Practice Efficiency

[muzak24]

I have recently started practicing, past month, started practicing regularly again. As a band director/grad student/private teacher, the trumpet had begun to fall on the back burner. I discovered Carmine Caruso a month ago and have since decided to put my playing back at the forefront … as it is what got me to this point in my career anyway. I want to run my practice schedule by any of you who would care to look at it and give me some pointers or maybe some ideas to tweak it. The goal is efficiency. My schedule is as follows:

Warm-up: Free buzzing, mouthpiece work, breathing exercises (5 minutes)

Caruso: Depends by week but usually a minimum of (20 minutes)

Scales: A scale pattern consisting of Major, minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor, whole tone, and 1 octave chromatic on the given root. I tongue these scales using the “ka” syllable. On alternating days I will do major and minor scales in thirds and fourths, fifths, etc. (15 minutes)

Pedal Tones: Various Exercises (5-10 minutes)

Tonguing: Clarke Study #2: Double tongued (1 and 2 attacks per pitch) and triple tongued (10-15 minutes)

1 minute drill … tongue sixteenth notes at a set tempo for 1 minute

Lip Slurs: Colin Studies … depends on the week (10-15 minutes)

Etudes/Repetoire: Various books … though my favorite are Longinotti, Brandt, Concone (30 minutes)

Warm Down: Caruso 6 note exercise, low F#’s for 30 seconds (4 minutes)



Let me know what you thik and if you have any suggestions. Thanks.


Matt

[_bugleboy]

Matt,

It looks like a very intelligent, well rounded practise regimen. You should see great results with this schedule. Unless I missed it, I didn't notice if you practise everything at once or break it up. Most teachers support practising and resting in equal intervals of time. Caruso liked the 20/20 schedule: practise 20 minutes, rest 20 minutes.

Regards,

CR

[trickg]

Sounds like a decent routine although I have always been pretty free form in how and what I practiced. I found at one point that I would make the best progress by breaking my practice routine into three day periods, almost like a boot camp, but I never did this for longer than 2 weeks at a stretch.

Day one would consist solely of flexibility exercises and longtone (crescendo/decrescendo) studies. Day two would be almost solely articulation exercises and day three would be an easy day working on lyrical things. The day after doing the articulation studies, I couldn't articulate worth a darn. After several weeks of this, you have really built up your air and basic technique and it makes all of your playing easier and more enjoyable.
_________________
Patrick Gleason
- Jupiter 1600i, ACB 3C, Warburton 4SVW/Titmus RT2
- Brasspire Unicorn C
- ACB Doubler

"95% of the average 'weekend warrior's' problems will be solved by an additional 30 minutes of insightful practice." - PLP