Clean your instrument, oil the valves, treat the slides, and get the slides all moving smoothly.
When you get in the morning play about 2 minutes with the mouthpiece in the horn, but with the tuning slide removed. Play a few long sounds, some tonguing, and a few slurs. Use your air to float the sound. This get the lips vibrating, the air moving, and your focus on moving air through the leadpipe.
Before band starts flap your lips about 15 seconds, take a few deep breaths - each one bigger. Set your mouthpiece in the horn and on your lips gently two or three times to stimulate the release of tension and fluid from your lips.
Play a few very soft middle G's, and at least two very long tones - use a mute if you wish. What about a mouthpiece?
If you are a AirPlay user and desire a gRawlin mouthpiece top and a Warburton Backbore I suggest you shop in the store here and Buy your Warburton backbore from the Warburton site.
If this is your first experience with backbores you definitely need to start with #7B or a 7BL. The L is more for power players and the 7B for more technical players, bands, etc.
If you cannot afford this approach here are suggestions I have found to be helpful:
Commercial players - Reeves 41, 42, 43. or Purviance 8 or 9 gRawlin # 1,2,3 Flugel with the 7BL Warburton Backbore.
Symphonic Players - Bach 1's, the Gary Radke line, Schilke 20D2d, 22, and 24
Some suggestions on being an effective student of musicby David Zerkel on Monday, August 16, 2010 at 2:22pmHere are my notes from a chat to the brass students at UGA on Day 1. A top ten list of sorts... I hope they listened!
1.
Take your classes seriously. Theory, Ear-training and Music History
provide you with the tools to understand the language of music and your
mastery of these subjects WILL help you play your instrument better. If
you have had a math course beyond algebra, music theory should present
no problems, as it is structured in a very systematic way. Ear-training
will help you learn what you need to hear, whether you are playing your
instrument or standing in front of a band. Music History will equip you
with the tools to approach your interpretations from informed
perspective and will give you the insight needed to play with style.
2.
Listen to as much music as you can! Naxos online music library is a
great resource, as is our incredibly complete music library. A hard, but
not impossible, goal is to spend the same amount of hours listening
that you spend practicing. Listening to music and familiarizing yourself
with a broad spectrum of music is where your REAL musical education
will take place.
3. Learn and know your scales and
arpeggios, as they are the building blocks of western music. Realizing
that virtually everything that you play is constructed with scales and
arpeggios will make mastering your instrument exponentially easier.
4.
Schedule your practice time as though it were a class and make yourself
a tough attendance policy. Success in music, like anything else in
life, is dependent upon disciplined and persistent effort. Hard work
will trump talent any day of the week. The world is filled with
incredibly talented people who never reached their potential because
they were lazy. It is the observation of the brass faculty that the
overall work ethic of the students in the school of music is quite lax
compared to other places that we have been. Each of you has the power to
reverse this condition that affects the culture of music here at UGA.
It is really cool to not suck… daily practice will help you to
appreciate your potential and your ability to improve.
5.
Go to concerts! There is no substitution for listening to live
music—every performance you hear provides you with the opportunity to
learn something about your own performances. Whether you will teach or
perform, you will spend the rest of your life evaluating performances
and diagnosing the strengths and weaknesses of what you hear. You will
develop this skill much more quickly if you are going to concerts.
6.
Embrace what technology has to offer us in developing as musicians.
Rhythm and Pitch are the two empirical truths in music--- either they
are right or they are wrong. Don’t look as your metronome and tuner as
though they are nagging you that you are not good enough—learn to make
chamber music with your Dr. Beat and to look at your tuner as the teller
of truth. If you really want to use technology to improve your
performance skills, purchase a digital recorder such as a Zoom 2 (or use
Quicktime on your computer) to record your practice. This will help you
to become your own teacher. The greatest period of growth that I have
ever had as a developing musician happened when I was recording and
evaluating my practice on a daily basis.
7. Be curious!
Strive to know the repertoire for your instrument. Practice something
everyday that is NOT part of your lesson assignment for the week. Read
ahead in an etude book or check out some music from the library. This
will help your sight-reading skills immeasurably. Strive to be a
comprehensive musician, not just a jock on your horn!
8.
Play with your peers! Form a chamber music group or play duets with a
peer as much as you can. Chamber music empowers each of us to make
musical decisions without the input of a director, which is a critical
skill. Playing chamber music will also help grow your ears in a dramatic
way.
9. Be serious about your pursuit of excellence. Set
the bar high and work hard to be the best that you can be. Music is an
extraordinarily competitive field—remember that there is always someone
somewhere that is working harder than you are and someday you will meet
them at the audition or the interview. You owe it to yourself to be the
best musician that you can be. You will only be a great band director if
you are first a great musician.
10. Know that every
great musician in the world still considers himself or herself a student
of music. Wynton Marsalis is a music student. Joe Alessi is a music
student, as is Gail Williams, Steven Mead and Oystein Baadsvik . Make
lifelong improvement and lifelong learning your goal. I am not as good
as I think I am and neither are you. The older I get, the more I realize
that I have only begun to scratch the surface of what there is to know.
Use this blessing of an opportunity that you have as a full-time music
student to your advantage. Your hard work will pay off in the end!
Here is a very quick way to warm up.
