Endurance

[JackSmith3]

Can anyone give me tips on endurance? everyone tells me its my embouchure but i am having trouble adjusting it. i currently play on a Schilke 16C4 and i tend to play to the top of my mouth piece.
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[deleted_user_687c31b]

Well, to quote an infamous wealthy duck:

[JayKosta]

My thoughts about embouchure are here -
http://users.hancock.net/jkosta/Embouchure_Basic_Concepts.htm

It is not intended to tell you 'how to play', but what are the basic things that have to be happening to have a good embouchure. An embouchure that can produce the range you need, endurance, etc. Embouchure is a skill that you have to learn - not a muscle contest.

If you are doing things that are considerably different than what I mention, then tell us WHAT you are doing.
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[trickg]

[cheiden]

It mostly comes down to what and how you practice.

I'll stick my neck out and be the guy that brings up equipment. Per the chart I'm seeing the Schilke 16C4 is around a Bach 1 or a Yamaha 17C4. That's a really big piece that a lot of folks would struggle with. I get north of a Yamaha 14C4 ID and I can play alright but my endurance tanks. Why the blunderbuss?
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[Jaw04]

You need to become addicted to practicing long tones and lip slurs every day. Build that habit. And make sure you are using proper form, always checking in with your body and face to reduce excess tension and strain.

[Dayton]

There are many ways to improve endurance. Here are a few things to consider.

The three major components of endurance are how long we do something for, how intensely we do it, and how often we do so. Think of those elements in your practice. You can practice longer, play a study longer, decrease breaks in between studies or sessions, play higher, louder, softer...to help build your endurance. Just remember to do so gradually so that you are building up and not tearing down.

There are a few other components that are related to the above. Minimizing excess movement and making better use of air can help. Gear is a (complex) consideration as well. You, your mouthpiece and trumpet are a system. If, for example, your mouthpiece and trumpet are too open or too tight (for you) you will have to compensate in ways that negatively impact your endurance.

Also, variety can help. You probably want to increase your endurance as it related to all aspects of your trumpet playing, not just (for example) sustaining a note.

[trickg]

I'll go out on a limb and say that the biggest detriment to endurance is a lack of focus. The endurance issues manifest in a number of different ways but ultimately they all come down to the same essential thing:

Working harder than you have to in order to play the horn.

It might be excessive movement of the chops, but often times it comes down to a few things, and usually in the upper register.

1.) Using too much mouthpiece pressure to force the chops the focus
2.) Blowing too hard
3.) not blowing hard enough and pinching
4.) Excessive chops movement to get the chops to transition from one register to another.

The ONLY thing that is going to improve all of that is doing a lot of work on the fundamentals in a playing register that isn't causing any of those 4 factors mentioned above.

I think that part of what led to my chops development was right after I got to my first Army band assignment. Being young, inexperienced, and in general, the new kid on the block, when we'd go out to play ceremonies, I'd be assigned to 2nd and 3rd parts, rather than 1st parts. Typically 2nd and 3rd parts in marches don't extend past top line G for range, and more often than not they are in the lower range of the trumpet - top space E and down.

The first players would work out a system of trading off in order to preserve endurance, but that wasn't the case for 2nd and 3rd - you played the whole march, and most marches don't have a lot of natural breaks in the playing. Added to that was a TON of single tonguing.

I think those marches helped to promote my chops focus, but I also did a lot of work on my own in the evenings to bump up my fundamentals, and it was all very very basic drills broken down into one aspect of technique per day:

Day 1 - Lip slurs
Day 2 - Articulation
Day 3 - Long tones

Maybe I'm speaking out of turn though because looking back, I never had a lot of issues with endurance - it seemed to build on its own as a matter of course, and then there's the fact that I was good enough as a player to secure a slot in the US Army Band program, and graduate from the Armed Forces School of Music - I wasn't a player who had a lot of fundamental issues with how I played.
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[Bflatman]

I am going to introduce acidosis

acidosis happens when lactic acid builds up and some medical conditions lead to it.

But also extreme exercise and rapid deep breathing can also lead to it

The symptoms of acidosis include

rapid and shallow breathing.
confusion.
fatigue.
headache.
sleepiness.
increased heart rate

These are the same symptoms that players associate with endurance problems.

