Practice tends towards two kinds of things: exercises and real music. One does them for different purposes, that is to say, I have different things in mind when I undertake them. I must confess, however, that my practice tends to be unruly. Some players have nice routines worked out, perhaps: warm-up, followed by exercises, followed by real music. Warm-up generally consists of exercises, but specific to the job of getting the chops – lips, and lungs – reved up. Long-tones and lip-slurs are common forms of warm-up for trumpeters, but there are other things. While I do those things, mostly warm-up is simply what I start out with in a session. For the most part, it will be easy and relaxed. I’m not going to come out of the gate wailing away.
And then we have exercises. Like any instrument used in the Western classical (or ‘legit’) tradition, there is a vast trove of technical exercises that have been handed down. A set of exercises codified by Jean-Baptiste Arban in the middle of the 19th century is central to this body of work. Like, I suppose, most trumpeters who’ve been trained this way, I’ve got an edition of Arban’s book and I’ve got some other books as well. But I don’t have a whole lot of them, though trumpeters who’ve gotten a conservatory degree probably have a closet full.
But one can make up one’s own exercises, which I have done, many based on jazz tunes . You can even make one up on the spot, while playing a tune. You hit a rough patch so you stop, and turn it into an exercise which you work on for a few minutes.
And then there’s real music. All kinds. If you’re working in the classical tradition you’ve got passages in orchestral and other works, but you’ve also got solo literature, quintets and so forth. I’ve done some of that at one time or another, more when I was younger. I also worked through a lot of Rafael Mendez solos. But I’m mostly a jazz musician. So I improvise. Maybe I’ll play along with a recording, and maybe – mostly these days – I’ll just play. I can hear the accompaniment in my head if relevant.
Here's the important part: It’s about what you’re attending to. When you’re playing exercises, you’re attending to the mechanics of playing the instrument. When you’re playing real music, you forget the mechanics – they’re on autopilot, and attend to the music itself.
It’s easier to talk about attending to the mechanics than attending to the music. Mechanics: lip tension, ease back on the pressure, relax, lower the shoulders (relax), lighen-up on the fingers, tighten the abdominal muscles – stuff like that. I shift my attention around as needed. Sometimes I’ll pick an exercise to work on something specific, a particular finger pattern, or lip control. Otherwise, this and that.
Music; What’s it mean to attend to the music itself? Just that. But when all’s flowing, it just flows. Half a notch below that and you may ease up a bit here, then pull back, and so forth – where “ease up” and “pull back” are global movements/attitudes. Back another half notch and maybe you’re mind will flash on a particular move you want to make next – “repeat the phrase,” “got high and hang there,” “slow down & invert the figure,” stuff like that. What you’re NOT doing is thinking specifically about particular notes and fingers and such. If that starts happening, then you’ve lost it. The music stops and you’ve got to either stop entirely or at least pause
