Mystery to Mastery › Forums › WindWorks › Playing in the Red › Reply To: Playing in the Red
Sorry to make a long post longer and I’m not sure this will help, but here are the things that I do to “check-in” with myself each day to make sure I remember how to play–in addition to simply focusing on my sound and how things feel, as I mentioned above:
1. Stamp – When things are going right for me, when I start the James Stamp warm up that goes from C on the staff to the D right above, etc. If I can play that in such a way that it almost feels like I’m not doing anything at all to go from the C to the D, it’s as if the shape of my embouchure is compressing the air or something–I won’t pretend to completely understand it. I’ve heard some others (great players) describe it as “moving forward” which I can relate to
2. Certain wide intervals in music passages that have suddenly felt effortless for me, I try to repeat those daily, such as:
a. F on the staff to middle C to F on the top of the staff. When things go right, it feels like I’m barely doing anything, sometimes as though it’s just the tongue arch doing it–I do not subscribe to that point of view, I believe the tongue moves when we move the bottom lip/lower jaw and vice versa. These are subtle movements, again at times it feels like barely anything.
b. E at the bottm of the staff to B natural on the staff to E at the top of the staff (top space) to A above the staff. The A is almost like a leap of faith when things are going right, a little more engagement in the “aperture corners” but no real movement and i lead with the air but I don’t blow and it’s there. I’m amazed every day when it happens still.
Anyway, that’s a bit of my drill FWIW / in case that helps in anyway.