Two Nights Before a Concert

[Jam_Man_Tpt]

I play lead in my high school jazz band and the parts are most of the time pretty demanding. I have a certain ritual that I do 2 nights before a concert. If the concert is on a Friday night, I will practice and wear myself down completly on Wednesday night. Then I will play nothing until Friday night. (maybe a few low register excersises) But I usually will be able to really scream at the concert. I kind of do the same when I lift weights. I'll do a heavy workout then a light workout the next day. I do that because if you do heavy workouts everyday you will actually get weaker because you don't give time for your muscles to rebuild. Is this the same concept for playing trumpet and building range and endurance?
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Ben Love
Trumpet: Bach Strad Model 25
Mouthpieces: Bach Mega Tone 3C
Marcinkiewicz E12.4 Ingram

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
-Epsilon Gamma

"Once a Sinfonian, Always a Sinfonian, Long Live Sinfonia!!!"

[mark936]

I'm not sure about going to full fatique but I like your theory.

I used to always get worn down the day of a concert thanks to directors wanting to run thru most of a concert set.

I remember one time I was doing a duet with a bone player on Maynard's "The way we were." The 4:00pm practice was awesome.

The 8:00pm concert rolled around, I'm down in front with the bone player and I make it to about the eighth note and had to stop.

The audience picked up it-- no faking that line.

mm

[Jam_Man_Tpt]

I was exergerating when I said that I wear myself completly down. I usually practice a little beyond I normally do
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Ben Love
Trumpet: Bach Strad Model 25
Mouthpieces: Bach Mega Tone 3C
Marcinkiewicz E12.4 Ingram

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
-Epsilon Gamma

"Once a Sinfonian, Always a Sinfonian, Long Live Sinfonia!!!"

[MPWall1]

What we do when we practice is try to get into phase with the trumpet rather than try to make the trumpet conform to us. It's only a piece of metal with valves. It doesn't change-we do.

When we get to the point where we can just "let go" and have the trumpet become an extension of our thoughts, we can play forever. There's a story about Mr. Adam playing the entire Charlier book without taking the trumpet off his face. He could do this because he was, and is, completely in phase with the trumpet.

Great players like Greg Wing could warm up for about 2 hours, walk out of the practice room and go right into a recital with no problem. I once took an improv lesson with PH for 2 hours right after a 1 hour lesson with Mr. Adam. Let me tell you how I sounded better after those 3 hours than I had ever sounded before. When we get into phase with the trumpet, we actually get stronger the longer we play. This is because every time we play a note, playing becomes more efficient.

If you're really beating yourself up by practicing, I would guess that you're leaning on the muscle too much. Try floating the sound more and get it on the energized breath rather than the grunt muscle.

I hope this makes sense. I've been studying with Adam students for about 6 years and have driven out to IN (from NJ) many times to see Mr. Adam himself. So if I'm wrong, PH will let me know!

Good luck!

Michael Wall
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Michael Patrick Wall, Ed.D.
Independent Researcher in Music Education