the note pyramid

chuck in ny · Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 12:05 pm Post subject: the note pyramid

i am doing this routine from pops, going up the C scale to the top of my range, currently at 100 As, 80 Bs, 60 high Cs, and working up to 40 and 50 Ds.
it's not bad. took a bit to get the rhythm and meter of the activity and have settled into doing it every 4th day which for me is plenty enough. i find it a fun routine even with its anglo saxon slaughter nature. normally i would take things easier, and by half steps, but pops is right, if you're going to have an upper register you have to spend some time pushing through and you need plenty of notes. one more pearl gleaned from this place.

Pops · Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 2:04 pm Post subject:

My routine is daily for several reasons. If you can only do it a couple of days a week then it is too much work for now.

There are 2 ways to do this.
Weight lifting. Where you can only survive doing it 2-3 times a week. This causes stiffness, slow response, bad playing days...
This is NOT what I have my students do.

Or
Marathon training. Where you can do it 7 days a week.
This is what I have my students do.

There is a difference in daily ability between the 2 and that difference matters.

I would drop routine by 2 notes so I could do it every day and build the routine from there.
_________________
Clint 'Pops' McLaughlin
You can always Google me.
50 years Teaching. Teaching and writing trumpet books is ALL I do.
7,000 pages of free music. Trumpet Books, Skype Lessons: www.BbTrumpet.com

chuck in ny · Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 2:45 pm Post subject:

okay thanks will do.

Pops · Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 7:27 pm Post subject:

_________________
Clint 'Pops' McLaughlin
You can always Google me.
50 years Teaching. Teaching and writing trumpet books is ALL I do.
7,000 pages of free music. Trumpet Books, Skype Lessons: www.BbTrumpet.com

ssbtrumpet1 · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 8:05 am Post subject:

Is there a tempo to do this at?

RandyTX · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 8:24 am Post subject:

I'm curious about the way this is being done.

Working through this exercise, do you play a note and hold it out for some specific duration, then take the horn off the face, reset and do the next, repeat that for 100 times or whatever you are up to for a given pitch?

Or, do you play quarter notes (at some tempo) and just count them off in your head, stopping to breath when needed?

Something in between?
_________________
"Music is like candy, you throw the (w)rappers away."

chuck in ny · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:17 am Post subject:

i believe the scheme is to do a certain amount of notes every day. i do them in groups of ten or twenty and then record things on paper lest the count get lost. you can do them as you wish. mine are quarter notes, usually forte, whatever volume is comfortable on a particular day. pops recommends this for 7 days a week. there is no issue with taking rests as you wish or anything else.
i was gaining some range with the excellent irons exercise, but acknowledge that there is a relatively sparse number of the last couple of high notes, and progress would definitely come that way but with the paucity of notes it would take a very long time. the pyramid ensures that you will be used to blowing enough high register notes.

Pops · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:23 am Post subject:

Tongued,
slurred,
soft,
loud,
long notes,
short notes,
in songs,
in exercises,
by themselves...

If you EVER intend to use them then you have to practice them hundreds of different ways.
_________________
Clint 'Pops' McLaughlin
You can always Google me.
50 years Teaching. Teaching and writing trumpet books is ALL I do.
7,000 pages of free music. Trumpet Books, Skype Lessons: www.BbTrumpet.com

Craig Swartz · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:59 am Post subject:

Anyone curious could always pay Pops for a lesson...

chuck in ny · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 3:21 pm Post subject:

Pops · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 4:12 pm Post subject:

Bulgakov · Regular Member Joined: 03 Oct 2017 Posts: 61