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Thread: Stamina Question

  1. Stamina Question

    Hi all,

    I've read through John's post from way back on stamina problems and how to address them. These are great ideas but unfortunately I lack the time to put a lot of these techniques to use. So, how would you go about building stamina without the time to commit an hour to breathing/soft tone playing every day?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Minneapolis, MN
    Posts
    178

    Stamina Question

    When I have periods where I have trouble finding time to get lips to mouthpiece, the first thing I try to do is sneak in warm-ups here and there. These exercises take anywhere from 15-20 minutes and involve long-tones, scales, tonguing, and flexibility exercises. It's like eating a good granola bar and a piece of fruit. You get in the goodness you need when you can't break for a meal.

    Upper register work can be beneficial as well. By upper register, I mean not extreme upper register. Many players, myself included, play etudes as part of warm-ups. After you get a warm up in, you can try lower-written ones up an octave. You can also try working on solos that involve this work such as Six Studies in English Folk Song by Vaughn Williams and Vocalise by Rimsky-Korsakov. They're great for interpretive practice and tax you a little more than that many etudes.

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