TromboneChat

Im thinking about restructuring my daily practice sessions, currently I start with a warmup, do work on scales, play some etudes, then skip around the arban book for a little bit. That worked for a while, but I feel like it is inefficient and wastes time.
Please let me know what is ideal to practice and will allow for the most progress, please be specific.

Thanks

What exactly is your warmup?
What do you mean by "do work on scales"?

It's hard to suggest anything without knowing more about your playing and how things are going.

It's pretty much a waste of time to work on things you can already do well. For more progress you have to do things differently.

How's your tenor and alto clef?

For warmup, I do long tones from low Bb to high Bb, some intervals and arpeggios, and then I go directly to scales.
For scale work I do G,C,F,Bb,Eb,Ab,Db, and chromatic, I run through these in stacatto and legato as well. My tenor and alto clef are not very good and I should probably work on those.
Also is there a more effective way to use the arban book than just going into it by doing a few excercises on everything every practice? Is it better to choose specific portions for things I am bad at?

Thank you for the insight

I notice a lack of sharp keys in your scale practice. D ,A, E, and B are popular orchestral keys. D, A, and sometimes E seem to be popular rock keys.

Have you learned your minor scales (melodic and harmonic)? That's a section of Arban's that you should investigate.

How's your multiple tongue? Ornaments? Intervals?

The trick is to find some things you are having problems with and focus on those. Having a teacher to work with often helps identify these facets.

Also, don't just practice to beat yourself up. Play some fun stuff as well. Get a book of songs from a band you like and learn to play them. Or old standards from a Real Book.

Again, a teacher can help you optimize your practice a lot more than a bunch of strangers on a chat board who have never heard you play.

These are my opinions:

For warmup, I do long tones from low Bb to high Bb, Waste of time, don't.
some intervals and arpeggios, This is where you should start. Descending from the middle and higher, not starting on the bottom.
and then I go directly to scales. OK, but only if you really need them.
For scale work I do G,C,F,Bb,Eb,Ab,Db, and chromatic, Skip what you already know
I run through these in stacatto and legato as well. Waste of time, they're in etudes and in other things you play.
My tenor and alto clef are not very good and I should probably work on those. Read some every day.

Play something by ear every day. Try it in different keys.

If you can't find a teacher you might get in touch with Doug Elliott (above) and get a Skype lesson. He happens to be a great teacher.

If your chops work well and you can get to their preferred configuration easily, then start gently on the music you're interested in. In a couple minutes you're ready to go. Otherwise, solve the "if" clause above first.

Maybe it's just me, but I think it's beneficial some times to simply pick up my horn cold and start playing a ballad. The challenge is to make it sound like I am fully warmed up right from the start. In a real-life situation, you might have to do that and I think it's good if you believe you can do it b/c you've actually practiced it.

Having a few books that are arranged "progressively" helps a lot.

Books like the Schlossberg Lip Slurs, the Rochut transcriptions of Bordogni and the Kopprasch studies and even the Blazevitch Clef studies have progressive arrangements. That just means that the material is presented more or less from easier to harder.

Your Arban's book is like that too except it is also divided in sections. Within each section there is an easier to harder development of material.

With that kind of material you can use your warm up/routine as a daily check in on fundamentals knowing that the etudes and studies you are practicing will gradually rise in difficulty.

Some of these books don't have enough key variation, but an easy fix is to mentally change a key like Eb to E (any accidentals take a bit of thought but the rest is easy.)

Downwardtie wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 9:53 pm
Also is there a more effective way to use the arban book than just going into it by doing a few excercises on everything every practice? Is it better to choose specific portions for things I am bad at?

Thank you for the insight

I don't know. <smiley> Nor do I even know if you should practice Arban.

But here's an article by a trumpet teacher who suggests an approach:
https://www.bbtrumpet.com/blogs/Practic ... chlossberg

And if you want a really big really expanded Arban's, 985 pages! check this page by the same guy:

https://www.bbtrumpet.com/blogs/Free%20 ... ation-page