warm-up

[windshieldbug]

I used to practice double tonguing while playing Pac-Man.

pacman.png

I like it!

Ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka (boo-del-eo-boo-del-eo-boo-del-eo-) ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka...

They don't make games like that any more! (thank god!)

[WakinAZ]

It is a good point to distinguish warm-up from daily routine/drills. It is also interesting to question/evaluate how much good either is doing you. It seems there as many takes on this as there are players. Whatever gets you there.

I helped a fellow amateur tubist over the summer who had no formal instruction in the past and no idea even how to begin to warm up in a structured way. I suggested Remington-type descending/ascending chromatics from open tones and lip slurs on the various valve combinations.

Eric "who does not warm down, since that opportunity is not there when performing or in group rehearsal" L.

[Tubainsauga]

Yeah, I use anti-inflammatory stuff, but I still look like a chimp. And Diet Coke tastes like sugar water strained through my old socks!

But a cold can (or bottle) of your favorite refrigerated beverage is always a good idea.

[windshieldbug]

Cold beer is always the best anti-inflammatory, in my experience. Apply until you don't really care about looking chimpish any more.

(My wife simply refers to them as "tuba lips". And since I suspect that they have much more to do with blood flow than musculature, I don't think that any stretching or "warm-down" will have that much effect)

[tubaspmcc]

Now.....I am not saying NOT to warm up....it is important....but would anyone the TNFJ agree that one should be able to pick up their horn without warming up and PERFORM effectively, especially a professional/striving to be a pro?

I would agree with tubashaman on this as a musician in a military band. I don't know what it's like in non-Australian bands, but we will often have little or no chance to warm up before a sound check, or even a concert for the day. This may often be due to the fact our horns are already on the truck from the day before and it is inappropriate to be doing a warmup at the venue.
This does not stop us from doing a little buzzing before or using a different horn to warm up on before we leave work for the venue.

In addition, there are a lot of quintet gigs where we cannot do more than a VERY rough tune before we start. In these instances, we will often start with a slower piece to help warm/tune up as a group.

BUT, these are only for gigs. 90 percent of days I start the day with some basic warm up.



Simon McCauley
Australian Army Band Sydney

[MikeS]

Here are three things I've picked up over the years. I've found that incorporating them helps provide me with a short, effective warm-up.

From a Bill Watrous clinic: Start with a note you can play with good tone and relaxation. Move lyrically up and down, but return frequently to the starting note to make sure you are maintaining good tone and relaxed production. Since he's Bill Watrous, his starting note was a G three ledger lines above the bass staff. Most of us will start a tad lower.

From a Brian Bowman clinic: The minimum warm-up involves playing every note you are going to use that session at least once. If they all are working, you're done. His warm-up for the clinic consisted of a four octave chromatic scale. He did say that if you don't regularly play four+ hours a day you might have to do a bit more, but the principle stays the same.

From Glenn Smith: Warm up with songs and dances. If you want to incorporate some mid-range long tones in your warm-up, for example, find a piece that uses them. Change the key if necessary. If you can't find one, write one yourself. Never play notes, always play music. Warming up is not just about embouchure muscles; you also need to warm up your mind and get focused on making music using rhythmic drive and expression.

[windshieldbug]

But what do you do with all those smoking barns!?

[Rick Denney]

It is funny how that little Yamaha, bland as it is, allows me to just pick it up and play stone cold while none of my other horns will do so.

That's one of the things I like most about mine.

One of the things I learned from my betters is that the purposes of a warm-up, which for me is mostly establishing my tone concept for the day, do not have to be executed at the venue. If I have a gig later in the day that will limit the opportunity for a warm-up, I can often spend about five minutes at home and that will last me the whole day. This works even when I'm not playing every day (which is all the time, these days) and am trying to warm up slow to prevent burning out weak muscles.

Rick "whose ill-conditioned embouchure works best after about five or ten minutes of exercises" Denney

[tubashaman2]

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[iiipopes]

I don't think tubashaman2 is promoting or bragging about hitting a performance "cold," but just simply relaying the facts of life in the trenches for a gigging musician.

Yes, warmup is always preferable. But so are 8 hours of sleep, square meals with servings of fresh vegitables, and all those other things which just simply don't always happen on a tour/gig schedule.

[tubashaman2]

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[rocksanddirt]

I don't know that you have to be prepared to play it cold, but elimination of the excersises section of a "warm up" is a huge help to being able to play nicely when asked, regardless of the situation.

[Kory101]

I find warming up essential to brass playing. Not only does getting a good solid warm up get blood flowing the appropriate places but also allows one to focus.

My warm up looks like this:

I do 5-10 mins of stretching even before I touch my mouthpiece.

I then do the Brass Gym mouthpiece drill, with my own additions. I am a HUGE fan of Sam and Pat's Brass Gym book. It covers so much material in a very practical way.I generally take a break between each buzzing exercise to sing, stretch, do breathing gym stuff, whatever I feel like.

After my buzzing routine, I move on to long tones. I very rarely warm up on my F. I spend 10 or so mins just on long tones. From C in the bass clef to two octaves below that. I find this good for not only warming my chops, but tuning, and tone.

After my long tones, it depends on what Im feeling like. I'll either move on to scales, arpeggios or some Remington stuff maybe. Or sometimes I'll just pick up my Arbans book and go to a random page and sight read some stuff.

