Great results from long-tones

[JeffTheHornGuy]

This might seem like the most obvious title ever posted on this forum, but as someone who has recently been disappointed and discouraged by my own playing, playing long-tones daily has revitalized my excitement in the instrument.

BACKSTORY: I have been playing the trumpet seriously for 10 years and am currently playing semi-professionally, but ever since the onset of the pandemic, I have not had the horn on my chops enough to stay in good playing shape. Before the pandemic, I was used to having 2+ hours of rehearsals nearly every day, so I rarely needed additional practice to keep my embouchure together. This summer, as my band starting playing gigs again, my nearly two years of poor practice quality had caught up with me. I was struggling to play to the level I was used to. More importantly, my old methods of "practice" (playing along to real-book backtracks, practicing licks, etc) were not improving my playing. Thus, I made the decision to actually invest in the fundamentals.

Only two weeks ago, I started doing daily long-tones, for 15-30 minutes at the beginning of my practice sessions. For this exercise, I followed Marcus Printup's technique discussed in this video:
Link
His routine is basically a set of 30 second long-tones starting on a middle C, which was easily doable for me. However, when I tried to do the same routine starting on a high G (top of the staff), I struggled heavily. The next day, I went back to the routine starting on middle C, and over the following days experimented with different starting points to make my chops feel like they were working hard without compromising good, efficient technique. Now after just two weeks of doing this routine daily, I am able to easily complete the exercise starting on a high G#, after not even being able to complete it on a G at the beginning. At this point, I'm trying to start a half-step higher every day.

Here are the improvements I've noticed since starting this long-tone routine:
1. Starting my routine in a consistent fashion makes my playing feels way more consistent day to day.
2. My playing AFTER doing the long tones is notably better. My sound is more resonant and I have better endurance.
3. I need to empty my spit a lot less frequently than I used to. This probably hints at becoming more efficient.
4. The consistency of my articulations at the beginning of the long-tones has dramatically improved. Accuracy in general has also improved.
5. My extreme high range is more consistent. While I could always play a double G (one octave above the staff) when my chops were fresh, now I can ALWAYS play a resonant double G even when my chops are tired. This probably has to do with air support and mouth shape.
6. Mental health benefits. This long-tone routine helps clear my mind. I think just sitting down and basically doing nothing but breathing for 30 minutes a day is a good peaceful exercise.

All of these results are after TWO WEEKS (!) of diligent practice with long tones. I'm sorry to all of the forum members whose advice I ignored throughout high school and college. The most important benefit is that I feel optimistic about being able to get back into good playing condition and that I feel excited to practice. So my advice: If you're someone who is feeling down on their playing, even if you'd consider yourself a serious player, give long-tones a serious chance. This doesn't feel like my failed attempts to get into other playing methods - I feel confident I will stick with long-tones, especially when my rehearsals are not giving me enough playing time to keep my chops in shape.
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[JayKosta]

And when doing long-tones, you have the ability to
realize / examine / correct
your basic 'playing techniques' - embouchure, breathing, body position, etc.

With the goal of developing good habits so you just 'do it' in your other practice routines and playing.
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Most Important Note ? - the next one !
KNOW (see) what the next note is BEFORE you have to play it.
PLAY the next note 'on time' and 'in rhythm'.
Oh ya, watch the conductor - they set what is 'on time'.

[Bethmike]

[Anthony Miller]

Apologies for picking up on this seemingly mundane point but why does less spit probably hint at being more efficient?
It's not something I'd ever considered.
BTW - thanks for the post and video.

[ebolton]

[zaferis]

[kehaulani]

D
When in your practice routine do you do this? After you're warmed up? As the warm-up. What? Thanks.
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"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

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[JayKosta]

I do it while warming up. Primarily striving for good clean initial note sounding, and also for consecutive easy same-valve intervals. After accomplishing the easy range, I extend upwards a bit. Similar with various scales.

Sometimes it can take an entire session to be satisfied with the results!
_________________
Most Important Note ? - the next one !
KNOW (see) what the next note is BEFORE you have to play it.
PLAY the next note 'on time' and 'in rhythm'.
Oh ya, watch the conductor - they set what is 'on time'.

[cbtj51]

Thank you for posting this!

Mike
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[jhatpro]

I agree that long tone work is an extremely beneficial way to begin your day regardless of what kind of music you play or what other materials you use.

Besides the classics mentioned by Printup I’ve benefited a great deal from “Special Studies for Trumpet” by John Daniel, an outstanding trumpet player and teacher who also has a terrific series of tutorials on You Tube.

http://johndanieltrumpet.com/

Here’s a link to his You Tube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClclh9KE3u6WryncwQJwkMg/videos
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[dsginn]

Two things that help me with long tones are the Walter White Long-tone Accompaniments and the "expanding balloon" feature in the Tonal Energy tuning app.

[Bill_Bumps]

[GeorgeB]

My afternoon practice sessions involve playing a series of ballads, along with some classical pieces and everyday I find warming up with a 5 minute exercise of long-tones prepares me for a good practice. My 86 year old chops aren't great everyday so using the long tones helps me smooth out.

George
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GeorgeB
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[trickg]

Color me completely unsurprised that long tones might be a way to improve one's playing. I don't say this sarcastically - I say it with complete sincerity.

The issue with long tones, or at least the issue I've always had with them, is that they are boring, so it's hard to be disciplined about doing them. When I have been, I've always had great results with them.

I remember a point in time when I was doing Latin band in the late 1990s. I was also stationed with the Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps at Fort Myer, VA, and I was put in charge of working with one of our buglers who was struggling a bit as a player - I was supposed to help improve his playing a bit.

One of the warmups we'd do was a long-tone routine, expanding by half steps both ascending and descending starting on 1st line G.

G
F#
G#
F
A
E
Bb
etc.

We'd end on top of staff G and low F#. The goal was to play them for a single breath as long as we could play them.

Inside of 2 weeks I was ON FIRE in the Latin band - sound, endurance, range...everything improved.

Long tones are the "secret" everyone knows about and almost no one has the discipline to stick with and do with regularity.
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[GeorgeB]

Patrick is absolutely correct. Long tones are boring.

When I was younger I didn't have the discipline to play long tones even though I knew they were good for me . But when you get my age you learn how to deal with boredom by concentrating on thinking about the rewards long tones have to offer.

George
_________________
GeorgeB
1960s King Super 20 Silversonic
2016 Manchester Brass Custom
1938-39 Olds Recording
1942 Buescher 400 Bb trumpet
1952 Selmer Paris 21 B
1999 Conn Vintage One B flat trumpet
2020 Getzen 490 Bb
1962 Conn Victor 5A cornet

[kehaulani]

Some might find this helpful. Readers may want to skip down to get to the "meat" of it:
http://www.rustyrussell.com/1930s/1930sRev.pdf
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"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

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[mafields627]

Drum/rhythm tracks make long tones much more interesting than ye olde metronome. Plenty of options on youtube...including Mid Tempo Stoner Rock at 80 bpm!
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No representation is made that the quality of this post is greater than the quality of that of any other poster. Oh, and get a teacher!

[trickg]

[cbtj51]

[kehaulani]

How is your concentration on the purity of sound when you also share the sonic space with a play-along?

Long timed aren't just for muscle building but critical hearing.
_________________
"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn