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[dbradley88]

I'm not sure if this is the place for this question but here goes.  I may soon be in a gig where I can warm up, but then have to leave my horn on the stand for a long time and then pick it up and sound great soloing from note one.  Any suggestions as to how to prepare for that?

Thanks!

[littlebuster29]

I think the best you can do is keep your mouthpiece handy and buzz on it occasionally.

[GetzenBassPlayer]

stop telling yourself you need a warm horn to sound good. Practice picking your horn up during the day and sounding good from the first note. Many private lesson teachers do this everyday and Orchestral trombonists too.

[sabutin]

I have dealt with this problem all of my life...not always successfully, I might add. The best thing that I can tell you is that you must practice for a good balance  in the so-called "money ranges" of the horn. Every day, especially before a gig of this sort. No extreme practice, just meat and potatoes playing in the ranges that you will need for the gig. Jim Pugh calls it "maintenance practice. Yup. Further, I would avoid extreme endurance or range gigs for a week or so...the kind where you risk unusual swelling...as well.

The problems with coming in cold are severalfold, but for me the most serious challenge lies in having my lips "swollen" to the proper amount when I am going to play. Now a case can be made that warming up for most players  consists primarily of getting the accustomed amount of blood to go to the lips. Some people "swell" more than others in that regard, the same way as some boxers' faces will swell up during a fight while the faces of other boxers almost never show a mark even after being hit a great deal. Only you can really tell where you stand in that range. If you tend to warm up very easily and quickly when you start playing then you do not swell up much. If on the other hand you rarely sound good without say 15 or 20 minutes of playing...all things being equal, like general achievement on the horn...then you are one of those people who tend to swell a little more.

I need some time to get my lips to their normal playing size, myself. And if I have been performing a great deal of really strenuous music for some period of time beforehand...strenuous in a physical sense... then I need even longer to warm up than usual. My balance on the horn has grown accustomed to playing with a bigger reed, essentially. With larger lips, with a little more meat in the m'pce.

Now this is all OK. It's manageable in most situations. Where it is not manageable...and the reason for me personally to have stepped off of the latin scene when I was doing a great deal of NYC commercial studio work in the '70s and '80s...is when you must sit quietly and not play for long periods of time and then play with some fair amount of control and precision. No matter how well warmed up you may be, if your lips...your reed(s), so to speak...have lost their usual size over a period of time you simply will not be able to control them when it comes time to play.

What to do?

As I said above...aim for the middle road in your playing for several days before this kind of work if possible. Warm up well before the gig...warming up for balance, not pyrotechnics...and if possible, buzz your m'pce for a few minutes before you must come in on the gig. Only thing is...often you simply cannot do that, at least not to the degree where you will once again regain your regular lip size. That's why a moderate and rational approach to the instrument over the immediately preceding few days can really help.

My own gig day approach?

No matter how long I must travel from my home to the gig, I warm up to a point of good balance at home first. Then I do what i can at the gig...sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the scene. I also sometimes buzz on the m'pce if I have to travel for more than an hour to get to the gig.

Once you are in performance?

People use the phrase "coming in cold."

One really overlooked aspect of this craft is instrument temperature. Variations of only a few degrees from the temperature at which the horn is habitually warmed by your breath can really affect your initial balance on it, and overly hot or cold rooms (or worse...those with varying temperatures) can exacerbate this problem no end.

You have a entrance coming up?

Blow through the horn for several minutes beforehand.

Works for me...

Something else...m'pce size, rim size and horn size/resistance. Get the right tool(s) for the job. If you are trying to cram big lips into a small m'pce, all balancing aspects are harder. On the other hand, if you are playing relatively high, quiet parts on larger m'pce or horn sizes and you are not well warmed up...well "swollen"...then you will lack the proper resistance of the horn and fall right into it rather than having a good balance.

Balance...

Also...do not drift off. I personally try to never, ever wander away from the performance mentally, even if that performance is boring as hell. That's one reason that I try not to do much repetitive work like B'way shows. I know any number of fine players who can read a book, watch mini-TVs, etc. during a show and never miss an entrance. I envy them their good balance. Myself? I guess my playing system is too complex. I have to be be in the moment pretty much throughout a performance if I am to be able to expect some amount of consistency in my playing. It also helps no end if you are actually hearing the note that you are about to play. This sounds like a no-brainer, but it's not. Not really. When distracted we often really only "feel" the upcoming note on the horn. Pay attention. "Feel" it just a little off? UH oh!!! And there are situations...highly complex or dissonant music and/or really badly written stuff...where if you do not have perfect pitch there is almost no way to be able to ""hear" the upcoming note. I cheat, if necessary. I ghost the note on my horn and/or sing the pitch sotto voce while closing my ears so I can really hear it.

