Does anyone have any ideas about building endurance and keeping the lips from becoming stiff. I'm an older horn player that's having problems in these areas. Colder weather seems to increase the stiffness problem.
I find that a good warm-up that starts slowly with long tones and moving low to high helps. I like the Farkas warm-ups, but generally stick with the slurred exercises and work from the high register down, not low to high as he recommends. I finish with scales working low to high. This takes me about 20 minutes.
After that, I split my time or even my days between high and and low. Today I might work on Kopprasch, tomorrow Maxime-Alphonse books 3 and 4 or Mueller, then low horn etudes and Bach Cello Suites. And I know when I'm just pushing it too far and need a day off to let the muscles recover.
My daily practice routine is an hour, but I'll push it up to 1.5 hours if I have a
big concert coming up and need the extra endurance. Of course, I start
doing that about 8 weeks before the concert.
And in the summer I rest, remembering to mark 6 weeks before rehearsals start so I can start practicing again. :-)
Margaret
Margaret Dikel JCCSO Librarian / Horn 11218 Ashley Drive, Rockville MD 20852 301-881-0122 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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