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September 28, 2026

Gemini Artist 1920 Bb
Practice & Technique

Daily Trumpet Warm Up and Core Practice Routine

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A Daily Maintenance Routine is a necessity for any serious trumpet student or brass player. In addition, each Core Practice Session should be approached in a manner of knowing exactly what the student wants and needs to work on. Playing and establishing a Daily Maintenance Routine each and every morning will better attune the student to what fundamentals need attention in their later Core Practice Session. Each day’s practice should be divided into two separate practice sessions. The Daily Maintenance Routine is a 30-40 minute session that starts the day – ideally in the morning, or otherwise as early in the day as possible. The student should leave 2-4 hours of rest between the Daily Maintenance Routine and the Core Practice. The school day typically takes care of this resting period. The Core Practice Session is the meat and potatoes of the day’s practice. This is where the student improves upon his or her skills technically and musically Daily Maintenance Routine When developing this maintenance routine with your trumpet students, converse openly with them about the weak areas in their playing of which they might or might not be aware. Once these techniques have been pointed out and explained, work with them on establishing a practice time in the morning that works for them and your schedule. While this session serves as the initial warm-up each day, its primary role is to take the student daily through the fundamentals of trumpet playing technique. Another by-product of the daily routine is that if a student misses the daily Core Practice Session, the Daily Maintenance Routine has served as a good practice session for that particular day. By no means should this be a standard occurrence, but if needed from time to time it can stand by itself as a quality practice session. Performance assets of a Daily Maintenance Routine are: increased endurance, lip flexibility, sound development, intonation, clarity of articulation, rhythm practice and increased self-awareness as a performer. Also, it trains the student to actively listen to him or herself to make improvements from day to day. The Core Practice Session should be adjusted accordingly to what area needs more attention than another. By doing this, it creates a certain daily checkpoint from day-to-day as a way of measuring conditioning and progress. The student should be reminded not to practice bad habits; this session is designed for students to erase all bad habits. Keeping in mind that the Daily Maintenance Routine is a warm-up and not a practice session; the student should only choose to play one-half to two-thirds of the materials suggested below evaluating as they go along their degree of readiness for the practice day. If the student is a young high school student not used to warming up with a thorough routine, cut the Daily Maintenance session to 10 -15 minutes starting by having them add a couple of extra exercises each week to build the endurance and flexibility needed for the Core Practice Session. While the daily maintenance routine will become easier over time, it still forms an important foundation for the student’s advancement. Most students’ fundamentals are in a constant state of fluctuation and need to be continually refreshed and polished. The best professionals are the ones who maintain a consistent daily maintenance routine, paying detailed attention even though the material is familiar. There are a few techniques I would like to share apart from the basics and fundamentals of the Daily Maintenance Routine. They are lip flapping and stretching for better air production. Lip flapping in the morning is a great technique to get rid of lactic acid build up. As the student sleeps after a long day of practice and rehearsals, the embouchure muscles that have been worked hard all day will build lactic acid in them from that exercise. Lip flapping is a great way to wake up the muscles and get rid of the build up. Before the student gently buzzes the mouthpiece as the first warm-up exercise of the day, have him gently lip flap for about 30 seconds. Next, have the student buzz the mouthpiece for 20-30 seconds and then lip flap again for about 20 seconds. This trade off should take place back-and-forth for 8-10 minutes. The students should ease into their warm-up rather than shocking the embouchure muscles with needed vibrations and flexibly they are not ready to give yet. Breathing is so often overlooked as a warm-up. Why? For every athlete stretching is a part of every day life and it does not make sense for it not to be routine for musicians. Before the student ever touches their mouthpiece or instrument for the day, they should start with stretching of the upper torso and hands. Stretching the upper torso is important because it houses the most important factor in wind playing, the lungs. Simply have the student stand up straight, feet shoulder width apart and breathe in until they reach their fullest lung capacity. Once this is established have them hold upward their right hand and bend at the torso to the left. After they have reached their most flexible point, have them hold that position for 10 seconds. As they regress back to their prior position, have them slowly release the air through a formed embouchure. Now, have them do the same technique to the right with the left arm extended upward. The student should feel a stretching sensation in their muscles, targeting their obliques and intercostals. This stretching technique stretches these muscles for better, more relaxed breathing. In addition to this stretch, the student will learn to better control air speed and steadiness of the air stream. Suggested materials for the Daily Maintenance Routine are as follows: Schlossberg: Daily Drills, J. B. Arban: Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, Hebert L. Clarke: Technical Studies for Trumpet. The expectation is that the student will cover all of the etudes listed over a 2-3 day period, covering between one quarter and half of the etudes on

