Warm up, daily routine & technique (fundamentals)

Transcription

1 Warm up, daily routine & technique (fundamentals) by Simon Kräuter This is a collection of exercises that I like to do I did not invent them or compose them Most of these exercises are from etude books or I have seen other players do them A lot of it is from the "Alessi Warmup" I choose these exercises because I think they ork quite ell for me and I try to do (at least most of them) every day But of course every player is different such as every person is different We are all individual and because of that you have to find the best arm up and technique program for yourself But maybe this is an inspiration for you Try it out! A really ise teacher of mine said once: It does not matter from hich book or hatever you practice your etudes and technique the main point is: you should practice it! And of course I do not only these exercises, I also use etude books and practice scales Books I recommend are: of course the Bordogni/Rochut; Schlossberg; Arban and "Ho trombonists do it" Of course there are lots of other great etude books, but I like to ork on the fundamentals and make them really solid rather than going crazy ith difficult etudes An other ise teacher of mine said once: It is easy to play 1000 notes on a trombone, but is really hard to play one beautiful note Also don t go crazy dynamic ise hen you start arming up Keep it comfortable Starting in the midrange and going don is a good principal I think You can start your day ith screaming high notes or skip the armup and maybe that orks for you, but I ould not recommend to do that I had lots of times in my life hen I had no time for a full armup and it orked, but it is not very comfortable and you should not do that too often Using your reserve is not the best idea Imagine driving a car ith a nearly empty gas tank all the time You have to orry all the time, if you can make it to the next gas station It s much more fun ith a full gas tank, isn t it And that is hy I think a good arm up and technique program that you do every day is really important for every player And at one point it ill be just like brushing your teeth That s not fun at all and you have to do it every day But it is a daily routine, just the same as your armup and technique program This armup and technique program does not include breathing exercises I tried lots of different breathing exercises and had to do some breathing exercises ith former teachers But I think the most important thing is to be/stay relaxed and keep it natural My most important breathing exercise is: simming I try to go as often as possible That helps me a lot And try to find a comfortable and relaxed, but solid position hen you play/practice I recommend balancing your eight equally on both feet and of course an upright position helps your airflo Avoid any kind of tension in your body! Also avoid slouching and crossing your legs You ant to be relaxed but still in a poerful position! You can chill hen you have a break

2 Chapter one: Buzzing I kno there is a big discussion eather you should do mouthpiece buzzing (and free buzzing) or not It s a free orld, everybody can do hat he/she ants I do buzzing! And I kno many players that also do it (eg Ian Bousfield, Joseph Alessi, Michel Becquet just to name a fe prominent) And yes, it is different from playing the trombone The resistance is completely different But it helps me a lot, if I start my day ith buzzing exercises It activates the air and makes your lips comfortable ith your mouthpiece Important is to check your pitch hen you do buzzing exercises The best ay for myself is to play the same exercise or melody on the piano hile buzzing If I don t have a piano I use a recording (I recorded myself hen I as doing my hole buzzing exercises) or a little piano app on my computer or phone The good thing about buzzing: I feel good hen I play my first note on the trombone, I already activated the air and made sure the lips are vibrating All negative things are sorted out before I play my first note of the day on my instrument and so the first tone is nice, free and beautiful And hat is better than starting a day nice and relaxed and ith a beautiful tone I think it is psychologically good to start the day positive So if you do buzzing, you can sort everything out that is not orking (especially hen you played too much the day before or haven t played for a couple of days) and you never start a day ith a bad tone and nothing negative is related to the trombone But of course it is just a start in the day Buzzing does not replace practicing your instrument! Exercise 1: 4 b b I do not repeat all these exercises, it depends on ho much time I have and my constitution If there is a problem in a different register I might repeat the exercise, if not I go on # # # # b b and so on go don as lo as possible!!!

3 Exercise 2: Major chords first time natural slur, no tongue; second time soft legato tongue # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # and so on go don as lo as possible!!! b b b b b b b and then finally starting at C again going up as much as possible!!! b b b b

4 Important: Do not change your embochure hen going up and make sure not to press your mouthpiece against your lips The high (and the lo range, too) printed in these exercises are extreme Do not hurt yourself!!! You do not need to go to the extreme When I started doing this exercises I had a terrible high (and lo) range but it got better from time to time But make sure: you ant to train your facial muscles and not your arm muscles! # # # # # # # # b b Exercise : buzzing on the moutpiece (inspired from Schlossberg, but slightly changed) the staccato in this case means seperated not short!

5 Exercise 4: on the trombone ith gliss (no tongue) # # # # # # natural slurs Exercise 5: b b n n n # b b n # n b b b b

6 n # # n Exercise 6: b b n b Exercise 7: # b b

7 Exercise 8: # # # b b Exercise 9: # natural slurs # # # n # b b b 2 Exercise 10 (from "ho trombonists do it"): 2,,,, and so on until:,,

8 Exercise 11: # # n n b n b # # b Exercise 12: b b

9 Exercise 1: b b b b Exercise 14: # # # n b b b # # # n

10 Exercise 15: # b n b # n b Exercise 16: natural slurs b b b b b b b b b b b # # b b b b b b b b # # # # # # b b

11 Exercise 17: Exercise 18: b Exercise 19: b n b n n Chromitc Scale b b b b n b n n b b n

12 b n n b n b n # # b # # # # # # # # # # # n # # # # # # # # # # n 2 4

13 Exercise 20: staccato articulation etude from Arban 2 b b4 Exercise 21: 4 Test: Are you armed up b b n b b n b b n 4