So you show up at band practice and there's no time to warm up! Ugh! OK just stick a mute in the bell, do a horse flap with your lips. Stretch them in all directions. Now start tonguing 8th notes in the staff loud then get softer and then louder for about 30 seconds. Play this arpeggio: G down to C back to G up to C and back to G.
This takes a minute or so and you are ready to play.
Nice note from a young student:
Dear Mr. Rawlin, I am pleased to say that after applying your advice to my daily practice routine, I have now passed the regional solo competition with a superior rating! I am so happy with the results that you have handed to me! Thank you so much! I am now heading to State Solo Competition! In your debt, Scott P.S. I was playing the English Suite III: Prelude, Aria, and Finale. Quite a good arrangement, if I do say so myself.
Q - How can I get in shape for concert season?
A - There are several easy tips for you:
1. when you finish playing for the day take about 5 extra minutes and "warm" down. Start on 2nd space A and play slowly down a chromatic scale to low A. Then the same from Ab, G,F#. Then rest a few seconds and start on 1st space F and go down using 1&3 for the bottom F. Next start on E and go down using 1,2,&3 for low E. Next is Eb going down to Low Eb with 1&3. Next is D and Low D is 1,2,&3. Then Db down to low Db with 1&3. Then C down to pedal C using 1,2,&3.
2. Always warm up at least five minutes before each rehearsal during the day. Never play 100% volume - always keep 10% in reserve. This builds endurance.
3. Every other day play at least 5 minutes on a baritone, trombone, or tuba - soft easy notes that respond easily.
On Mar 28, 2010, at 5:10 PM, Scott Snyder wrote: Q
........... I have been playing the trumpet for eight years now, and I began playing the alto saxophone recently. I also know how to read piano music. My instructors tell me that my pitch is spot on for the majority of the time. I can write music for trumpets, but I haven't ventured too far from that. I have, however, written vocal music, with a little success; succes being in this case good feedback from peers. My passion for music? What can I say? Maybe that music is what keeps my life moving. I take the tempo from the music and apply it to life; sometimes fast sometimes slow. I steal the dynamics to play into my conversations; loud, then suddenly soft, then a gradual crescendo to another sudden drop. Sometimes, I find myself comparing life to a song; except it's rather unpredictable. Sometimes the tempo changes and at other times the dynamics change. Sometimes the song is light, but other times it is heavy. Sometimes it seems as if it has a certain pattern that repeats at different times, always bringing memories from long ago and helping me to make connections with what is happening now. This is my favorite song because I can never know how it will continue on. Maybe in the next few bars it will merge with another's life song; maybe, in the next repetition of the A part, there may be a variation that I might not be expecting. Do you see? To me music is everything. I love it with all my heart, and that will remain forever.>
Thanks,
Scott
A This is very cool. OK - Now some essential extras you can do to transition into college: 1. Listen to everything - even stuff you don't like 2. Buy a copy of Hindemiths' Elementary Training for Musicians - this is the old school gold standard for training. Work through it on your own or with a coach. 3. Start transcribing by ear alone - listen write repeat 4. Deal with all the scales and modes now - get comfortable with them 5. Tackle the piano monster - get some private lessons and get comfortable with simple things and playing chords 6. Find players better than you and find a way to join their bands, ensembles, etc. maybe a community band or orchestra or church band orchestra etc.
More than likely you already are doing a lot of these - but saturate yourself now. When college or University come along classes will devour your time. gR
Q <It seems as if I can play in the upper register (Up to high C) in the mornings, but in the evenings -like during concerts- my lip just will not work right>
A When you wake up your lips may be a bit tight and maybe a tiny bit swollen from sleep This makes the aperture a little firmer and smaller. So what you need to do is take advantage of this and start the morning with very soft sounds in the middle of the staff for 20 to 30 seconds then breathe and repeat. Do this for at last five minutes. This sets your lips in a nice smaller aperture and sets up the muscles surrounding your lower lip for a good foundation.
Then later on when you are beginning to feel weaker, just remember to relax and let your lips go back to that nice position you had in the morning. You never want to over blow, always save about 10% for reserve.
When we play our lips want to come apart and open up a big aperture. The mouthpiece begins to shift up higher above the top lip for a bigger sound, and often we just let that happen. As players mature they learn to warm up properly and then avoid the temptation to over blow and let the rim slip up.
Of course this is all shown in my DVD AirPlay - and it is on sale now at the gRawlin site. Good luck and stay in touch gR
Q <My band director wants me to play "out" more. What does he mean?>
A This is usually an attempt to get a more focused and present sound from you. He is moving you in the direction of a fuller, bigger sound. He is also saying "use more air"
I suggest you not try to play louder. This can lead to bad habits and harm your progress. What you should do is :
1. Get your posture in a relaxed but upright position - sit forward on your chair and hold your horn up parallel to the floor. 2. Take deep breaths - down to the floor of your lungs. 3. Keep your teeth apart and your lips closed. 4. Practice pulsing the tones with your air: mp<f>mp<f>mp keeping the sound clear and open and relaxed. Middle G is a nice note to use. 5. Practice slow scales from low G to C in the staff keeping the same openness in your throat as you go up.
A good private teacher can take you beyond these simple exercises, but these are the basics you will keep for the rest of your life.
BACK TO SCHOOL TIPS
Some suggestions on being an effective student of musicby 
Here is a very quick way to warm up.
