There is an element of personal risk to this blog, but I do it regardless in an effort to share and hopefully help some folks get some ideas.
Most of the blog is a cut and paste from my daily/weekly practice spreadsheet. However, I have also included largely unedited clips of my actual practice. Any editing was only done to save viewing time, not to clean up missed notes. We all miss notes in practice. This is an honest sharing of ideas I have used to figure things out. As I continue to learn, I scrap some things and develop new. I only included the videos of the odder things I practice as I still work on figuring out how to play.
Virtually EVERYTHING on here I practice from memory - by ear. I have the entire Clarke's Technical Studies, including etudes, memorized. This was a piece of advice I got from Maynard way back in the day. The idea is to not only maintain chops and technique, but to also make trumpet just an extension of your voice. If you can sing it, you should be able to play it.
Then when it comes to improvisation, you need to train yourself as to what to hear. So, you'll need to do lots of listening and study the theory behind the ideas. Listening and imitation are a big part of playing orchestral music, as well. However, if you have developed trumpet as an extension of your voice, you will get there.
One final note. There is a lot of material and many things I am trying to develop as a trumpeter: classical playing, jazz improv, screaming lead playing, cornet, piccolo, Eb, etc. One thing I learned as an educator in physics is that the more concepts you strive to develop, the longer it takes to develop them. You have to be patient and persistent,. For me the slow part is my ability to deploy the patterns I am developing into my improvisation. I do see it happening, though. More and more frequently I find myself spontaneously dropping some new idea into my solos. I suspect there will be a bit of an epiphany when it all gels. Stay tuned!
Exercise
Long Tones/Pedal Tones/CAG 30 minutes
Lips in leadpipe - no mpce 5 minutes - note I do spend 5 minutes on this. The clip is shortened.
Mpce Squeaks - 5 minutes
Lips Only - 5 minutes
Ring - 5 minutes
Min Mpce Press - 5 minutes
BERP - 5 minutes
Lead Pipe Overtones
False Scales - 5 minutes
Singing Exercises - 15 minutes
Flexibilities - 11 minutes
Flow Study - 5 minutes
Clarkes 1 - 8 minutes - M
Clarkes 2 - 12 minutes - Tu
Clarkes 3 - 11 minutes - W
Clarkes 4 - 15 minutes - Th
Clarkes 5 - 18 minutes - Fri
Clarkes 6 - 15 minutes - Sat
Clarkes 7 - 21 minutes - Everyday
Clarkes 8 - 10 minutes - Sun
Clarkes 9 - 5 minutes - Everyday
Aperture Control - 5 minutes
Pentatonics = 15 minutes - M,W,F,Sat
Diminished Chords - 3 minutes
Diminished Scales - 7 minutes
Diminished Exercise - 6 minutes
The vid clip below is the structure I use for the patterns in the next five items.
Maj scales & chords - 4 minutes - M
Min scales & chords - 4 minutes - Tu
Dom scales & chords 6 minutes - W
half dim scales & chords - 7 minutes - Th
Aug scales & chords - 8 minutes - Fr
misc patterns - 4 minutes Tu, Th,Sat Sun
tune in 12 keys - 15 minutes
four tunes - 6 minutes
Arban like etude - 5 minutes
Basic Etude Eb - 5 minutes
Piccolo Piece - 5 minutes
blues - several keys - 4 minutes
rhythm changes severl keys - 4 minutes
cherokee - 5 minutes
intervals - 8 minutes - M,W,Fr,Sat
Giant Steps - 5 minutes
Confirmation - 5 minutes
triad pairs maj/half step - 5 minutes
triad pairs maj/whole step - 5 minutes
triad pairs min/whole step - 5 minutes
triad pairs min/half step - 5 minutes
triad pairs augmented/whole step - 5 minutes
A few orcherstral excerpts 5 minutes
Random piece on bass trumpet or euphonium - 5 minutes
Reading pieces - time TBE (multiples of hours)
Random note touching - 5 minutes
Double Tonguing Wide Intervals - 5 minutes
Shaw/Vitale Chromo #1 Up and Down - 6 minutes
Shaw/Vitale Chromo #2 Up and down - 6 minutes
Shaw/Vitale Chromo #3 - 6 minutes
Shaw/Vitale 4ths/5ths #1 U/D several X's 6 min
Shaw/Vitale 4ths/5ths #2 U/D several X's 6 min
Shaw/Vitale 4ths/5ths 5/8 several X's 6 min
Vitale 3 little words 6
Vitale 3 little words variations 6
Vitale Tenderly Lick - 6 minutes
NDS Lick 1 - 5 minutes
Daily total in hours
Dail Total in minutes
Weekly total in hours
Daily Average
Add when ready:
Tunes to add asap
Totals Date
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Respectfully submitted:
Nick Drozdoff