Yanking the instrument into your lips hard leads to fatigue in the arm muscles and fatigue is a cause of acidosis.

Blowing large amounts of air to reach high notes loudly uses huge amounts of air and is a cause of acidosis

Players often complain of needing rapid breathing, fatigue, confusion, headache, sleepiness, increased heart rate, and even passing out when playing.

Are they not simply saying they are suffering from acidosis.

It is possible to induce acidosis simply by breathing deeply and rapidly for a few minutes without using arm muscles.

To combat any early onset of acidosis perhaps we need to use less air, and stop exerting the arm muscles, by reducing mouthpiece pressure.

The very same recommendations of knowledgeable teachers and members in here who suggest efficient playing as the key to endurance.

They are perhaps simply suggesting ways of delaying acidosis

Play efficiently, use less air, use less mouthpiece pressure, cultivate resonance in the instrument so that your tone projects and fills the room with far less effort.

Then endurance can finally come.

Like in a car using fuel more efficiently gives you more miles to the gallon.

I am going to be harsh now, I wont say play smarter. I will say instead stop playing like a dumbass.
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[zaferis]

Endurance is a factor more related to efficiency than to strength.. as has been pointed out in many of the previous posts, Practice, Practice, Practice with guidance from a good trumpet teacher. As you improve your technique, approach, and other musical skills, your endurance grows with it. Not because you're necessarily stronger, but you're more efficient at all the things that suck up your energy, thus the muscles don't fatigue so quickly.

Then I'll agree with another post that your choice of mouthpiece is large, with little bite - a double whammy on endurance. (The "soft" bite often encourages too much pressure which will kill your endurance)
If you were my student, we would look at a Yamaha 14b4 for starters-an all-around well balanced mouthpiece a little smaller than the Schilke 16 and a little more bite on the rim.. if that didn't suit you then maybe Curry 3C, Bach 3C.. etc..
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[mike ansberry]

My problem was that I was using way too much muscle tension in my face.

I started on a journey to find endurance several years ago. It began with Rusty Russell's idea of using the least amount of effort to achieve sound. I guess you would say that is embouchure efficiency. I worked on his 19/30s ideas and gradually they crept into my every day playing. I used to struggle with a 45 minute set playing trumpet in a 70's style horn band and a 22 piece big band. I also could not play all the way through an etude or duet without having to stop. Over time that all went away.

Eventually I found my way to Balanced Embouchure (BE). What I learned from the 19/30s fit right into this routine.

So over the last 4 or 5 years my endurance has increased dramatically. I can play 90 minute sets in the horn rock band. No problems with big band sets. When I take a solo I don't have to stop after two choruses.
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[mafields627]

I think there's a difference between having an embouchure that functions and and embouchure that works right.

With my first trumpet teacher in college I played a lot of Clarke, Irons, and Ghitalla finger dexterity studies -- the rest was etudes and solos. With my second teacher there were ZERO fundamentals assigned - that part was all up to me. Everything was etudes, solos, and excerpts.

I always struggled with endurance. My senior recital was not very good. I started chopping out halfway through.

Lately, when I've had time, I have been doing the Adam routine exercises off of Greg Wing's website. Now, I fully understand that I am NOT doing the Adam "method" because I am not incorporating the mental aspect of it; however, those Schlossberg based exercises do a heck of a lot to build a strong, well constructed embouchure.

Proper fundamentals are the key.
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[TrpPro]

Learn to blow the horn! (And that is meant almost literally) "Efficiency" is a result of good practice and not a goal per se. When you can blow the horn your chops will become efficient. But "being efficient" should not be the over riding determination of whether you're headed in the right direction. For example, you would have to determine that what you're doing (i.e. playing with too much pressure) is inefficient, but you may need to use that pressure to learn how to reduce it. Don't think "inefficient", think, "Blow the horn". Also, remember the saying, "No pressure, no note, no gig". And the more you learn to blow the horn, the more endurance you will have. Endurance is like efficiency in that it is a result of good practice.

Also, air speed is a great learning tool in teaching a student to blow the horn. It does not require a knowledge of how fast the air is going, only that the effort is being made to make it go faster or slower. And that can very easily be determined.