Shawn Spicer

Some players do not distinguish between the warm-up and the routine. I would generally agree with this with the distinction that as I discussed in the warm-up post we are focussed particularly on the three basic elements of playing. This is not to suggest that we forget about them as we move to the routine but only that the warm-up is a special time to make breathing, quality of sound, and body awareness a priority.

As we move to the routine we start to focus on particular playing skills that we require to achieve complete competence on the trumpet. We can divide up these competencies in many ways.

Embouchure development

• Buzzing
• Flexibility
• Pitch Bending
• Long Tones

Technique

• Scales and Patterns
• Articulation
• Tonguing
• Intervals and Arpeggios

Overall Goals

• Range
• Endurance

Where routine is a repeatable daily collection of exercises I distinguish that from practice of music. This will include the studies and repertiore we are learning.

Depending on what part of your education or career you are in the mix of warm-up/routine/music will differ. The thing that is consistent, and I think many students are a little surprised to hear this, is that the bulk of our practice time will always be spent with the routine – 60-75 percent, in fact.

Look through the Routine page to find some excercises that you can use to personalize your own routine.

This site is a little bit about me and a lot about making resourses available for those who want to improve as trumpet players.

You will find information through blog posts and pages with links to warm-ups, excersises, routines, studies, anything you might need.

This site will grow as I add more and more material so keep looking in and see what is here.

This is as good a place to start as any. What is a warm-up? There are many things we can emphasize when characterizing this essential thing we do. It prepares us for our day of playing, it gets blood to our muscles, it connects the physical element of playing with the mental, it allows us to focus on the most basic elements of playing on a daily basis.

It is the last one that I like to emphasize. The warm-up gives us an opportunity to revisit the things that are most important to playing the trumpet every day. I divide them in three:

• Breathing
• Sound Concept
• Body Awareness

Breath is the most basic element of playing a wind instrument. You might say it was elemental. There is much to say about developing good breathing but what I like to start with is ensuring that you breath with an open mouth (drop your jaw as if you are saying OH). Think of a good breath as sinilar to yawning. You should feel as if the air fills from your belly to your shoulders. There is ore to say about breathing, of course, and we can save that for another post of its own.

Sound Concept is simply thinking about producing a beautiful sound when you are playing. It is important to be able to imagine a beautiful sound and that is developed through listening to all sorts of good musicians.

Body Awareness is mostly about remembering to stay relaxed. The embouchure should vibrate freely, our shoulders should be low and comfortable and our posture should be upright.

In order to focus sufficiently on these basic elements the exercises we use for our warm-up must be simple and familiar. Here are a few good examples of warm-up material. I really like Pierre Thibauld’s characterization of these as vocalise.

• Chicowicz
• Stamp
• Plog
• Verzari
• Johnson
• Thibaud

Look for exercies that suit you.

The three elements are intimately connected and it is hard sometimes to tell which is more important than the other. Breathing is effected by our body’s state of relaxation and a good breath can bring the body to a state of relaxation. Being relaxed has a profound effect on the quality of sound we produce and having a strong concept of a relaxed sound can help us play more correctly.