A Daily Warm-Up Routine

For Trumpet and Cornet

By Kenny Piatt

Purpose and Goals

Why warm up?

The warm-up is the most important part of any musician’s daily routine, whether the instrument is trumpet, piano, guitar, drums, etc. Musicians are the athletes of the small muscles, and without the warm-up, the player cannot perform to his or her full potential for the day. Every athlete must stretch and slowly begin to work the muscles he or she uses, otherwise the body cannot function at its highest level and is prone to injury. The musician’s warm-up achieves three basic things:

1. Warm up the instrument

Without warming up the instrument, the musician cannot keep consistent tuning. To perform at its best, the instrument must be at the temperature in which it will be played for the duration of a performance or practice session. An instrument playing at different temperatures at different times will make tuning very difficult. This part of the warm-up will happen automatically as the instrument is played and does not require the player to do anything special.

2. Warm up physically

This part of the warm-up commonly gets the most attention. To perform at the highest level, the player must be warmed up physically. This includes getting blood flowing to the lips, stretching and calmly using the lip and corner muscles, expanding and using the lungs and abdominal muscles, and getting the tongue moving and working. If these things are not warmed up, the player’s endurance and performance will suffer, and the player may damage the embouchure.

3. Warm up mentally

This is the area I believe to be most important, yet I feel it gets the least attention. If the player is not completely focused upon what is to be achieved for the day, much of it is wasted. Playing music is a very difficult activity, and it requires both mental and physical awareness to produce results. For the warm-up, the player should be free from distractions and time constraints to fully focus on what need to be done. Things on which to focus in the warm-up:

Tone -Is the sound I am producing pleasing and full? Am I being careful not to overblow and spread the tone? Is my sound even in all registers in which I play? Am I staying relaxed, even in the upper register?

Breathing -Am I breathing up from the bottom of my lungs? Am I being careful not to let my shoulders raise? Am I keeping a steady, unwavering stream of air for the duration of the note?

Music -Does everything I play sound beautiful? Am I making music? Are my attacks consistent and calm? Are my releases tapered and not abrupt?

All of these aspects of the warm-up are imperative to playing your best, whether it is for a practice session or a full recital. You perform how you practice, and if a warm-up properly focusing on each of these points is a daily routine, then the results will transfer to any situation in which you may find yourself.

Mouthpiece

Mouthpiece buzzing helps many aspects of trumpet playing. It can train your ear, improve tone, and is a great first exercise of the day. For this section, play only on the mouthpiece. If you have a piano, play the pitches while buzzing to help locate the pitches, if you don’t have a piano, first play a C blow the staff (actual pitch Bb on a Bb trumpet) to give yourself a reference point.

When buzzing on the mouthpiece, you should focus on the same musical ideas as when playing the trumpet. Each note produced should be in tune and centered. Strive to get a dark, full “quacking” sound with the mouthpiece and try to eliminate any airiness or breathiness to the sound. The darker the sound is and the more “core” the sound has, the better it will sound on the trumpet.

All pitches written below should be played down an octave. On the lower pitches, do not pivot or drop the jaw too much to get the pitch. Pedal tones (F below low F# and down) are useful only if they are done with the same basic embouchure as the middle register. The more comfortable you become at producing tones in the low register, the easier and more full the middle and upper registers become.

8vb ------>

Long Tones and Lip Slurs

Lip slurs and long tones are a very valuable tool for the trumpet player. If done correctly, they will help improve tone, flexibility within and between registers, increase endurance, and strengthen and expand comfortable range.

When doing these long tones, first take a deep, full breath, and hold the note for as long as is comfortable, and release the note with a slight taper. Remember, you are still playing music! After the cutoff, the scale variations should be played when you are comfortable in all twelve keys. If long tones are done simply from one note to the next without movement, the embouchure can stagnate and become stiff, thus negating the original intent of the warm-up. Keep a steady air stream; the tone should be consistent for the duration of the note.

With lip slurs, make sure the transition from one note to the next is clean, without any “blips” or notes in between the slur. Try to keep everything as fluid and effortless as possible, use your air to your advantage, let it do the work for you. Use more air for the lower register, and faster air for the upper register, staying calm and relaxed. Do not pivot your head or the horn to reach notes in the upper or lower register. Keep everything still and stationary from one register to the next.

If you are straining to hit certain notes, do not attempt to play them. The warm-up is not a strength training exercise. If any of these notes are out of your comfortable range, skip the entire exercise and come back to it after you are comfortable playing the previous one for several weeks. Don’t strain yourself, that is not the point of the warm-up.

If you are not comfortable playing in all twelve keys, play the below long tone exercise. When you can play in each key without having to think about what notes to play, go ahead and use the next page as the long tone exercise for your warm-up.



Continued

When playing these open tones, be sure to keep your head and the trumpet still, keeping from pivoting. The closest to the middle range embouchure you can stay, the more you will benefit from doing these exercises. These can also double as a brief but effective warm-down at the end of a day of playing to prevent yourself from becoming stiff the next day. The exercises are to be played open, and the pitch changes by bending the notes down from open C.

Ideally, this complete warm-up should take approximately twenty minutes. After some or all of the warm-up has been completed, take at least a twenty minute rest. The lips need time to rest and build muscle.

Remember, transfer the feeling of the warm-up into your other music, i.e. deep, calm breaths, consistent and strong air, pleasant tone, clear attacks, tapered releases, and above all----

MAKE MUSIC!

© 2007, Kenneth Piatt