Daily Warm Up -
Approaching brass playing
This is my current daily routine to approaching the
skill or art of brass playing. The routines are based on ideas taken from
books and from discussions
on TPIN, and from some of TPIN's members like Nick
Drozdoff. The reason I call it "approaching brass playing" is that
I like to think I'm part of learning process all the time and that the
steps I start with is like a physical and mental path towards playing music.
In a way, this approach is to get ready for music or do just like Maurice
Andre tells us: "just put the horn on the lips and play".
This warm up can be done very quickly and some of the steps can be shortened.
The important point is to get the whole body ready for brass playing -
to get a good, happy and relaxed feeling.
NOTE: Always rest as much as you practice/play !
Starting with the whole body.
Breathing and relaxing the lips
Making a clean sound on the mouthpiece
and training pitch recognition
Opening the throat and using a lot of air
Making the first open free sound
on the instrument
Now we are ready to play and work musically.
The Arnold
Jacobs "mantra" Song & Wind, may then be our guide,
where the song or musical part is 85 % and the rest, 15 %, using the wind
and the playing apparatus.
