00:00:01
hey there have you ever taken an
00:00:03
extended break from your instrument um I
00:00:06
just did 13 days I haven't touched the
00:00:08
horn for almost two weeks while I was on
00:00:10
vacation and while I did so guilt-free I
00:00:13
also need to go back to work next week
00:00:15
now this isn't something that I
00:00:17
regularly do and I thought wouldn't it
00:00:18
be great to put up a video series over
00:00:21
the next week of myself getting back in
00:00:23
shape and to give you some ideas not
00:00:24
only of how I do it how you might be
00:00:26
able to do it now uh there's a couple
00:00:29
things we're going to need first of all
00:00:30
we're going to need a mirror trusty
00:00:32
mirror this is really useful tool
00:00:34
especially when we're getting back ready
00:00:36
to play again uh getting back into
00:00:38
performance mode second thing you'll
00:00:40
want is a some kind of timer I have this
00:00:42
thing called a Time timer which I I'm
00:00:44
going to set for 15 minutes and
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especially for this morning that's all I
00:00:48
want to do is 15 minutes because I want
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to make sure that I actually am able to
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uh you know last to be able to play a
00:00:56
couple of times a day so this morning
00:00:58
session is only going to be 15 minutes
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it's my first one haven't touched the
00:01:01
horn the last thing you might be
00:01:03
wondering is how am I going to do that
00:01:05
well the truth is I don't take regular
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breaks of two weeks so I'm making this
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up as I go along I'm using the best that
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I understand about how playing Works to
00:01:15
get myself back into it um probably the
00:01:18
hardest thing to pull out after an
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extended
00:01:20
break was this my instrument um I love
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playing but I also really loved having a
00:01:27
break from it so just emptied my water
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so here we go we are on the 15minute
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clock first thing I'm going to do is
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just get myself into into shape to
00:01:36
actually vibrate we are squeezing flesh
00:01:38
between bone and metal so I'm going to
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make some shapes on my mouthpiece um
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going low a little bit up and a little
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bit
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down little
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[Music]
00:01:55
higher little more
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[Music]
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one
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[Music]
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more all right and now let's find an F
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by the way I'm guiding this so that if
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you have taken a break you can play
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along with this and maybe use this as a
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tool to get yourself back in
00:02:30
so let's find our middle F
00:02:33
[Music]
00:02:38
here okay I can vibrate that note and
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now I'm on of the instrument so let me
00:02:43
make sure my valves are Set uh pull that
00:02:46
out a little bit okay there we are all
00:02:50
right and I'm going to play this middle
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f
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[Music]
00:03:01
okay could have been worse let's do it
00:03:11
[Music]
00:03:13
again I'm gonna go down chromatically go
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down with me we're going to do an e
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natural
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[Music]
00:03:26
now flat
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[Music]
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what
00:03:52
[Music]
00:04:12
good I'm gonna do that again and my
00:04:14
whole point here is to observe my
00:04:17
structure and see if I'm uh if my basic
00:04:20
structure here of my amure looks good
00:04:22
and if I'm blowing air and all for the
00:04:25