Another staple of my warm up is the "Bugle" exercise from the Brass Gym book. Such an amazing tone and range builder!

Anyways, that's enough from me. I HATE playing when I dont warm up. I feel that its not smart to pull out your horn without warming up. I dont agree with tubashaman2 when he says "prepared to play it cold" I think you need to always put warming up ahead of "playing it cold" If you have to play something cold (like the Plog 3 Miniatures) DONT!

Just my $.02

Kory

[The Big Ben]

I find warming up essential to brass playing. Not only does getting a good solid warm up get blood flowing the appropriate places but also allows one to focus.

This first part looks like a 'warm up'.

My warm up looks like this:

I do 5-10 mins of stretching even before I touch my mouthpiece.

I then do the Brass Gym mouthpiece drill, with my own additions. I am a HUGE fan of Sam and Pat's Brass Gym book. It covers so much material in a very practical way.I generally take a break between each buzzing exercise to sing, stretch, do breathing gym stuff, whatever I feel like.

After my buzzing routine, I move on to long tones. I very rarely warm up on my F. I spend 10 or so mins just on long tones. From C in the bass clef to two octaves below that. I find this good for not only warming my chops, but tuning, and tone.

From here on, this looks like 'skill building' or practice rather than warm up.

After my long tones, it depends on what Im feeling like. I'll either move on to scales, arpeggios or some Remington stuff maybe. Or sometimes I'll just pick up my Arbans book and go to a random page and sight read some stuff.

Another staple of my warm up is the "Bugle" exercise from the Brass Gym book. Such an amazing tone and range builder!

About how much time do you spend doing this entire warm up? What do you do when you are pressed for time?

This entire thread has been very interesting to me. I have a background in athletic training and I have been comparing techniques with what I see described here. Workouts all have some sort of warm up, 'work' and cool down. Even a runner who is pressed for time with stretch for 5 minutes before going off on a run and hold the pace down for a mile or so to begin. Afterwards, at least walking for 5 or so minutes to cool down. In an ideal situation, the stretching goes on for at least 30 min. then a little jogging or slow running and then the 'meat' of the workout begins. Afterwards, about the same- 30 min. or so of slower speed work then 5 or so minutes of stretching and then to the shower.

It would seem (if there is any comparison) that, at a minimum, 5 or so minutes should be spend on limbering up the lips and lungs (long tones, arpeggios, slurs, scales, etc.), start the 'work' with something non-straining for the first ten minutes or so of the practice time and then whatever. After the 'work' is done, about 5 min. or so with long tones, simple little tunes, etc. to cool down and then to the beer hall. The 'ideal' would be some of the involved activities that have been described by others.

To me, it doesn't seem like a good practice to blast into something difficult without having some sort of warm up. I suppose that it would be necessary at times (flat tire going to the gig for instance) but not a good idea otherwise.

[Rick Denney]

I have a background in athletic training and I have been comparing techniques with what I see described here. Workouts all have some sort of warm up, 'work' and cool down. Even a runner who is pressed for time with stretch for 5 minutes before going off on a run and hold the pace down for a mile or so to begin. Afterwards, at least walking for 5 or so minutes to cool down.

Don't try to draw too much comparison with athletic training.

Most of the reason for warming up before a training session is to prevent injury because of insufficient blood supply or insufficient lubrication in the muscles and joints. The warmups are done primarily for workouts with a lot of intensity--the risk of injury for low-intensity training (such as long, slow distance runs) is much less and I don't know many runner who spend much time warming up for the LSD workouts. Those workouts are like warming up. Runners don't do sprints or speed work without a warmup, but tuba players almost never get asked to do the equivalent of speed work or sprints.

Much of what tuba players play in performance situations is low-intensity stuff with respect to the muscles needed. It doesn't take much muscle to play, for example, a Shostakovich symphony. Any working pro (or pro wannabe) should never really get out of the warmed-up state long enough for such playing to require it.

I take long warmups when I'm out of practice (which is nearly all the time these days) and when the material requires more intensity (such as upper-register stuff). But when I played professionally (such as it was), I played every day and hardly required any warmup at all to play upper-register music in a tuba quartet. Even in my current out-of-shape state, my careful warmup takes at most 10 minutes. And that warmup lasts for hours--I can spend ten minutes at home warming up before leaving for the gig and still feel most of the benefits of it when I arrive.

Even more important for runner than warming up is training up. They can run long and fast because they started out running short and slow, and worked their way up to long and fast over a period. I remember a well-known track cyclist asking a group of us why we needed to carbo-load and spend an hour warming up for a track pursuit that would take us a handful of minutes. The warmup is what came day in and day out for the previous few years.

Rick "who warms up mostly to remember about tone, airflow, and pitch" Denney

[Kory101]

Ben,

It generally takes me 45 mins - to an hour to finish all that I stated up there. I suppose you are right. The part with lip slurs, scales and other things is more skill building. I should have clarified. I do whatever I can to not be pressed for time. If that means getting to school at 7:30 in the morning, I do it. In fact, because of classes, I warm up every morning during the school week at 7:30 EVERY MORNING. Im up at 6:30, breakfast, school, warm up. It's become a steady routine. I've never found that Im pressed for time. And like I said, if I know Im going to be pressed for time, I will MAKE time to warm up. Baring some sort of automobile accident or something and showing up 5 mins before a concert, but Im sure that won't happen. *knock wood*