what's the difference between their embouchure? For US ones, it's the "M" embouchure which you put your lips together and buzz it. For EU ones, it's a bit difficult to discribe, it's like an "oo" embouchure with corners hold well like you smile. No buzzing is required as eu embouchure relies on the instruments resistance to make sound but US is using resistance created by the player itself to make sound.

For a EU embouchure player, do I buzz my mouthpiece? I do, but I won't do it in my warmups as it may wreck my embouchure. I will do it when I find my articulation sucks and my air being fragile.

There won't be a fight. Nothing is correct nor wrong in music.

I don't do a repetitive routine but I definitely would benefit from doing so if I could change my schedule up. But I am not so sure that a "daily" routine is best; I think a multi-day cyclic routine probably is better. Switching things up day-to-day is better mentally and you can spend more energy on any given day on more focused and/or expanded parts of that routine.

boneAngo wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2024 7:22 pm

SwissTbone wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2024 11:25 am

Can you elaborate a little on that? What is a European sound and why doesn't it need mouthpiece practice? Not looking for a fight here. Just wondering.

Actually there isn't a specific sound called "European sound" as every trombonist has different mouthpiece, instrument and also mindset. It should be called a "European embouchure". To be honest, the difference between two kinds of embouchure (US embouchure and European Embouchure) is so small but it affects the sound a lot (US embochure sounds more powerful but the sound is stucked; European embouchure sounds more open and singing like but it is relatively weaker and requires more control). What they do behind the embouchure are completely the same. This is a brief introduction of so called "European sound".

So what's the difference between their embouchure? For US ones, it's the "M" embouchure which you put your lips together and buzz it. For EU ones, it's a bit difficult to discribe, it's like an "oo" embouchure with corners hold well like you smile. No buzzing is required as eu embouchure relies on the instruments resistance to make sound but US is using resistance created by the player itself to make sound.

For a EU embouchure player, do I buzz my mouthpiece? I do, but I won't do it in my warmups as it may wreck my embouchure. I will do it when I find my articulation sucks and my air being fragile.

There won't be a fight. Nothing is correct nor wrong in music.

I think that's an interesting perspective.

I suspect I know what you mean and I don't think you are wrong, but I also think this is far too generalized.

I am from Germany and I would say that the majority of players don't generally play very different than in other parts of the world. Maybe the general idea of sound and music is a little different, but the general technical approach is more or less the same.

But there are some niches, e.g. players still very much in the German tradition and maybe - I don't have any actual insights there - in the French tradition.