purpose of getting a great sound of
00:04:26
course but uh keeping in mind on the
00:04:30
visual aid of the mirror to help make
00:04:32
sure I'm I'm uh on a really good
00:04:34
trajectory I'm want to do that one more
00:04:35
time
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[Music]
00:04:59
oh
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[Music]
00:05:12
[Music]
00:05:23
[Music]
00:05:30
[Music]
00:05:42
good now if you notice one of the things
00:05:44
that I'm doing and if you're doing it
00:05:45
along with me I'll start referring to it
00:05:47
as we are doing we're starting off with
00:05:50
no tongue just letting the air do the
00:05:52
work that's really invaluable for what
00:05:54
we're doing here is no tongue keeping
00:05:57
things really simple um soundwise I'm
00:06:00
going for say you know uh a Meto Forte
00:06:03
to Forte Dynamic not too strong if I had
00:06:05
a Brilliance if I had to equate my
00:06:07
Brilliance on a scale of 1 to 10 one
00:06:09
being the least brilliant 10 being the
00:06:12
most brilliant or also the most vibrant
00:06:13
4T cismo I'm hovering probably around a
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five maybe a six we probably around five
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land um all right let's keep going once
00:06:21
again no tongue but now I'm going to
00:06:23
incorporate some gandi some direct gandi
00:06:26
and you'll hear it f to e we'll do I'll
00:06:28
do it once to demonstrate and then we
00:06:29
can do it
00:06:37
together let's do it together now
00:06:42
[Music]
00:06:47
yeah F to E
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[Music]
00:06:56
flat F to D
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continue
00:07:12
[Music]
00:07:18
[Music]
00:07:26
[Music]
00:07:31
good I'm going to go ahead and do that
00:07:33
again this time I'll do F to e once and
00:07:35
then I'll incorporate the tongue uh for
00:07:38
Legato tongue uh noi on the Legato
00:07:41
tongue once without tongue once with
00:07:43
tongue moving the slide the same way
00:07:49
[Music]
00:08:02
to E
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flat quick
00:08:12
[Music]
00:08:17
song d
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[Music]
00:08:44
[Music]
00:08:50
[Music]
00:08:56
oh
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[Music]
00:09:18
oh boy okay I feel pretty awful but you
00:09:22
know what that's okay because you
00:09:25
because I expected to feel awful I did
00:09:28
not expect feel particularly good and I
00:09:31
don't feel particularly good but sound
00:09:33
is happening and I'm getting a
00:09:35
reasonable sound that I want it just
00:09:37
doesn't feel very good that's okay all
00:09:40
right I'm also speaking in order to give
00:09:42
myself a little bit of a break because
00:09:44
hey when I haven't been playing for two
00:09:46
weeks that's been a good bit amount of
00:09:47
time on the horn all right we're going
00:09:49
to go into something else I'm going to
00:09:51
go ahead and play a B flat major scale
00:09:54
uh but I'm going to play it up in uh up
00:09:56
by 3 degrees at a time so uh
00:10:02
C rest
00:10:05
and
00:10:07
me
00:10:11
m that's how I'm going to do this one
00:10:13
let's keep myself
00:10:15
um moving here we go one two them up
00:10:25
[Music]
00:10:29
a
00:10:41
[Music]
00:11:05
one octave let's see how it goes we're
00:11:07
going to go up a little ways more start
00:11:09
on that middle B flat and continue going
00:11:11
up one 2 m r
00:11:19
[Music]
00:11:29
[Music]
00:11:45
that's as far as I'm going today or at
00:11:47
least I'm far as I'm going in this
00:11:48
session um all right I'm GNA go down now
00:11:53
I'm going to go uh down from a d and
00:11:55
work my way down that scale
00:12:00
d
00:12:01
[Music]
00:12:26
[Music]
00:12:39
good all right now I feel like going
00:12:41
down one more time I'm going to take it
00:12:42
right from where I was and I'm going to
00:12:44
head my way down to Pedal B flat and no
00:12:47
one from the D 2 m r
00:12:53
[Music]
00:12:59
a
00:13:02
[Music]
00:13:31
okay that was fine uh not particularly
00:13:35
comfortable and uh but that it was fine
00:13:39
and I've got about two and a half
00:13:40
minutes to go here we've got about two
00:13:42
minute two and a half minutes to go all
00:13:44
right so let's continue on in that scale
00:13:46
let's go up four to uh five notes at a
00:13:48
time
00:13:52
so and
00:13:56
um there we go one two and three
00:14:08
[Music]
00:14:44
good I'll continue there and I'm gonna
00:14:45
go down now one two and there
00:14:52
[Music]
00:15:26
the
00:15:30
all right now one thing I noticed as I
00:15:32
did
00:15:33
this as I noticed there was a bit of a
00:15:36
bump from my f to my G and fourth from
00:15:38
my f to my fourth position G it didn't
