What is a good trumpet routine or daily practice regimen?

Question

I'm a college level trumpet player, and it's embarrasing to ask this, but i need to know good warm-ups and exercises that will better me in finger, flexibility and range techniques.

i already use the h.l. clark "finger" studies and del staigers lip flexibility method.

if you have any specific way of studying the Arbans book, that would be helful as well.

and yes i do have a teacher. i just want some more feedback ; )

thanks!

Answer 1

There a few things I do when I warm up. I start by playing a mid G and playing long tones slowly go down chromatically to low C. Then come back up to mid G. Then I play a warm up routine that I learned from high school marching band that helps lip slurs and technique.

Warm Up 1
Start from low C (open) and go down to 2 to 1 to 12 and back up to 1 to 2 to open. Then play a mid G and do the same chromatic excersize in that range and do the same excersize for high C. Then come back down to mid G and same excersize and finally back down to low C and same excersize.

Warm Up 2
(open) Start with mid C slur down to G up to C down to G-(do this loop four times) then down to C and hold till you are out of breath. Then breathe and:

(2) start with B slur down to F# up to B down to F# (do this loop four times) then down to B and hold till you are out of breath. Then breathe and:

do the same excersizes for valves (1 and 12) then do the same excersizes coming up chromatically from 12 to open again.

Warm Up 3- 100 bpm-132 bpm
Play the Eb major scale (starts with an F) for one beat to a note (do not repeat the F at the top) excpet the last one you hold for four beats. Then play a half scale twice, first enunciating and tounging the notes then the second time sluring it. Do this half a beat per note: F-G-A-Bb-C-Bb-A-G-F. Then play the entire scale twice first tonguing the notes going up the scale and slurring your way down. The second time slurring up and tonguing the notes going down.

Lastly- Warm Up 4.
In high school this warm up was a chord builder where everybody got a chance to tune to the entire band. This is impractical in individual playing but I still incorporate it into my warm ups, because it lets me work on tonality of notes and intervals. You can take any scale play this pattern: root-5-3 (hold) -4-5-3 (hold and break) breathe and root-5-3(hold)-6-7-8(octave). As you get better and better at recognizing intervals you can experiment with a patter of your own.

The most important thing here is to first learn the warm ups, then do them well consistently where you get comfortable with them. Thats all you really need from warm ups. They are not designed to teach you how to become a better player, but they are there to ease you into heavy duty playing. But to keep your mind fresh and not to fall into a "predictable rhythm", you should feel free to incorporate your own warm up excersizes. This way you have your own way to warm up and find ways to learn to signal your mind that you are getting ready to do a musical activity.