Warm up with high notes?

[stradlover]

Anybody out there who plays a lot of upper register stuff regularly, have a warm up routine that "starts" with the upper register? Or includes upper register notes very early on in the warmup?
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Getzen Genesis Rick Braun Signature Model
Schilke B6
4-Valve Getzen Eterna Flugel
Yamaha 6810S Piccolo Trumpet
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Stomvi Titan Eb Soprano Cornet
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[anrapa]

I use a daily routine I wrote myself summing up some simple exercises foung in other books.

It jumps in all the register (low, middle and high) but never stays on one single register.

I found it to be useful to expand my range and accuracy.

http://www.webalice.it/anrapa/Sheet%20Music/SheetMusic/MyDailyRoutine.html

Ciao!
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[crzytptman]

High C. First note of the day, sustained until everything focuses into place.
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[Joe Good]

Yup, I usually start the day with high stuff. Fast octave slurs in the low range with no pressure, slipping up to my highest note on open fingerings and back down hitting every partial on the way through pedal and double pedal. Repeat chromatically downward trying to hit a higher note with every one, getting to the high F# within a few minutes. If my chops aren't feeling well, I'll do some pedal tone excercises first. I also use that excercise as a warm-down. I'm kind of odd though. I wouldn't reccomend doing that routine unless it feels and SOUNDS easy. The idea is to warm up the chops non-destructively. If I just go and start playing a bunch of high stuff, I burn up (I'm not THAT Good ).
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[stradlover]

[trumpetgeezer]

Anrapa, thanks for attaching the link to your website, GREAT STUFF and much appreciated.

[anrapa]

Trumpetgeezer, I don't know if you are referring to the routine or the Mp3 archive I'm recording day by day, in any case, THANK YOU very much.

I really need sometimes someone who understands the effort I am making to record all that stuff!!!!

FYI today I have started recording a completely new method: Gatti!
It's very common in Italy, don't know over there!

In the next 3 hours you have 20 exercises online, look in the news!

Ciao!
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AR Resonance Trumpets and Mouthpieces

Trumpets and mouthpieces: the ones I make

[trumpetgeezer]

Anrapa, I was referring to the MP3 file. I do appraciate the effort it took to make all of the recordings, esp the Arban. Keep it up!

[Odneal's Inferno]

One summer many years ago I experimented with playing an "A" above high "C" as the first note of the day. I don't recommend it, but I did it without pressure and just with focusing the embouchure and air support. There were no negative results.

Now, I warm up starting on 2nd line g and 1st space f and up and then later warm up the lower notes as not to become too open too early.
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Maynard Ferguson Alumni
Casual Double High C method
Casual Double High C Zoom Lessons
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[crzytptman]

[stradlover]

Wow, Bob. Thanks for the input. I always appreciate your posts.

Nate...this is what I've been doing since my embouchure shift a couple months ago. I doubt that you've read my LOOOONNNNG ramblings on the BE forum, but in general I have had an embouchure shift to VERY little pressure, and a MUCH more focussed, TINY aperture setting that has yeilded great results.

For a long time I've meant to get the Casual Double High C to see that it has to say about this type of low pressure setting, warmups, etc., but just never got around to it.

I have found that if I warm up lower than this, my aperture pops back open like the "old" setting. So I literally do my warmups starting up there and slowly working my way down. I stay far away from pedal tones until I've played for a while each day! Otherwise...POP goes the aperture! I also do a lot of resting during my warmups now. I may do long tones on high C, then pulling down in 1/2 steps and back up the the C until I'm doing the ocatave...very, very slowly and with almost letting the air escape the corners using so little pressure. Then, I'll wait for 5 minutes of more, and repeat going a little lower each time, and starting on a higher note until I'm at the G over high C. Resting a couple minutes or so between each.

If I do this (there's a little more to it than just that..but I get too detailed usually) a while before I play, my range, edurance, power, tone....everything is thousands of times better. At least it's been working for me for several months now, bizarre as it might be.
_________________
'78 Bb Bach Strad 180-37
Getzen Genesis Rick Braun Signature Model
Schilke B6
4-Valve Getzen Eterna Flugel
Yamaha 6810S Piccolo Trumpet
Yamaha 2330 Cornet
Stomvi Titan Eb Soprano Cornet
Pocket Trumpet for the car

[Geekman]

I dont need any more tension in my playing that what I already have, so why would I even think of warming up with high notes? My warmup is meant to get things loose, not to set things up tight.
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If you aren't going to play with intensity, then don't play.
Horn:
Bb Trumpet w/ mouthpiece

[stradlover]

Hey Geekman.