00:15:41
happen as I descended I like the way
00:15:43
things worked when I descended so I'm
00:15:45
going to go ahead and do that g to f a
00:15:47
couple of times just to reorient myself
00:15:49
in the last 10 seconds or so I have
00:15:58
[Music]
00:16:08
I like the way that worked so I am done
00:16:10
for this particular session so 15
00:16:12
minutes um and uh I'm going to come back
00:16:15
again later today so I'm going to keep
00:16:17
this all in one video so if you want to
00:16:18
if you're doing this with me come back
00:16:20
give yourself four five six seven eight
00:16:22
hours whatever but come back a second
00:16:24
time today and uh and as this video
00:16:27
continues
00:16:29
all right and we're back for round two
00:16:30
so little bit later than I expected to
00:16:33
be but you know what matters is that I'm
00:16:35
here what matters is that you're here
00:16:36
especially if you're working with me to
00:16:37
get back in shape so mirror on the stand
00:16:40
ready to go also time timer ready to go
00:16:44
set ourselves for another 15 minutes 15
00:16:47
minutes and here we go um all right so
00:16:52
basically leaving where I left
00:16:55
off I'm going to start off to get my
00:16:57
face uh back on this evening
00:16:59
uh with we're going to start off with
00:17:01
just a a five note scale so going back
00:17:03
to B flat
00:17:06
major ascending and then descending
00:17:10
[Music]
00:17:11
so
00:17:15
breath and breathe
00:17:24
[Music]
00:17:25
and and so going up by degrees B flat
00:17:29
major scale five notes at a time here we
00:17:31
go
00:17:42
[Music]
00:17:59
the
00:18:05
[Music]
00:18:49
okay somehow my stand's gotten a little
00:18:51
messed up I can't really see myself in
00:18:53
my mirror so I'm going to make a little
00:18:55
adjustment there I go all right now I
00:18:57
can see what's going on
00:18:59
um bring myself a little
00:19:01
higher and okay there we go okay good
00:19:06
now that feels a whole lot better than
00:19:08
we did earlier today it's is one of the
00:19:11
things one of the reasons we're going to
00:19:12
switch to some flexibility so something
00:19:19
simple so F to B flat one two all right
00:19:26
and
00:19:28
oh
00:19:30
[Music]
00:19:37
[Music]
00:19:45
[Music]
00:20:12
good I'm gonna start off there in
00:20:15
seventh position in seventh position uh
00:20:18
this time going up one partial
00:20:21
to me me one two three and
00:20:29
[Music]
00:20:32
[Laughter]
00:20:40
[Music]
00:20:45
[Laughter]
00:20:50
[Music]
00:20:54
oh
00:20:55
[Music]
00:21:04
[Music]
00:21:12
all right good I'm GNA go a little
00:21:16
quicker now and increase the number
00:21:18
partial
00:21:20
so um actually no
00:21:29
Tempo starting off in seven position on
00:21:32
a B natural so B so see me see me see me
00:21:36
see me me me me me c from that be
00:21:41
natural one two and
00:21:53
[Music]
00:21:58
a
00:22:01
[Music]
00:22:37
all right good
00:22:38
now that wasn't perfect it didn't feel
00:22:41
perfect but I'm not after Perfection I'm
00:22:43
after getting the basic shape and when I
00:22:46
play these faster slurs I'm able to look
00:22:49
at a basic shape and I'll save
00:22:51
Perfection for later as I'm getting more
00:22:53
comfortable I'm going to go up one more
00:22:55
partial to me me me
00:22:59
me me seven position again one 2 ready
00:23:07
[Music]
00:23:18
[Music]
00:23:32
[Music]
00:23:51
[Music]
00:23:56
all right good I feel like going up one
00:23:59
more partial
00:24:04
so does that mean I'll skip over that
00:24:06
flat seven that flat seventh partial
00:24:09
absolutely but it allows me to keep the
00:24:11
idea of the arpeggio starting on the
00:24:13
third degree
00:24:20
so hey my soul fish isn't that great I
00:24:23
don't grow up in a soulfish culture but
00:24:25
I've learned it but that's another point
00:24:26
for a different day all right here we go
00:24:28
seventh position one 2 3 and r
00:24:39
[Music]
00:24:59
[Music]
00:25:05
[Music]
00:25:16
[Music]
00:25:22
okay good comfortable with that we're
00:25:25
going to add a layer of complexity and
00:25:27
now I'm going to start to to do some
00:25:28
slow slurs descending particularly from
00:25:32
F down to low B flat and when I say slow
00:25:35
slurs I'll be on the F I'm going to
00:25:37
allow myself to Glide down to a B flat
00:25:40
and the way this feels is if we take our
00:25:42
mouthpiece and take that F to B
00:25:50
flat that gliding is what we're after
00:25:53
the in the instrument and it sounds like
00:25:55
this
00:26:03
I'm allowing myself to fall off the note
00:26:05
intentionally while looking in the
00:26:07
mirror to make sure I'm staying engaged
00:26:09
all the way through not disengaging not
00:26:11
jerking not getting
00:26:13
[Music]
00:26:15
a because that's not constructive that's
00:26:18
not conducive to my getting back into a
