Structuring Practice to Avoid Stamina Problems

One of the things blighting brass player practice is probably the oldest problem brass players have ever faced, how to practise adequately when stamina is such an issue on the instrument. This is particularly an issue if you are aiming to increase your range upwards or learn advanced techniques in the upper register like lip trills. As we all know twenty minutes of this kind of workout can leave you with a face feeling like tough, overcooked steak – and no one likes overcooked steak. If stamina is becoming a problem in your practice one of the best ways to extend your practice time is to structure it to give yourself adequate preparation, variation and rest.

Starting from the beginning, preparation, I would advocate a warm up, as would most tutors. A good warm up increases both the quality of playing during the day and the stamina available to the player much like a warm up is a key part of an athlete's training. I would recommend starting off the instrument, by buzzing, then moving to the mouthpiece before finally playing the instrument. This is designed so that when you play the instrument you are already partly warmed up and so any notes you play should be of a better quality, eliminating that “first note of the day” feeling. You should start simple with something in the mid-low range that isn't complicated in the slightest. As you progress through the warm up gradually make it more complex. If you over-tongue you may wish to do the first few exercises without tongue and gradually bring it in. A long warm up is not necessary in my opinion and five to ten minutes should suffice to get the lips warmed up and functioning well. If you have an exam or audition you may want to spread this warm up out to fifteen or twenty minutes. In this case do not do more playing, simply spread the warm up out in time to make the transition from cold muscles to warm muscles more gradual. As an example I include my warm up which was taught to me by my teacher. Start by buzzing and gradually gliss upwards and downwards from a central point until you have spanned about an octave in total. Now repeat on the mouthpiece. Take the trombone and lip slur from mid Bb to F below it and back up. Repeat this on every position down the trombone. Now Bb-F-low Bb and down every position. Finish with more complex lip slurs from the low Bb up to high F and back down again.

Variation is something that should be done in all aspects of practise but can be handy when practising stamina intense passages in the high register. Do not spend more than ten minutes on a passage like this and immediately after practising high register things do a “mini-warm down” by playing low notes. This will help to relax the embouchure and work out tension. You can then beginning working on many other aspects of the instruments for ten minutes before returning to the high register practise. Making sure you do not spend too long on the high practice in one stint is important as if you do too much in one stint you may do too much work and not be able to recover that day. The timings given here are a pointer which I use but these will be slightly different for different players and you should work on your experience of your playing to know where the point of no return is.

Finally rest is a crucial part of practice. In the long term you should have one day off a week where you do no playing at all, not even a rehearsal, so this has to be planned ahead. Also, if you feel muscle tiredness around your mouth you shouldn't practise that day. Although this may seem like you are copping out of practise long term stamina is a problem as well as short term and is harder to recover from as it affects the quality of your playing so I strongly advise people to take days off. Within a practice session it is also important to have regular breaks. Although they may seem like wasted time you will find that you can practice for much longer with a ten minute break every thirty or forty minutes. You can also do something else in this time – this article was written, in part, during practice breaks – or you may find it handy to practice near a kettle and just rest. Again it should be stressed that timings are things which you should work out based on your practice experience as your stamina levels may be different to those stated here.