I have recently started practicing, past month, started practicing regularly again. As I got a new job, the trumpet had begun to fall on the back burner. I want to run my practice schedule by any of you who would care to look at it and give me some pointers or maybe some ideas to tweak it. The goal is efficiency. My schedule is as follows:
Scales: A scale pattern consisting of Major, minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor, whole tone, and 1 octave chromatic on the given root. I tongue these scales using the “ka” syllable. On alternating days I will do major and minor scales in thirds and fourths, fifths, etc. (15 minutes)
Pedal Tones: Various Exercises (5-10 minutes)
Tonguing: Clarke Study #2: Double tongued (1 and 2 attacks per pitch) and triple tongued (10-15 minutes)
1 minute drill … tongue sixteenth notes at a set tempo for 1 minute
Lip Slurs: Colin Studies … depends on the week (10-15 minutes)
Etudes/Repetoire: Various books … though my favorite are Longinotti, Brandt, Concone (30 minutes)
Let me know what you thik and if you have any suggestions.
Thanks.
bandman
The important thing is that you have a routine! I find that it is not the quantity of practice as much as the quality of practice. To many times people just "play" and they call it practice.
I practice using a routine at the beginning of my practice, but I always have an objective in my practice session. Trying to get one "lick" better, trying to workout the fingerings on a hard passage. Trying to restore flexibility if I've been having a hard time with something.
I still start the same exact way, but my practice times are usually cut up into shorter periods where going through a session like I did in college is impossible.
When you become a band director and parent your practice time is during lunch (when you are not helping a student) or during your free period (if you are lucky enough not to have something else to do) or after you have helped your child with homework (that is if there is not a dance lesson or ball game that evening)
When you are my age you practice when you can, so you simply make the best of your practice time by concentrating on quality the entire time the horn is in your hands.
sweets
Yamahadude,
I cannot too highly recommend A Comprehensive Practice Routine for the Aspiring Brass Player by Donald E. Johnson, a legendary Canadian clinician. It covers all aspects of trumpet playing, and has a brilliant 45-minute "pie" that was designed to help fulltime students with summer jobs keep their chops. If you do his exercises with a metronome and follow his advice on each exercise (which draw from the classic texts) you will notice remarkable improvement. I don't have a link, but google will find you a distributor.
