Follow Your Own Advice...

Often I tell players things such as "practice your long tones" or "accuracy first and then speed will follow"... well, for a little bit i was struggling and some of the tunes that I've been preparing. Then it got to the point where I had to sit back and say "what would I tell a person with the problems I'm having"... and hence i had to take my own advice.

I had to practice the tunes slowly and work some stuff out and then slowly build it up to the original tempo.. It worked! my playing got a lot better.

Lead pipe Buzzing..

The other day I started to experiment with lead pipe buzzing. I found it helpful for helping me get my chops centered and focused. I also found that too much of it can be bad!

My Lesson Today

Today I had a very good trumpet lesson with my teacher. He said that he likes my new chop set up and now we are working on very detailed things, both musically and technically.

Technically we are working on perfect tonging and still developing my embouchure with flow studies (they work miracles!). He also reminded me as to how important a proper warm up is. We did 15 minutes of pretty much long tones and flow studies and some minor buzzing and solfege. Also he really did show me that most of what I'm learning now is just mental stuff. I also got a big lesson on being more efficient and how much practicing I can get done without the horn on my lips.

Musically he is trying to teach me to sing through my trumpet. He said that trumpet playing should be just like talking.

Right now I feel like I'm back on the road to success. For a little while I was kind of stuck but now I feel like I'm moving forward.

Goals...

I believe that setting goals are a good thing. Knowing what you want to get accomplished is a great way of getting the most out of your practice sessions.

Every week I analyze my previous week and write down what are the things that I need to work on. Here is this week's list:

1. Soft playing
2. Tone Clarity
3. Articulation/Attacks
4. Lower Register

Also since it's getting down close to audition date I'm going to start recording every single practice session from now on (or at least attempt to). I feel like that this helps me really hear the flaws in my playing. Also I'm going to listen to a lot more orchestral players and attempt to schedule weekly lessons with my private instructor.

Also I will be exercising and doing cardiovascular work. I feel like not only does it make me feel good physically but mentally and if I'm feeling good I'll be playing good.

Still Struggling

I haven't posted anything because I'm still going threw the same struggles. Endurance and Lower register issues.

With endurance I'm confident that with proper practice this problem will fix itself and although my lower register is improving I'm still not happy. To me it's just such a stupid problem to have. How is it that I can have easy upper register but struggle with my lower register? It's so dumb!

When it comes down to it, it's all about patience and having the dedication to work and do repetitions everyday. I've been here before so it's nothing new for me.