Practice without playing the horn.

[Detrocious]

Hey,

I was wondering anyone out there knows of any pedagogical material on practicing without the the playing the horn, this includes mouthpiece buzzing. Specifically for times when ones face is tired or sore but still needs or wants to get work done while letting the face recover. I've searched and have come up empty handed.
Now I know many people do this too, I have my own thoughts on the matter -
I'm a big believer in singing your music and that includes any etude or technical exercise, clark type material for example.
Fingering along with a metronome or recording.
Breathing exercises.
Tonguing (all forms) through passages, or just developing the or ironing out the skill.
And careful listening of professional recordings or recordings of yourself.

If anyone has there own thoughts or process for this or can point me into the direction of an article or book that can give more insight I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Detrocious
_________________
Bach Strad. Bb 37
Bach Strad. C 239
Yamaha Custom Picc.YRT-915
Kanstul 1530 Cornet

You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

[trombahonker]

Listening + score study is invaluable. It seems to engage all of those others skills you mentioned and puts it in context.

~A

[aholt]

This may be good if you're taking a break from practicing really, or getting ready for an intense session. Of course there are many great places to look, the monette site actually has a lot of great info(if you ignore the "buy my mouthpiece" part) that can help you with breathing and just relaxing. Check out the alexander techinque for more ideas.

My biggest struggle off the horn is actually keeping my body especially places like my shoulders or lower back from getting tense.
To me, it helps to be aware of when im getting tense when I carry heavy backpacks for extended periods of time( shoulders), sitting on the terrible sofa in my family room(lower back), it all affects how I breath when I pick up the horn a few hours later because my body remains in the same stressful and twisted posture.
It might sound silly, but if you've ever caught yourself playing the horn amazing, and it felt like you were hardly doing anything... its probably because you weren't tense and everything was working just the way it was supposed to.

Musically, just going over parts, listening, singing, fingering along... great stuff. Experiment with whisper tones! the air vibrates in the horn creating notes as if you were playing them. Set your embouchure, blow air with lots of support from the belly but dont blow hard or else you'll get a buzz. That might help engage embouchure muscles, and what is needed for air support but you might not be able to do much besides a simple scale because duh, you cant really hear them.
Hope this isnt all too confusing!
Id be curious if you try anything out,

Aaron

[JCard3]

[quote="Detrocious"]Hey,

I was wondering anyone out there knows of any pedagogical material on practicing without the the playing the horn, this includes mouthpiece buzzing. Specifically for times when ones face is tired or sore but still needs or wants to get work done while letting the face recover. I've searched and have come up empty handed.
Here is a link to a very good book on m.p. buzzing.

http://www.jamesthompsonmusic.com/TheBuzzingBook.php

I buzz my m.p. with a jazz play-a-long CD in the background.
You can learn a tune and get your air flowing at the same time.
_________________
Jason Carder

[Steve Hollahan]

Check out J. Stamp buzz routine. Stop and go over fingerings and rhythm with pieces you really want to know.

Also, BERP can be great tool.
_________________
Steve Hollahan
Bach 37, 229 C
Yamaha 9620 D-Eb, 741 C, Flugel
Kanstul 900 piccolo trumpet
Sculptured Recrafting Custom Instrument Repair
and Restoration
www.sculpturedrecrafting.com

[Andy Del]

You have essentially named it, so why look for more material?

You might want to check out 'Breathing Gym', and also look into mental imagery, so you play in your head, get it sorted out there and then play it on the horn.

I did this recently with a rather awkward work by Webern, and all of a sudden I could play the knarly leaps and bounds. (with a bit of 'boot camp' style practice on the horn as well)

Go lock that case and get thinking!

cheers

Andy
_________________
so many horns, so few good notes...

[Craig Swartz]

Placing your mouthpiece in a coiled, longer soft plastic tube, say 6' or so might keep you from actually buzzing the lips rather than letting them pulse as they do/should when playing. Gets pretty cruddy inside, however. I do this in the car on occasions. Can't remember the exact ID, it's clear. Take your mouthpiece to the hardware store.

There is also a guitar fingering toy that might work for those purposes if you used the first 3 buttons. Still, nothing beats playing. Good luck.

[oliver king]

If the goal is to be a more complete musician, practicing the piano and singing are great alternatives. Singing improves the aural - oral linkage. The piano gives a visual representation of the intervallic relationship between notes.

Bud had things to say about solfege and mouthpiece practice :

http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/herseth/herseth_notes.html

There is transcription AND if you are of age ... just sitting down with a good Punch Gran Cru and a nice dark brew and listening.

[lmaraya]

I like to "tune" my air, like if I was whistling, NOT WHISTLING per se but just blowing the air with the embouchure formed and make the air to have pitch. This is accomplished by using the tongue. The good part about focusing on the pitches instead of the tongue movement is that your tongue moves instinctively, you don't have to think much on where to put it or how to move it and then your can concentrate on air flow. Start with simple scale patterns in the middle register and then expand high and low. Try to apply it to your repertoire or etudes etc.

[jungledoc]

[lmaraya]

[Joseph.Bowman]

Mental imagery is a wonderful practice aid
_________________
Joe Bowman
Trumpet Sensei
College of Music, Mahidol University
Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.bangkoktrumpet.com