Fundamentals, Listening, and Recording

Warm-ups/Fundamentals

I like to think of warming up like being a dancer. A balance between power (stability) and flexibility. If they build too much muscle they can get inflexible, if they are not powerful enough, they cannot support their body through the motion. Balance between these things should not be neglected in brass playing.

Examples of exercises promoting power/stability:

Long tones, loud and soft.

Slow lip slurs.

Loud, low articulations

Flexibility:

Fast chromatics

Fast Lips slurs

Quick articulations

In brass playing, there is more than one type of flexibility. All except for slurs are usually neglected by younger players.

Flexibility often ignored:

• Dynamic flexibility

  • Loud

  • SOFT

  • Forte pianos

  • crescendo/diminuendos

• Harmonic flexibility

  • Different scales

  • Arpeggios

• Articulation flexibility

  • How fast can you single tongue

  • How staccato?

  • How marcato?

  • How legato?

Some simple rules to warmups/fundamentals

1. Don’t get tired... However....

   1. You need to get tired sometimes (especially to build endurance and range) but....

   2. Remember the common sense clause- Don’t get tired too often or in the same way. Think like working out… Don’t injure yourself.

2. Practice the (simple) things you are bad at.. (soft playing? Slurs? Low notes?)

3. Make the SIMPLE things easy.

4. The technique serves the MUSIC. No fundamentals for fundamentals sake.

A daily routine can be beneficial. Find what works for you. Know what allows you to be limber and ready.

Breathing

Buzzing

Long Tones

Lip slurs

Tonguing/Articulation

Scales/Intervals/Arpeggios

Tunes

Try finding a favorite tune that makes you warm up your musicality. Transpose it to many keys!

Do some ear training. Try to play a song by ear. Also work with a practice partner to challenge each other with playing by ear.

Some combination of these things will promote a balanced diet. Look for a balance between stability/power and flexibility much like a dancer looks for.

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Listening to Recordings:

Look for what you LOVE and emulate. Don’t focus on negatives when listening to others. I believe you get better by finding what you love and trying to copy it.

Listen for the empiricals and the subjective:

Empiricals:

Evenness of tone

Tuning

Starts and ends of notes

Dynamics

Articulations

INK! (are you doing what is on the page?)

Subjective:

Tone color

Shape

Emotional impact

Panache/refinement/WOW factor

Listen to the same recordings listening for one or the other to focus on different factors.

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What to Listen for in Our Own Recordings

First things first:

Time: (tied for first)

Does the beat change?

Are the subdivisions in time?

Where on the beat are you? Front? Back? Right on? Where is it supposed to be?

Tone: (Tied for first)

Objective things

Is it an even homogeneous tone across registers?

Does it stay pure throughout shorter articulations?

Does it waver on long notes unintentionally?

Tuning: (Second)

Sharp or flat?

Bad tuning seems to accompany bad tone…

Then:

Style:

Are you playing in the right style if the piece has a tradition?

Right articulations? Dynamics?

Phrasing:

There is a difference between phrasing and crescendos/diminuendos

Long phrases rather than short phrases…

Last things to listen for that younger players tend to listen for first:

Recording Quality

Subjective qualities of tone that matter… but don’t

Loud low notes

Loud high notes

Loud playing in general