Suggestions for warming up.

[nft]

I have not found a routine or approach to warming up that I can count on to help me feel as loosened up as possible at the start of each day. I am open to whatever suggestions anyone might have.
Thanks

[ufoneum]

Here is what I do - for what that is worth...

Warm-up Routine - app. 45 minutes

00:00-05:00 - Streching
05:00-15:00 - Breathing (Breathing Gym exerc.)
15:00-20:00 - Mouthpiece Exercises (Brass Gym exerc.)
20:00-40:00 - On the Horn

Here is my routine once the pre-playing phase is done:
- Clarke Studies (low chromatics)
- Smooth Air Movement Exerc. (arpeggios in low range)
- Tongue (single tongue on a pattern working for speed and clarity)
- Arnold Jacobs' "Beautiful Sounds"
- Rochut 8vb
- Remington
- Scales/Arp. (Arban type) in mid-upper range
- Full Range Exerc.

40:00-45:00 - Ear (play by ear, tuning work)

To me, the most important thing is that you get your body prepared to play. Stretching and breathing is key. I can do tons of flexibility exercises, but if I don't practice breathing, the whole day just "feels bad."

A good warm-up is like a technical solo. You have to start slow and gain total control over it. If you don't plan out what you are going to do, you will never make any headway.

-Pat Stuckemeyer

[Thomas Maurice Booth]

Try doing all your major and minor scales/ arpeggios (slur them to help warm up your lips and to build air flow) and the Arnold Jacob's studies from the Hal Leonard Book, along with some addiotnal sort of breathing exercises such as Breathing Gym.

[Ryan_Beucke]

I think the suggestions about breathing excercises, buzzing, scales, flexibility and tonguing are good. Optimally you should be spending at least an hour each day on this stuff. The thing to remember is that it's not just warm up material, it's maintanence too. The more of this stuff you do daily, the bigger difference you'll see in how easy it is over time.

[tubeast]

Just on a side note:
In case I have no time for a complete practise session, I ONLY do the warm up and don´t mess with anything else.

[Brassdad]

My old Drill Instructor would start us out with side straddle hops, move on to cherry pickers, windmills, and squat thrusts. We'd follow this with "hello dollies", and mountian climbers, and finish off with 20, 4 count, Marine Corps push-ups

wait....this was exercising and warming up...right

[Rick Denney]

In the real world (i.e., not music school, and not the professional world of music, but the amateur world of paying bills, cooking dinner, working, and maybe even keeping up with other hobbies), a 45-minute warm-up routine would consume more time than is often available. But those of us who must practice in 20 and 30-minute increments still have to work on the music in the folder.

I practice breathing during the day. If I forget to practice breathing, I lose consciousness and then I start breathing again.

Joking aside, I start with low, long tones. I work from low BBb down in half steps until I can't make the note, which that early in my session is sooner than I'd care to admit. Then, I go to F and play descending half-step slurs from there. I do Remington-like things in the range of the bottom of the staff. Then, I do lip slurs from Bb on the staff to F, and descend from there. I play all major scales around the circle of fifths. Then, I do flexibility exercises in the range of the staff and below. All that takes no more than ten minutes, but that's all the time I have for it.

The more important thing is what I'm listening for during that ten minutes. I'm listening for sound and pitch, mostly, and often have the tuner on the stand. The point of warming up is more than to loosen up the lips; it's also to tune the ears and brain for tone and pitch. If I'm not breathing at my best, the tone will suffer and I'll keep at that part until the tone improves (there's my breathing exercise).

Then, I start practicing music, working from the pieces that require good breath control for shaping long phrases to pieces of increasing range and technique. The longer I go (on those occasions when I have time), the more I let range and technique challenge me until my lips start to swell or I lose control. Then, I go back to low notes until I'm comfortable and then I'm done.

My strategy uses music to complete the warm-up, which is an essential time-management step for me.

If I could spend 45 minutes just warming up every day, and spend that time doing the sorts of things I see mentioned (which are the thing I warm up in order to practice, as opposed to considering them a warm-up), I'm sure I'd be a better player. I might also be single and unemployed, heh, heh.

