Recently, there was a major competition held
in the city of Tokyo. As usual, several weeks before the event, a large number
of students came to me to receive coaching on the required solo repertoire.
Most of these students came very well prepared and only needed small
adjustments on their very good preparation, however, closer to the actual
competition something strange happened; the high level of playing they had
shown only a few weeks before started to deteriorate. The good tones that were
there began to sound strained, pinched and full of extemporaneous noises, the
high register became undependable as did the low register and the general
musicianship became labored and quite simply had lost all the beauty that was
there only a short time before. The reason for this was not complicated; the
dedication and motivation to be their absolute best on the competition had lead
them to increase their practice times to the point that they were damaging their
playing, the excess of hard work caused their playing to get ugly.
This kind of extreme over practicing doesn’t
happen only before competitions but also before exams, auditions and concerts.
Our embouchures; that meeting place where the moving air meets the lips
(embouchure is a verb), is made up of blood and muscle and like all the other
parts of the body, it can easily be overworked and stressed. Like a ballet
dancer, who’s body is trained to be facile and fluid, our embouchures need that
same fluidity and if, by over training, the embouchure becomes more like the
rigid and stiff musculature of a body builder lifting weights, this stiffness in
brass instrument performance simply translates a sounding bad. The similarities
of playing a brass instrument to the voice are many. Singers, however, cannot
practice long hours like some brass players are tempted to do; they have the
advantage of pain, which tells them it’s time to stop, the larynx just won’t
allow the voice to let enthusiasm rule over reason.
Enthusiasm, the will to win, the goal to be
perfect, is a good thing, but it needs to be monitored by smart practicing.
Smart Practicing
Warmups
Warmups are to brass playing like stretching
is for an athlete; working on the bar for a ballet dancer or vocalizing is for
a singer. Warmups are part of embouchure care and if you are in preparation
mode for an important performing event such as a competition, warming up is an
essential part that preparation, this is smart practicing.
Taking Rests
In any form of exercise, breaks are needed;
ten sets of ten pushups can work very well in developing strength, but 100
pushups at one time would be very destructive to the body for most people, plus
it would be very painful! Another important kind of rest is to take breaks
after two or three hours. If you’re going to practice all day, go for two or
maximum three hours, then rest at least one hour; do something else and think
about something else.
Mental Practicing
Much of our preparation can be done without
actually playing the instrument. Phrasing, breaths and dynamic decisions can be
done only by studying the part and making those musical decisions without fatiguing
the embouchure. Similarly, singing the music can help to make these musical decisions.
Finally, the passages that require rapid fingering can be studied by practicing
only the fingering alone.
Diverse Practicing
When preparing for an important performance
of any kind, there is always the tendency to practice only the piece or pieces that
are being prepared for the specific event; this also will have negative result.
An efficient embouchure requires diversity. If your pieces are high, practice
low. Nothing destroys tonal beauty and embouchure efficiency faster that
concentrating your work only on the high register. The situation with dynamics
is exactly the same, if you are preparing for a symphony orchestra audition
where most of the repertoire is fortissimo, practice an equal amount in a
pianissimo dynamic range.
Avoid Last Minute Practicing
Performance preparation needs to be finished
and ready ahead of time; the last days before the event are much better used by
concentrating on maintaining the finest, most facile and beautiful playing
possible. There are many sad stories of players panicking in the last days
before the event and destroying the good work that was already finished.
Hard work and enthusiasm are good things when
they are controlled with common sense.
September 16, 1013, Tokyo