Just curious, because this could be an interesting aside....
Do you do a lot of lead playing, or do you do a lot more melodic playing, etc? It would be interesting to see if warmups for people vary on the type of music they play, as well as what they are trying to accomplish with their embouchures/aperture settings. For example, some people advocate closed embouchures, others open. It would make sense to me that people who advocate open embouchures would definitely want to warm up lower octaves and "loosen" the lips. Therefore, I also wonder if people who do more melodic playing tend to warm up in lower registers, etc. as opposed to people who do a lot of upper register work.

Of course I started this thread, because I've been doing these types of warmups that go against most of what I was classically trained to do. So I kind of thought there might not be anyone else out there doing warmups in upper registers. I know I have been taught it is not a good idea, and might even be counter-productive. So I thought I'd see if anyone else does this. Don't want to find out six months from now it was a bad idea, you know.

Thanks!
Kelly
_________________
'78 Bb Bach Strad 180-37
Getzen Genesis Rick Braun Signature Model
Schilke B6
4-Valve Getzen Eterna Flugel
Yamaha 6810S Piccolo Trumpet
Yamaha 2330 Cornet
Stomvi Titan Eb Soprano Cornet
Pocket Trumpet for the car

[dkelley]

[Zaphod]

My first note each day is a G on top of the staff, followed by a scale down to a low G. I repeat this until everything sounds good and feels relaxed (usually 3-4 times) with small rests in between. This "wakes up" my chops and gets the air flowing. Then I play a scale from G to high G and back down to low G, often to pedal G to get my breathing muscels working.

I do this to "center" my playing range (and embouchure) around the G on top of the staff - with both mental and aperture effects.
I do focus on lead playing, but do this kind of warm-up in every setting.


P.S.: I usually do some free buzzing and breathing prior to that while preparing the concert/ rehearsal/ practice session (setting up music stand, taking horn, mutes and mpc out, etc...). When I then not just "somehow start playing", but concentrate and focus on what I want to do, how I want to sound like, from the first note on, there is no real difference in effort between a high or low C.
However, IMO no mpc pressure (well, very little... you know what I mean!) should be applied until the lips are responding well!!
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[TurkeyHooNahNah]

Personally, I don't understand how you all do this. This is not something any of my teachers have EVER recommended and It's something I don't think I could ever do. My warmups get my basic flexibility going and work on middle register sound excercises. I focus on getting a nice fat core to the sound, THEN extending to the upper and lower registers. But I'd say that on a normal day, I don't play anything above G on the top of the staff until I've done at least 10 or 15 minutes of warm ups.

My normal warmup consists of about 10 to 15 minutes of mouthpiece buzzing, basic lip flexablities, and brief longtones. After this warmup, I take about 10 minutes to rest my chops, then I can start doing Clarke excercises, or upper register playing, or what not. But my playing has always felt uncomfortable and my chops feel unstable unless I have a structured warmup where I can develop the core and depth of my sound before changing registers.

[Craig Swartz]

The reason I go through a warm up routine at all is not to get things loose- I'm trying to get my embouchure, breathing muscles, ear and mindset back to their normal playing settings, where I left them the last time I was playing. I don't know about anyone else, but I feel there's a lot more involved in the process of warming up than being concerned about the chops. I, to, will play up above C3 and down through pedal tones probably earlier in the routine than many have been taught but it does seem to work for me. Most of it depends on how much playing I'm able to get in day to day. If I can keep it above an hour, I have no problems soaring right up to and above G4 early on.

[crzytptman]

I think after you've been a player for a number of years, your warm up requirements change. Today I sat in with a student's HS jazz band. 7AM - uhg! I warmed up with 2 sustained high C's, 2 dbl Gs (4 lines) then open harmonics from low C to dbl G a couple times. A big fat pedal C, and an even fatter dbl pedal C and I'm ready to go. The lead player didn't show, so I filled in. I could not do this when I was 20 - I had a disciplined 30 minute warmup.

[Geekman]

I tend to play from 5-8 hours a day, so If i dont take my time to warm up, I will be killed trying to force things out.
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If you aren't going to play with intensity, then don't play.
Horn:
Bb Trumpet w/ mouthpiece

[VM Trumpet]

For our end-of-the-year jazz concert, our director brings out a guest artist to solo on several of the charts. Last year it was a guy by the name of Don Clarke. He's a regular band member of the Les Brown Orchestra, has played on the latest Brian Setzer Christmas album, did the soundtrack for the Disney Aladdin movies, yada yada yada.

He walked outside the room, played a High C, shook it, took it to G above that. He walked in and was ready to go. Blew my mind as to how he was ready to go so quickly, but he sounded amazing. I couldn't get properly warmed up using this method, as I use one similar to Turkey's, but different approaches for different people (and job requirements).

-VM Trumpet
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