Your Daily Routine

We all have different daily routines ā€“ some are more structured, while others just pick up the horn and go! What is your approach? Is there something youā€™re currently struggling with in regards to your daily routine? Share what youā€™ve learned about daily routine, and ask any questions you might have from others. Letā€™s help inspire the tonebase Trumpet family!

10 replies

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    • Robert_Jacobs
    • 8 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    I used to follow a basic warm up sheet my directors would give me with a bit of Arbans method afterwards. Worked pretty good but the only thing I struggled with was always high register exercises.

      • Trumpet Lead
      • Ethan
      • 8 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       The high register takes a lot of time and patience. I believe over time we'll have lots of discussions on this topic! 

    • Rico
    • 3 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    Honestly, the thing I struggle with the most is maintaining motivation. Iā€™ve been playing off and on for almost four years now but if I were to add up all the time that Iā€™ve been actively working on improving, itā€™s probably more like two years. 
     

    Iā€™ll learn a song, or find a fun workout, learn it, play it for a couple weeks and then life happens and I forget to keep it up for a month or two. When I go back to the trumpet, all of the work I put in is mostly gone and I have to start all over again, which is doubly de-motivating. 
     

    How does everyone keep themselves motivated to keep playing and pushing? Especially if youā€™re not in school or otherwise surrounded by people doing the same thing? Learning on your own is tough šŸ˜©

      • Trumpet Lead
      • Ethan
      • 3 mths ago
      • Reported - view

       Hi Rico, thanks a lot for your question!
      I believe that in order to stay motivated it's essential to understand our "why". 

      Why do you play trumpet? What is your vision for yourself as a musician? What are your goals: short, medium, and long term? Then, what are the steps necessary to get there? Sometimes a goal isn't an event in the future, it's more of a process or a state of being: "play every day" or "have fun playing". When you have a clearly stated reason, you know what you're fighting for. 

       

      Then we have to take a look at our lives as a whole and be sure the goals we're setting are realistic. Of course I'd LOVE to practice 3 hours a day, but that time just doesn't exist anymore. So I find ways to make 30 minutes a day extremely fulfilling. 

       

      I think a lot of folks think they have to practice and that it's simply about WILLPOWER. But your brain is smarter than that. You need a path/vision, SMART goals, and a routine that creates consistent time, even if it's 20 minutes a day. 

       

      Then we have to utilize the resources around us to make practicing more feasible. Consider the people in your life who love you. Surely they want you to be happy and fulfilled. Can they help hold you accountable to practice every day? Maybe they aren't musicians, but are they chasing their dreams in some capacity? What qualities in the people in your life do inspire you? And then it's about chipping away, "Bird by Bird" as Anne Lamott famously writes, and trusting the process to get you where you need to be. 

       

      I also attached some practice docs that might be useful - plus if you go to the Community homepage and click on Practice Diaries, I just started posting there weekly, so perhaps we can all start posting there to help hold each other accountable! Hope this is helpful. Q3W13+Toolkit+Fulltonebase_practice_checklisttonebase_weekly_goal_setting

      • Daniel_W_Mackle
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Are you playing with a group?  That is where I get the best motivation.  I'll admit, I don't have a motivation problem and the only thing that would keep me from practicing every day is something coming up that I can't push off. But a lot of it is because I want to play well with the groups I am playing with.

      • Rico
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       actually, the times when Iā€™ve been most focused and able to achieve my goals are the times when Iā€™ve been asked to play with other folks. I did one song on stage with a rock band a couple years ago, which was super hard but fun and then this summer I did a whole show with a wedding band (to be honest, nothing was that difficult and there was a lot of downtime). 
       

      So I 100% agree with you, and I even alluded to that in my first post above: Playing with people makes all the difference, for me, when it comes to staying motivated. Recently, I put up a post on my local Craigslist looking for other beginner/intermediate trumpet players to practice with, in the hopes that we could keep each other motivated. No bites yet but I remain hopeful!

    • Daniel_W_Mackle
    • 2 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Since I started the trumpet back up, I have been using Charles S. Peters "Total Range."  For those that have no experience with it, this method is designed to be your first practice session providing some long tone, lip slurs, and chromatics (ala Clarke 1).  Intent is to work range but it states it includes the warm-up.  Although listed as "Week 1" "Week 2" etc. each lesson is not really a week and you move on when ready.  Then it calls for at least an hour rest before spending time on other things like scales, etudes, and music prep. 

     

    For my second practice session I spend about a half hour sight-transposing Arban's lyrical studies to C trumpet.  Then I am working on Clark 4 for another half hour or so.  Goal is not time but quality.  But I do end up with about an hour forty five minutes of practice.

     

    Going back to "Total Range" whereas in the past, I would just play through the exercises, I am trying to better apply techniques I learned in some of the videos here on tonebase like Ryan Dark's "Troubleshooting" and Allen Vizzutti's "Efficiency in Practice" with some success.  However, I am starting to question the efficacy of "Total Range" wondering whether it moves past the warm up too quickly and has some larger jumps in level than I am prepared for when going to the next week.  Has anyone had any experience with "Total Range"?

      • Rico
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       I have this book as well. I bought it because it seems to sell itself as an ā€œall-in-oneā€ package. But Iā€™m not a comeback player and I found it too difficult to work through with my rudimentary knowledge.
       

      I tried it again a while later when I could rightfully be called an ā€œintermediateā€ player but couldnā€™t get into it for some reason. Likely, that has more to do with me than it does with the material in the book. Iā€™ve since found other workbooks that I prefer and havenā€™t tried using Total Range again. Maybe Iā€™ll get back to it in the new year and see how I feel. 

      • Daniel_W_Mackle
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks.  I'm not advocating the book.  Especially if you found something better and are enjoying it.  Perhaps I am a little too stubborn to cut bait on it.  As noted in my post, the book has its problems.  I have Claude Gordon's Systematic Approach as well, but seldom, if ever, used it.  I do find that after doing the Total Range session, with its simple lip flexibilities, I have been hesitant to try other lip flexibility studies which may actually be better.

      • Rico
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Iā€™ll take another look at those flexibility studies. I might as well, since Iā€™ve already paid for them haha

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