And finally...try not to freak out if things are not working right. This is the hardest lesson to learn. Instead, bear down a little more and if necessary, just gut it out. Initial attack problems after a long rest are usually the scariest thing in these kinds of situations. I have found that long-term practice done in really good internal, non-metronome dictated time is the best answer to this challenge. Once you have truly succeeded in timing in your habitual playing actions, everything gets easier and more reliable. Simply consciously putting myself in good time moments before a cold entrance has proven to me to be the most effective tool of all to deal with problems of this sort.

Good luck.

As a the great composer arranger Marty Shelller recently emailed me in a new list of "Musicians' definitions":

Broadway pit job: A prison sentence disguised as a gig.

Or as I have often described orchestral-style work for a brass player...especially for one who does not totally specialize in that skill and even more especially in movie score recording session of that type:

Hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

Yup.

Besides the musical things that I have suggested above...if you are going to be in these kinds of situations, learn to keep a straight face and develop the guts of a cat burglar.

You be bettah off.

Have fun...

S.

[PTCruiser42]

Keep your mouthpiece in your pocket and buzz on it occasionally to keep both the mouthpiece and your chops warm. Without looking like a daft fool, pick up your trombone and blow warm air through the horn with out a mouthpiece. It shouldn't make that much noise at all. Depends on how long you have to leave it as well. If you have to leave it for an hour or so, warm the horn in the last 10 minutes. If you have to leave it for 10 minutes or so, then leave it off the stand and blow through it.

[blast]

You get used to pretty much anything. More than 25 years of opera means more than 25 years of sitting for ages, then being expected to play very loud or very soft very well.... it kills the newbies, but they adapt. If it is lots of rest then loud, I HAVE to be really well blown in before the show. Boheme at the moment... just that deal. Mozart is okay... the part IS your warm-up.
Love Sam's quote.... 'hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror' I've done that show 

Chris Stearn

[BassBoneFL]

One thing that helped me in the transition from "always having to warm-up before I can REALLY play" to the more "real life" of your described situation..... warm up 'til the point of fatigue right before the gig starts. Then after 30+ mins of sitting around you'll feel like "normal" when you pick up your horn.

[Gabe Langfur]

Sam pretty much covers it - as usual

I can add this: I often do something that, if I remember right, was advice from Jeff Reynolds. I think he calls them "mouthpiece presses." Before a cold entrance, bring the mouthpiece to your face, lips together in playing position. Then press a bit - not harder than you play, really, just enough to feel where the mouthpiece sits in the groove. This seems to stimulate a bit of the blood flow that gets the chops up to size. I usually find this better than buzzing softly.

[sabutin]

One thing that helped me in the transition from "always having to warm-up before I can REALLY play" to the more "real life" of your described situation..... warm up 'til the point of fatigue right before the gig starts. Then after 30+ mins of sitting around you'll feel like "normal" when you pick up your horn.

Different strokes for different body types and approaches to the instrument.

When I do that, my chops stiffen up after a long period of sitting. Then it's like trying to play on a pair of racing bike tires.

Try everything; use what works. For you.

S.

[sabutin]

Sam pretty much covers it - as usual

I can add this: I often do something that, if I remember right, was advice from Jeff Reynolds. I think he calls them "mouthpiece presses." Before a cold entrance, bring the mouthpiece to your face, lips together in playing position. Then press a bit - not harder than you play, really, just enough to feel where the mouthpiece sits in the groove. This seems to stimulate a bit of the blood flow that gets the chops up to size. I usually find this better than buzzing softly.

I'll try that, Gabe.

Sounds interesting.

Sam

[dbradley88]

Sam's comment "When I do that, my chops stiffen up after a long period of sitting. Then it's like trying to play on a pair of racing bike tires" pretty much describes me as well.  I have always been a slow warmer-upper and inclined to stiffen up during breaks, etc.  But I want to thank you all for your insightful replies to my original question. I will try them all and give you a progress report.  BTW, the opening phrase starts on a  winds its way through  and  finishes on  - not such a problem under ideal conditions but a nice challenge without a real warmup.  Again, thanks!

[kbiggs]

Sam pretty much covers it - as usual

I can add this: I often do something that, if I remember right, was advice from Jeff Reynolds. I think he calls them "mouthpiece presses." Before a cold entrance, bring the mouthpiece to your face, lips together in playing position. Then press a bit - not harder than you play, really, just enough to feel where the mouthpiece sits in the groove. This seems to stimulate a bit of the blood flow that gets the chops up to size. I usually find this better than buzzing softly.

Gabe, Sam,

I remember this exercise from a master class with Jeff Reynolds.  It was in high school, perhaps 1980 or 1981--I was an observer, not a participant.  He described essentially the same as you have, Gabe--lips in playing position (embouchure formed), but press a little harder than you would for playing, and only for about one second.  Take the mouthpiece off for 5-15 seconds.  Repeat two more times. 

