In This Lesson You Will Learn:
- How to design a manageable Practice Rotation that improves your playing technique over the long-haul.
- The most common mistake players make when putting together a practice routine.
- How to become more efficient with your practice time.
- How the concept of progressive overload applies to improving your technique.
- Simple, effective exercises to work into your rotation.
Your Practice Rotation
Along with your Daily, the other half of your Practice Plan is to create a systematic Practice Rotation.
A Practice Rotation is simply a series of fundamental technical exercises which you do need to perform with consistency, but do not need to practice every day. So while the purpose of the Daily is to keep you on track by establishing the habit of daily practice, the Practice Rotation is meant to improve your basic playing technique without getting to the point of being an overwhelming pain in the you-know-what.
While there are many ways to set up a Practice Rotation, the basic outline looks something like this.
- 3-4 exercises performed in a cycle, aiming not to miss more than a day or two in a row.
Add the Practice Rotation together with your Daily, and your Ultimate Practice Plan looks a little something like this:
- Daily: Simple exercise performed every day.
- Practice Rotation: 3-4 exercises performed in a cycle, aiming not to miss more than a day or two days in a row.
Choosing Exercises for Your Practice Rotation
The point of the Practice Rotation is to improve your general playing facility so that trumpet playing keeps getting easier over time. With that in mind, an effective Practice Rotation will contain drills that you enjoy and cover these basic skills:
- Lip Slurs / Lip Flexibility
- Articulation
- Finger Technique / Dexterity
While there are many ways to improve your playing, for now, I’ll suggest picking simple exercises that touch on the points above and you are happy to stick with for a period of at least a few months.
The idea of practicing the same basic routine consistently, over a longer time frame, is that this leads to internalizing the ability to perform those skills on a deep, automatic level. As the basic movements of playing and sound production become more automatic to you, the stronger your connection with the instrument will be, and the easier playing and learning becomes.
You’ll also find that your technical gains stick around with hardly any “maintenance” needed to keep it up. This is because, with time, slow and deliberate practice, you’ll eventually be able to perform the exercises very efficiently, taking less time and energy to keep making improvements.
If the idea of playing the same basic exercises for a really long time sounds insanely boring and far-sighted – don’t worry. Once put into motion, you’ll appreciate your plan’s simplicity, how easy it is to stick to, and the results will speak for themselves.
How to Use the Metronome (Without Going Insane)
One of the best ways to improve your technique is to practice slowly, with a metronome, a lot. You don’t have to use the metronome, but if you choose to, the rewards are well worth getting used to that annoying beep.
To use the metronome, first find a tempo that you can comfortably and easily perform whatever exercise you’re working on. Remember, you’re aiming for automaticity, so find a tempo that you can maintain the Primary Practice Space, and perform the exercise while more or less “just listening” to yourself. This means doing it slow. And often slower that you think.
Here’s how to find your starting tempo by staying, “Bound by the Sound.”
Korg Metronome / Tuner on Amazon
Systematic Tempo Increases
Once you have a comfortable tempo, it’s time to define a plan for progressively increasing that tempo, slowly, over time.
Since having to make decisions in the moment can be kind of a drag, defining when you will increase tempo prevents wasting time and energy down the line. Defining a plan for tempo increases also helps your adult brain (which is always trying to get somewhere) feel like you are making steady progress from month-to-month.
Because you are!
Great job!!! 😀
Currently, I use a simple format of successfully performing each exercise a minimum of four separate practice days before moving the metronome up a click. Each time I “pass” a tempo, that day is circled and then the new tempo written down the next time I play the drill.
Here’s what it looks like in the Tracker:
Practice Rotation with tempo increases circled in green.
You’re welcome to use this plan, or create your own system for progressively increasing your tempos. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you want to take your progress very slowly.
The good news is you’re already half-way there by staying “Bound by the Sound,” and from there it’s simply a matter of not getting too eager to improve. Just keep paying attention to each slow, deliberate repetition and you will continue to learn even more about trumpet playing.
And just so you know, this is how the gentleman in the following video practiced.
“The longer I play it slow, the sooner I can play it fast.”
– Rafeal Mendez
One More Point
When designing your Practice Rotation keep things simple, and to just a few items at first. There can be a tendency to start thinking of all the things you “need” to practice, but this is a trap.
Generally, concocting extremely comprehensive (and tedious) routines that are difficult to follow through with is not a great idea. Even if you have the mental fortitude for it, exhaustive routines are not necessary, and should absolutely be avoided if you will have trouble sticking to it on a regular basis.
Keep things nice and easy and you’ll do the one thing needed to make continued progress – practice consistently over time.
Suggested Exercises
Flexus: Trumpet Calisthenics for the Modern Improviser (Method Book)
Basics Fingerings on the Trumpet (Video)
The Ultimate Scale Patterns (PDF)
What to Listen For While Practicing
Starting Your Practice Rotation
Before moving on define a Practice Rotation to stick with for the next four weeks. Remember, it doesn’t need to be perfect, and you don’t need to do it forever. Just get something started now, we can always course correct later.
Keep these simple points in mind and you’ll find yourself in good shape:
- Pick a stable of exercises you can comfortably scale a 9/10 on the “I Will Def…” Scale for a minimum of four weeks.
- Find a starting tempo by staying “Bound by the Sound.”
- Define a slow, systematic plan for progressively increases tempo.
- Keep your range to what is comfortable right now. We’ll get into a method of increasing range in the next lesson.
You Are Well on Your Way!
Take a minute to recognize that with your Daily and Practice Rotation in effect you now have a kick-ass Practice Plan that is easy to follow, and will absolutely keep you on track making continued progress with your playing.
Remember, this is about developing automatic playing habits, so don’t worry too much about keeping yourself entertained with novelty. You just want to keep performing a few of the hard-core basics over and over again until those skills are internalized.
From here it’s really a matter of sticking to the plan and finding creative ways to slowly and deliberately apply the concept of progressive overload to improve skills like range, articulation, endurance, and fluency in all 12 keys.
In Lesson 5 you will receive practical suggestions for doing just that, as well as guidelines on making amendments to your Daily. However, since at this point you have a solid plan that you could perform for many months or longer without needing to change a thing, feel free to take your time and chill for awhile.
And before you get going with Lesson 5 you’ve got to admit…
…This has been a huge step in your Ultimate Comeback!
Great job!!! 😀
What’s in your Practice Plan? Be Sure to Share with your Fellow Comeback Players Below!