[Trombone-l] Easy for him to say!

[David W. Buckley]

At last someone has hit the nail on the head about warmups. Evreyone must 
find there own comfort zone re warmups and practice. What works for me won't 
necessarily work for you. The important thing is that we be ready to make 
good sounds from the first note on the job - the sounds in the practice room 
are only a means to this end. I have played with players who seemed to 
function with no warmup or very little. I've also played with players whom 
you wished would warmup. As for myself, I play a whole lot better if I do an 
hour of Remington during the day of a gig or rehearsal and then 10 minutes 
or so immediately before the job. The older I get the more difficult it is 
to be loose and relaxed when I play so I've got to where I am by 
experimentation. When I was 25 a few very loud pedal notes seemed to suffice 
but not now.

Couldn't tell but I assume Carl Fontana was also chewing gum while he did 
that warmup. As Wayne said, it certainly isn't what you would teach a 
student but it worked for Carl.

I certainly have never played professionally but think I have a fair amateur 
standard. Getting harder and harder though. 75 on Monday. Is it time to 
quit? Well I guess I'll just keep plugging along until I get asked to quit.

Dave.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Hecht" <rihecht at earthlink.net>
To: "Steve Gamble" <sgamble at tucsonsymphony.org>; "Wayne Dyess" 
<TexasTbone at gt.rr.com>; "Paul Kemp" <trbnplyr at bellsouth.net>
Cc: "Bone List" <trombone-l at samford.edu>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] Easy for him to say!


> At 09:48 AM 12/15/2006, Steve Gamble wrote:
>>Hi All,
>>
>>Warming up is a state of mind.  Being warmed up is a state of mind.
>>Music is a state of mind...a state of mind that is there as soon as you
>>'flip the switch.'  You're mind requires no warm up.  You're ready when
>>ever you decide you're ready.  You can and should be ready as soon as
>>you are within reach of your instrument.  Funny how after 15 or 20
>>minutes the product seems to be better, though.  But you can't allow
>>yourself to be shackled to the need for a warm up period.  Not all
>>situations permit it.  The best thing: decide to make music and go.
>>
>>Steve Gamble, Librarian
>
> Obviously, everyone is different. An exjock, I was taught long ago
> that warming up and stretching are vital to an athlete's performance
> and that to skip such exercises was asking for trouble. I never
> suffered much from injuries, but the the few times I did hurt myself
> it was from not warming up and stretching beforehand. I still have
> rotator cuff issues from lack of preparation before weight lifting
> some years back. Now to be fair, I'm not and never was a professional
> athlete, so I never achieved that state described in other posts of
> trombone players who played so much they reportedly didn't need
> warming up. I'm also very tight-muscled and require loosening up more
> than some. Again, this is an individual issue and I can not speak for
> what works for other players, many of whom I'm sure can play quite
> well "right out of the box."
>
> Speaking for myself, I can play without warming up but prefer not to.
> I usually "warm up" a half hour or more a day--sometimes even an
> hour--though I don't call it warming up. I call it exercising,
> calisthenics, same as I do in the gym.
>
> Though no where nearly as interested in baseball as I used to be, I
> caught a bit of the world championships several months ago. The
> announcers were discussing the preparations Seattle Mariners'
> outfielder Ichiro Suzuki goes through before every game. According to
> his teammates, they are comparable to what a marathon runner does
> before a race. And he does this every day. Supposedly, one of his
> major complaints is that he cannot find a teammate to go through his
> ritual with him.
>
> As it turns out, this kind of preparation--warming up or whatever you
> want to call it--is commonplace among Japanese and Korean baseball
> players. They are fanatical about it. US players are not, and several
> admitted that one of the reasons they didn't even make the semifinals
> of the championships was that they lacked the preparatory skills and
> fundamentals of the Japanese and Koreans.
>
> I suppose there may be more to their loss than that, but baseball
> coaches have noticed this, just as Canadian hockey coaches and
> American basketball coaches have noticed they have a great deal to
> learn about the fundamentals of their sport and condition from
> countries who are starting to eat their collective lunches at "their" 
> sports.
>
>
>
>
> Roger Hecht
>
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