Rick "offering an old-guy amateur point of view" Denney

[Frank Ortega]

I always find it best to warm up the way vocalists do, with fluidity.
I'll do buzzing with the piano, 5 note scales, legato, starting in the mid range and expanding outward. Ascending/descending in half steps.
Also, a descending chromatic scale, slurred from mid to low range descending in half steps feels very good the first time you pick up a horn.

Frank Ortega

[windshieldbug]

My teacher told me to make it a habit to warm up, but then reminded me that there are those days when you can't; when you rush in, pull the horn out and play Prok. V cold to a full hall, so be ready. And, I found out he was right. In other words, do the warm-up faithfully when you can, but don't rely on it; make sure you can play in any event.

That said, you are stretching and limbering the muscles YOU need to, just like any athelete. The exercises that help you are the ones YOU need, just as the recommendations you get are the ones that other people find useful for THEM. Try a bunch, and go with the ones that work for you.

I didn't find written exercises the best; I would do long tones to get my air moving, and then octave and two octave slurs to get my chops going. When I was in school, though, my teacher would have me do adjacent slurs (with the same fingering) up AND down through an octave or two.

Tonguing, through the same range if you need work on double or triple tonge.

Then I would go right to excerpts, NOT pushing too hard at anything until I felt ready. And that's the point; find out what YOU need to get ready.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is any cool-down. After a good workout, the bass trombone player and I would buzz long tones in the mouthpieces as people filed out. Again, these are muscles. Take care of them. I found that I didn't need anything elaborate, and my chops would let me know if they needed it.

[TonyZ]

Here is what I do - for what that is worth...

Warm-up Routine - app. 45 minutes

00:00-05:00 - Streching
05:00-15:00 - Breathing (Breathing Gym exerc.)
15:00-20:00 - Mouthpiece Exercises (Brass Gym exerc.)
20:00-40:00 - On the Horn

Here is my routine once the pre-playing phase is done:
- Clarke Studies (low chromatics)
- Smooth Air Movement Exerc. (arpeggios in low range)
- Tongue (single tongue on a pattern working for speed and clarity)
- Arnold Jacobs' "Beautiful Sounds"
- Rochut 8vb
- Remington
- Scales/Arp. (Arban type) in mid-upper range
- Full Range Exerc.

40:00-45:00 - Ear (play by ear, tuning work)

To me, the most important thing is that you get your body prepared to play. Stretching and breathing is key. I can do tons of flexibility exercises, but if I don't practice breathing, the whole day just "feels bad."

A good warm-up is like a technical solo. You have to start slow and gain total control over it. If you don't plan out what you are going to do, you will never make any headway.

-Pat Stuckemeyer

That's why he sounds so good!

[MaryAnn]

If you're having trouble loosening up, play lower longer, and not loud, just flappy with lots of air for a full, round sound. I never seem to have much trouble with low range, so my warmup starts in midrange and works its way towards the ends, sluring up and down in ever-greater intervals for flexibility, which is my worst point. The posted warmup sounded really good; like Rick, I often don't even have 45 mintues total to play, and I need to look at the music for the concert, so my 10 minute warmup has to work. I don't even do scales much...I can do any scale and key you want, but I have to figure it out intervalically as I go.
We just did the first concert of Billy the Kid, and the horns have this neat section near the beginning....I had to "warm up" specifically to make sure I was getting a steady air flow and resonant sound on the first note, before the concert started. Because I clammed it big time in the first rehearsal...urk.
MA

[Rick Denney]

Joking aside, I start with low, long tones. I work from low BBb down in half steps until I can't make the note, which that early in my session is sooner than I'd care to admit. Then, I go to F and play descending half-step slurs from there. I do Remington-like things in the range of the bottom of the staff. Then, I do lip slurs from Bb on the staff to F, and descend from there. I play all major scales around the circle of fifths. Then, I do flexibility exercises in the range of the staff and below. All that takes no more than ten minutes, but that's all the time I have for it.

that's pretty much identical to my 10-min warmup, only difference i do flexibility right before scales. is there any reason you do them after?

No reason. On any given day, I might do it your way. I don't have a set procedure. flexibility exercises expose my biggest problems, and I usually save them for last because they are most important and because I do them better with more rather than less warmup.

Rick "who occasionally devotes a whole practice session to flexibility exercises, but not often enough" Denney