Gemini Artist 1920 Bb
Performance & Auditions

All State Audition Preparation Strategies for Band Directors

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There is nothing quite like that moment every summer of opening your inbox and discovering the bold title mixed in with twenty unread emails, “All-State Music Region Cuts.” Preparation for this big event brings a host of feelings for teachers … concern about the difficulty of the chosen excerpts, anticipation for seeing our students make a leap in their technique, and mixed feelings about what it will take from us to take to get them there. However difficult or hard the music may be, preparing All-State auditions presents an awesome opportunity for orchestra and band directors to create something really exciting for young players to aspire to. When this opportunity is presented in the right way, every player in your group can experience personal and musical breakthroughs out of what it takes to prepare a great audition. On a practical level, before handing out the music, make sure the print is clear for the kids; blow it up for them if it is small, and create a more legible version for them if it is blurry. Review the music in advance and share with your students what challenges and opportunities they will find in the music for their specific instrument. Within the first week, make sure each student has access to a recording of the excerpts. If there are no professionals in your community to provide a model for you, contact your college buddies and ask them to upload a video for your students to watch. Sectionals Use sectionals before and after school to provide students with guided and supervised practice. These sectionals will jump-start students who don’t have the confidence to face the challenge on their own! Once these students realize their own potential, they will motivate themselves to keep going. During the first sectional, talk about effective practice strategies, and break each etude into three or four shorter sections to help them focus and prioritize their practice. Sectionals save time for all students (including motivated ones) by ensuring that everyone learns the music correctly the first time. Universities in your area may provide a similar opportunity in the form of All-State clinics, which help students to learn the music rapidly and create healthy competition as all the kids learn together. Dust off the Recorder As students begin to progress on the music, use taping assignments to benchmark their progress, establishing in advance the specific segment and dates on which it will be recorded. The first assignment should be a recording of the whole etude, so they can go back to this recording three months later and see how far they have come! Be sure to specify tempo and musical goals as appropriate, and consider using achievement levels (“gold,” “silver,” etc.) to recognize superior accomplishment. Grade the students on both preparation and improvement. Partner-Up Having a major audition can be a good excuse to create a practice buddy system, which will continue to benefit students throughout the rest of the year. When making practice buddy assignments, match students who are playing at a similar level and whose personalities are a good fit. Encourage practice buddies to meet after school, either in a practice room or in one of their homes. Check in with students periodically to make sure they are meeting with their buddy and keeping each other on course! Simple Tools with Great Results For students who are not able to purchase a tuner or metronome, create a sign-out list to use the band equipment (on school premises). Similarly, ask students if they have a quiet place to practice at home, and provide opportunities for students who lack this resource to sign out practice rooms or the band hall. When possible, use after-school time to listen to students practicing in the practice rooms or band hall, and offer suggestions as appropriate. Sharpen those Pencils Teach students to mark their music as needed, writing reminders in problem spots that are just big enough that they catch their eye when they are playing. Too many students like to keep their sheet music in mint condition. This is a mistake! Show them your own music to help reinforce that good musicians mark their music freely to avoid repeating familiar mistakes. Everybody is Invited To encourage students who otherwise might not take the all-state audition, it is helpful to make portions of the music mandatory for chair placement auditions or challenges. Besides providing a mock audition experience for students who are taking the audition, it engages students who would otherwise avoid this challenging music, and ensures that they will receive some of the same benefits of preparing it. Live Live play-offs provide an even more intense attention-getter for students. Nothing puts the students more on the edge of their seats than thinking they will be playing for their peers that day in band! Give the students a few days notice so that have time to practice. Then, each day, draw a name randomly out of a hat, and ask that student to perform. Students work hard to not make a fool of themselves, they get practice channeling their nerves … and you get a classroom of very prepared students. Master-Class Once the students have begun to make headway on the excerpts, invite a professional to perform the music for the students and give a master class for the students who play that instrument. Also ask them to prepare some comments for the band or orchestra as a whole about audition preparation strategies and tips for performing under pressure. Even if students have already heard the same thing a hundred times from you and their private teacher, students will take it seriously from someone they perceive as an expert! Prepare a hand-out for students on audition preparation and provide this to your private teachers so they can reinforce these lessons. Recognition Once the audition has past, be sure to give some significant recognition to students who took the audition in front of the full band or orchestra. Let students know in advance

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