Constantly Tired

[horn_is_an_actual_potato]

Hey guys on TH,
First post! I am 14, in 8th grade, and have been playing for a few months short of three years. Lately (meaning past 6 mos) I have become an absolute jazz nerd and have been playing lead excerpts/transcriptions and can improvise pretty good lines. This is all well and good, but I think I'm loving it a little too much, and I have been practicing 4-5 hours a day. I don't think I'm forcing too much, there is a teeny bit of facial/throat tension that I've been working out, but nothing too extreme in the area of physical force. Lately my E, F, G and Ab above high C above the staff (my normal high range) have kind of crumbled, and I feel like I've already played for 4 hrs when I pick up the horn in the morning. What do I do to recover? (I'm kind of having withdrawals, as I am already limiting practicing time to 45 mins, and I am playing electric bass and piano, and have even asked to play marimba in band, since we don't have vibes and I've already done my final exam early ) Any other additional unsolicited advice would be a big help too. Thanks!
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Horn - Blessing XL from the 80s, Bach 3C

Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds. -Miles Davis

[TKSop]

Rest.

Or, better still, actively rest.
By which I mean: it's okay to put hours in, but make them gentler hours for a while - more long tones, more technique in comfortable ranges (articulation etc), more quiet playing and perhaps more importantly more rests during your practice sessions... Less high register (above high C, let's say), less very loud playing, less of the more tiring flexibilities.... Less, not none, but less.

Critically - do not play to destruction at all. If your practice sessions regularly get to the point that you're losing notes you're going way too far, way too often.
That doesn't mean you can't put plenty of hours in, it means that to put plenty of hours in to positive effect you need to structure your sessions well - alternate between higher and lower intensity (more and less tiring) kinds of exercises (almost interval training as athletes do - for the same reason: it actually allows you to do more and gain more) and incorporate enough rests.
The key is to build up... not build up and then knock down before putting down.


In the longer term, the latter paragraph is the key to avoiding where you are now, and therefore to longer term progress.

[Brad361]

Two things: rest, and private lessons. Sounds like you’re a serious student, which is great, a qualified private teacher can be the best investment you can make. This forum is a great resource, but no one hear can hear or see you play, you need a private teacher for that.

Brad
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When asked if he always sounds great:
"I always try, but not always, because the horn is merciless, unpredictable and traitorous." - Arturo Sandoval

[Billy B]

Sounds like you don't really know how to practice.
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Bill Bergren

[blbaumgarn]

I am going to tell you a parallel from athletic training that I hope helps in music. My life has been entwined in both, and I used to apply principles from both worlds to help in the other. In training gain is achieved by applying "the overload principle." Going faster, stronger, or heavier to develop muscle, speed, power, etc. You need to do the same thing in music, so the comments by folks that talk about rest are correct. You can't go out everday and do a max practice the same as you can't do max lifts of weights all the time or you break the body down. Instead, ease back and build up, then go at the max, ease off, build up again and they try a max practice. You will never build a consistent high range simply by trying to play high notes all the time. Make a list of all the skills that you need to practice to achieve the improvement in range and do them, then taking certain times each week to see if you are improving there. Back up, as the person who said long slow tones, and certain things. Absolutely. I learned how to play high range stuff over many hours of practice. All of it enjoyable. I got so I could clean and jerk 400 lbs at one time before I became ancient. That took untold hours and study of technique lifting to achieve it. You sound like a good student. Get a good teacher and enjoy it, enjoy every minutes of it

[JVL]

Having wrritten a book on this matter, i can only agree with Blbaumgarn.
When you empty your energetic or nervous reserves, you must observe a rest to come back, at a higher level each time. If you don't, your capacities will decrease.

Your capacities to practice til exhaustion are also depending on your capacities of recuperation, and this happen if you're practicing easy, long, low intensity stuf; if you rest enough; if you sleep enough; if you drink enough good water and eat good food, not too much anyway.
Sandoval says he prefers to end his practice as fresh as being able to play at a gig.
I'd say that it's good to go out from one's comfort zone, if and only if you don't practice to the point where you'll crash your chops and lose coordination. If the day after you can't play as easy as before, it's not a problem. The problem is when you have not recovered the second day after such an exhausting practice.
But in all cases, this way of practicing must not be the rule, mostly if you're a developping player.
It'll be ok the day you'll be able to recover day after day totally.
Quality and consistency must be the priority.

best

[PetTrumpet]

I can't say for sure that this will work for you, but after a particularly hard season, I would take like 4-5 days off. Muscle degrades after about 2 weeks of disuse, so you won't be losing anything. But after those days off, I literally feel unstoppable. (Though feeling and actually being unstoppable are quite different, haha)

[fijimorgan]

This may seem basic but make sure you drink enough water before and after you play. Water flushes out the lactic acid that builds up in the muscles that cause fatigue. It also increases elasticity in the lips. You should drink at least two glass before you play and continue drinking throughout your practice.