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Thread: Preparing a solo piece

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2017
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    Vinton,VA
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    Preparing a solo piece

    Most of my playing life has been in bands, with almost no solo work. I'm a 75 y/o comeback player wanting to do more solos in my church. My question is: how do those of you who do mostly, or at least a lot of solo work balance your daily routines/exercises with your solo preparation? With my normal daily routine work (range, articulation, tone, flexibility, etc.), my chops are tired at session's end, which doesn't allow me to get full benefit from my solo piece work. How much of your exercises do you back off from to work on your solo? Is it just a matter of a good warm up, then get into your solo prep, and cutting way back on the exercises and daily routines?

  2. #2
    I'd say it is a mixture. There is not usually enough time to do everything we want to do, right? So regardless of how much time I have I will adjust my warm up routine to help me with the solo. You have a book like Arban, I assume. Part of my warm up is doing fundamentals, like scales, intervals, tonguing, etc. If your solo is in 6/8 for example, lean more on the 6/8 tonguing routines. If the solo is in 3 flats, do a bit more the scales in that key or other exercises in that key. Etc.

    That works especially well if you ARE short on time. Basically, it may allow you to trim a little time off the solo practice because you covered the technique during warm up.

    Your timing is pretty good here, because I just finished a (somewhat simplistic) video that demonstrates the principle!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI3Ejvtu25o

    Last edited by davewerden; 08-16-2021 at 04:24 PM.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
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  3. #3
    Join Date
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    When I am playing regularly, which is most of the time, I can play a couple of hours at a time pretty easily, as long as I am not constantly playing high stuff and/or very taxing stuff. I am going on 74 years old. If I am not working on anything in particular (solos, for example), I will do warmups (always), then some exercises that will serve to improve or strengthen my playing in that particular area(s). I will also play some other random stuff like tunes I like (in different keys), perhaps old solos, just fun stuff. If I am working on a solo, I will usually play and practice the parts of it that I need work on or want to improve, get better phrasing, try something a little different, etc. I usually won't play the whole solo a lot until I get the various sections worked up. I may do a shorter warmup when working on a solo, but not drastically shorter. Once I have the solo fairly well worked up, I may play through the whole thing a couple times during a session. Particularly when the performance is coming up.

    I don't get worn out doing warmups (usually), so I am not sure exactly what to tell you unless I know more. Perhaps you need to get your endurance up a notch. How much do you play daily? What is your warmup routine? How long? You wouldn't want to do a daily warmup routine, then when finished with that, have nothing left for practicing new material.

    What type of solo(s) are you contemplating? You can actually do quite a bit of work/warmup by playing your solo. Try playing it with different rhythms, different tonguing, faster, slower, slur everything, hold notes at the end of phrases very long (long tones), try playing some of it up a half step, up a whole step. There are all kinds of things you can do with solos, be they short ballads or multi-variation virtuoso type solos, to exercise all facets of your playing.

    Perhaps with more information, I/we can offer more targeted suggestions.
    John Morgan
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  4. #4
    Something I tried recently when preparing a piece was singing. The piece had a lot of repetitive interval stuff that was a challenge for me and practicing it tired me out pretty quickly. I started singing the sections any time I had a moment (working, showering,etc...) and it really helped me figure out musically what needed to happen, how the phrases fit together, dynamics,etc... Singing the intervals that were giving me trouble also helped me hear the notes in my head so when I started playing I was much more able to know where I was aiming. Figuring that stuff out without the horn on your face can also help maximize your time once you start blowing because it doesn't tire your chops at all!

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