THREE WARM UP TRUTHS

#1. Warm ups are essential.
#1. They may stand alone as a practice session.
#3.  You must find what works for you on a daily basis.

The idea that a fixed static warm up must be executed religiously is bunk. Your chops come to the horn every day with differing, degrees of tension, swelling, texture, and humidity…  Warm ups are meant to prepare you for beautiful playing. They are sometimes not so beautiful themselves. My experience has proven that there are days I start on a pp low tone and others on a mf high tone, or any where in between.

Long tones are not the way to warm up. The need for movement is vital. Simple half step, whole step intervals stimulate the blood flow. If there is a constant to warm up, it is to rest as much as you play.

Some days it is 10 seconds on and off, others it is 30. The principle is to slowly flex the muscles and pulse the air to the point they respond easily.

Do not begin any warm up with your focus on externals: Music, reading, and orchestral excerpts.

Do keep your focus on your physical instrument. Air, muscles, tongue, teeth, state of relaxation, your internal core.

Each of us knows what the goal is during the first stages of warm up: To perform well, with clarity, power, finesse, and endurance. Your warm up should always move you to this position of confidence.

When you attempt a prescribed warm up routine you are focused on the notes, this seldom produces the desired effect. Your physical instrument may need 2 minutes or 20 minutes to respond as a unit. The truth is that you need to plan your warm up based on your physical condition now. Your body will tell you what you need.

Here are a few examples:

Your lips are stiff and puffy. Your breathing muscles sore. –

Open your mouth wider and wider – stretch them all out.

Reach your arms up higher and higher. Rotate your torso – loosen up. Take a walk, concentrating on 4 count in 4 count hold and 4 count exhalation. Increase to 5, then slowly work up to 10 each. Breath in through your nose and hold with the throat (glottis) relaxed and open, exhale through your mouth in spurts of air.

Flap your lips – not a buzz – stimulate the blood flow.
Touch the mouthpiece to your lips several times with slight weight to stimulate the motor muscle memory. Then imagine the easiest tone breath you can breath out against your lips. Let the sound come by itself – do not force anything; even if it takes 5 minutes for a sound to develop. When it does, wiggle an adjacent fingering – f to f# etc.  Repeat until it “feels” right. Then slowly expand the interval to a fourth in both directions. Rest as much as you play BY PHRASES not by time. If you make a sound for 15 seconds and then stop, make the stop  last 15 seconds.

You are getting the picture. I hope you see that warm up is to a trumpet player as it is to an athlete.

Here’s another situation:

You come to the horn and your chops feel fine. They say “Play me now.”
 
Good. Now don’t ruin the day – Play a mid-range note mf and take inventory of your core balance. OK – now slur a few intervals – ok now tongue a little slow to fast. OK –
Now relax your shoulders, breath in a relaxed amount of air and play what feels good for a few phrases. Now rest for a little while; all you have done is checked through a few things, this does not mean you are warmed up. You must continue to gradually spread out the range in both directions, while expanding your lungs and stretching out the breathing muscles. Al Vizutti has some excellent flexibility routines that spread out through the range. It’s best to memorize these as well as the H. L. Clarke studies. With a few of these in your memory, you can adapt them to where you are in your warm up. Reading music during warm up is a no no.

This “good day” is a great time to follow up the warm up with core balance and embouchure development. We all know the little things about our set ups that need work. Maybe it’s relaxation, or teeth position, or controlling an arching tongue. Take 5 minutes and focus on one or two of these individually.

So many times, we waste this prime time for development by moving from an easy warm up day, right into music. These days you can accomplish in 10 minutes what would take 2 hours on a stiff day.

Remember to visualize what you do before you do it. When it is accomplished well – REPEAT IT. This locks it in to motor muscle memory.