00:26:20
good form I'd much rather hear myself
00:26:22
fall off that note
00:26:24
[Music]
00:26:30
with a minimal amount of movement once
00:26:31
again it's about the effect and getting
00:26:34
the result as I'm ready to do so as I'm
00:26:36
getting back into coordination
00:26:38
coordination all right F F B flat here
00:26:43
we go one two three and
00:26:48
[Music]
00:26:54
up and Bre
00:26:58
oh
00:26:59
[Music]
00:27:08
[Music]
00:27:17
[Music]
00:27:44
that feels awesome and I'll get the
00:27:47
result I want with the slurs as I get
00:27:49
the coordination in a few today but not
00:27:51
today so I'm going to go start up at a
00:27:54
partial higher on the B flat do the same
00:27:56
thing descending only fight down to F
00:27:59
ready midle we fight down to F now one 2
00:28:04
3 and go
00:28:08
[Music]
00:28:26
[Laughter]
00:28:28
oh
00:28:31
[Music]
00:28:42
[Music]
00:29:02
all right I'm going to start off one
00:29:04
partial higher the D with the same thing
00:29:06
and hold on of that d as much as I can
00:29:09
while I allow myself to fall off and
00:29:11
land on that B flat at the time that I
00:29:13
want to land so d
00:29:16
d
00:29:18
flat one 2 three and
00:29:27
[Music]
00:29:47
[Music]
00:29:55
oh
00:30:17
good now for the last set of this for
00:30:20
the last uh portion of this 15-minute
00:30:22
segment I'm going to do what I just did
00:30:24
but I'm going to do it over all for all
00:30:26
four partials so
00:30:33
man
00:30:35
[Music]
00:30:38
breathe once again looking in the mirror
00:30:41
am I staying uh engaged am I staying
00:30:44
smooth in my Corners if I'm staying
00:30:46
smooth here then I'm totally getting the
00:30:48
skill that I want to have which is
00:30:50
smoothness here to eventually get the
00:30:52
sound to be uh smooth on the inside but
00:30:55
right now falling off on the inside here
00:30:56
we go one
00:31:02
[Music]
00:31:18
[Music]
00:31:26
h finish it
00:31:31
[Music]
00:31:49
out okay good now that completes the
00:31:53
playing portion let's take 90 seconds to
00:31:55
go over what we did today I mentioned at
00:31:58
the beginning that I am making this up
00:32:00
as I go along it doesn't mean I don't
00:32:02
have a plan the idea that I have is to
00:32:04
go from simple things to more
00:32:06
complicated things playing long tones
00:32:09
playing just starting off with an F with
00:32:10
a mouthpiece shape really simple no
00:32:13
instrument add the instrument play F
00:32:16
okay then we did chromatic scale from F
00:32:18
down to B natural then then I added a
00:32:21
gando just to get myself used to
00:32:23
changing between notes once again no
00:32:25
tongue and not a
00:32:28
super a a direct slide motion but not
00:32:31
one that's neither jerky nor one that's
00:32:34
really a gandoo that has a big smear in
00:32:37
between one that connects one note to
00:32:39
the next
00:32:43
be so we did that we added tongue which
00:32:47
is a complexity which has a coordination
00:32:50
with tongue and air but I didn't really
00:32:51
want to focus so much on tongue today so
00:32:54
we continued then with a scale that was
00:32:55
going up three notes at a time that
00:32:57
scale we went up we went down we
00:33:00
descended um and then in the later
00:33:03
session today uh let's see one of the
00:33:06
things I noticed is how I was uh needed
00:33:08
to cover a break from the G to the uh
00:33:10
the G to the F in the first session in
00:33:13
the second session I followed up on that
00:33:16
as we lat went later on first we started
00:33:18
off with our five note scale going up
00:33:20
and down then we continued with the uh
00:33:25
oh gosh then we did then we did some
00:33:27
flexibility things
00:33:28
the flexibility is there simply because
00:33:32
uh we can get really stiff when we do
00:33:34
long tones as we did in the first
00:33:35
session and I did feel really stiff
00:33:37
after the first session what's the
00:33:39
antidote to that flexibility where we're
00:33:41
moving and it was simple flexibility at
00:33:43
first then we expanded to go faster and
00:33:45
cover more partials that really did help
00:33:47
loosen things up from the morning's work
00:33:50
um so from flexibility uh where we had
00:33:53
that we then added the slurs the slow
00:33:55
slurs where we started to really try to
00:33:57
coordinate things um the whole goal in
00:34:01
this is to go from simple to more
00:34:03
complicated is this the only way to do
00:34:05
it absolutely not but it is a way to do
00:34:07
it it's the way I did it today come back
00:34:09
tomorrow where we can get more in shape
00:34:12
tomorrow and we're we've already hit the
00:34:14
ground running we're off to a great
00:34:15
start come back and uh and hope you
00:34:18
enjoy the rest of the series thanks for
00:34:20
joining me