All brass players at MSU have the opportunity to start the day off right by working on brass fundamentals daily. At the start of each school day, at 8 a.m. Dr. Human and Mr. Huff lead a group warm-up. While these sessions are primarily geared for trumpet, horn, trombone, euphonium and tuba players, we often have woodwind instrumentalists join us for the breathing part of these sessions. These sessions include:
Breathing exercises: We believe that starting each day with breathing increases our capability to produce a beautiful tone while focusing us mentally for the rest of our day.
- Various Arnold Jacobs style breathing studies to increase "flow"
- Sam Pilafian & Patrick Sheridan's "Breathing Gym" DVD
- Andrew Weil's yoga breathing techniques
Check out these breathing exercises that will benefit your own brass practice.
Mouthpiece buzzing: we also believe that by eliminating the instrument and taking the "path of least resistance" we improve our tone and often correct embouchure problems over time. By alternating buzzing and playing exercises, we optimize our playing efficiency.
- Jim Thompson's Buzzing Basics exercises
- Various other studies to develop tone.
- Stamp Studies
- Cichowicz Arpeggios
It is intended after spending 30-40 minutes on the above material, that brass players then proceed individually with their own daily needs (scales, slurs, other technical & lyrical studies).
All are welcome to the warm-up at any time to experience the benefit this has to your playing. Improvement is usually "felt" after only one session, but great benefits are often seen after about 3 or 4 weeks. If you are ever in the Starkville MS area at 8 a.m. in the morning Monday-Friday be sure to stop by the Choral Building to join us!
