When to call it a day

[Pat]

At what level of embouchure fatigue do you stop your daily practice? Do you let your chops tell you when it's enough for one day, do you work until you start missing pitches, or do you persist to the point of utter failure?

Thanks,
Pat

[iMav]

Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to dedicate to practicing until that level of fatigue. I practice for my allotted hour (or however long I was able to fit in).

[ann reid]

My teacher had me “cool down” to release my fatigued embouchure in my last lesson by playing sequences of low chromatic 3 note patterns, and I tried it today for the first time.

I lose my very uppermost notes first (Rochut), so after I did a few minutes of the cool down I was able to do several minutes of scales.

You are probably far more advanced in playing than I, but it may be worth giving a try.

[RickF]

When practicing I try to stop before my chops get really tired. I used to be able to practice for two hours per day but now it's down to about an hour per day. At the end of practice I always cool down by playing some pedal notes to get the blood flowing back in my chops.

[davewerden]

The muscles in our chops are not very robust and it is possible to do damage if you really abuse them. There are two options I chose from when I feel like my chops are gone:

1) moving to medium-soft volume low-range practice. That encourages blood flow to the chops and lets you work your fingers on any patterns you like.

2) stop for a while. When the chops feel a bit rested, do a short "warmup" to get in the groove and continue with practice.

[rgorscak]

what i would be interested in knowing is that for 1 hour of practice, what do you concentrate on? i can spend up to 2 hours a day on the Euphonium and maybe an hour on some band music on the trombone. I spend a half hour doing warmups (long tones Bb up, Bb down, F up, intervals, and harmonics starting low and ending up as high as i can go). I then do double tonguing and triple tonguing and after that, it is a crap shoot as to what i do. I have to start double tonguing slow and speed up until i get tongue tied, stop and wait a while and then i can do better. Never have trouble with triple tonguing.

I am trying to figure out how to best use my practice time after that. I still need to work on the high range. Some days i am limited to 1 1/2 hours. I just have to come up with a plan because so far i cannot find anyone in the Orlando area from who i can take lessons. I am still looking!

[iMav]

Personally, I’ve been limited to mostly working in currently band music…but when I do have extra time, I’ll do some method book work and scales.

BTW, there are several folks that do online lessons. So, if that is something you’d be interested in…it’s an option.

[Pat]

I'm currently trying to do "two a days", AM session with warm up, long tones, scales, and then work on my audition piece. Afternoon is warm up, lots of lip slurs, and either Arban exercises or sightreading practice.