He also said this technique can help if you haven't warmed up in the day and you're on your way to a gig--you can do this in the car--or you just breezed in the door with 5-10 minutes before downbeat.  (It's happened to all of us at one time or another.)   

I've also used this technique during gigs with long rests, or concerts where you are tacet for 10-30 minutes and then have a crucial entrance, like Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, etc.  I'll press only once or twice in this situation.  It helps the lips feel warmed up when the warm-up was a while ago. 

***

One other thing about playing cold: it's a skill that has to be practiced.  One of my teachers gave me some instructions for practicing Bolero and Brahms 1:  Take a day to do this.  Warm-up decently, then go sit down for 10-20 minutes (depending on the piece).  After the rest, pick up the horn and play the piece.  Do something constructive during the rest: study, read a book, meditate, catch up on email... Repeat as many times as you can in one day. 

[Andrew Meronek]

I think the best you can do is keep your mouthpiece handy and buzz on it occasionally.

Lots of great advice in this thread, but this is one which I disagree with a bit.  I don't see the value of doing this one, because the time when you need to be ready to play is the beat in the music where you play.  There's no need to stay constantly warmed-up, and bring on fatigue.

Now, doing some mouthpiece buzzing 5 or 2 minutes before, I can see.  But not on-and-off for a half-hour.

Some people really do need a good amount of warmup, but IMHO many people do not.  I think that extended warmups can be a mental safety net brought on by years of teaching long tones/slurs/etc. as a warmup, when in reality those are technical exercises used to reinfore good technique.

Of course, I am a fairly energy-conservative fellow, and I have experimented on my own to figure out the minimum warmup that I need: 30 seconds of mid-range playing does it.  And I can play cold if I need to.

[Kiwito]

I doubt that I can add much insight to this dilemma but I can share some experience on the subject.
I played euphonium in the New Zealand Army Band when I was younger and many, many times we would be standing "idle" on parade grounds for 20-30 minutes at a time. Then on command we would bring instruments to the ready and....play. No time to even scratch your butt let alone warm the instrument up. It became second nature after a while and within 4 bars or so things would normalize.
You learn to use your ears a lot more as well. Tubas take a whole lot longer to warm than the cornets so there were always tuning issues in those first few bars, but you learn quickly to compensate and get on with it.
I would agree with the idea of playing, stopping, playing harder, stopping etc to get used to these extremes. It builds confidence. Good luck.

[Exzaclee]

I don't wish to detract from any of the great advice already posted (particularly by Mr. Burtis, Gabe and biggs) but having been in a few positions where I was doubling a lot I may have a little insight to lend.

On a recent wind symphony gig i had I was playing Euph for half of the concert and Trombone for the last half. Also, the last three years I was on cruise ships I was playing piano and trombone so I've had to deal with the "cold horn dilemma" quite a bit.  When practicing, I'd keep a mental note of where the tuning slide was when i was stiff and cold and the horn was stiff and cold - and later when i'd return to the room with relatively warm chops, i'd check the tuning before the horn got warm so i'd have a general idea of where the tuning slide needs to be when the room is cold.   Check the temperature of the bell with your hand, forehead or whatever feels like a reliable gauge of temperature to you.  Of course your lips on the mouthpiece often tell you all you need to know if it hasn't been in your pocket.  It's not an exact science by any means, but every little bit helps.  In the pit in the lounges where I worked on ships the ambient temperature could get pretty low, and sometimes i'd have about 5 seconds to get the horn up to my face (from behind a behemoth of a keyboard in very cramped quarters mind you) and blow the 2nd tenor part on a saxophone soli.  I'd just have to have the horn tuned cold, and i practiced those tunes cold to have an idea of how it felt.  If there was any doubt i'd just push the tuning slide almost all in (about 1/8" out) and use the "big tuning slide" for any adjustments.

And one thing Mr. Burtis states that I can't stress enough, is the guts part.  Fear will kill those cold entrances.  Preparation kills fear.

[rmcmurrian]

Jay Friedman has an excellent article on his web site regarding having to play cold and sound like you know what you are doing. 

[kbiggs]

Jay Friedman has an excellent article on his web site regarding having to play cold and sound like you know what you are doing. 

Do you remember which article it is?  He's got a lot of them.  Perhaps a link...?

[rmcmurrian]

On his web site, take a look at his Reflections article "It is Fundamental," dated 11/09/09.

[kbiggs]

Thanks.  With over 50 articles, and having dutifully read them all  , I just couldn't remember which one it was... 

[fluor]

Sing. Sing sing sing sing.

If you just sing musically, and use your air well, a lot will fix it self.

Also, Ben van Dijk has a similar thing to Reynolds' (didn't he study with Jeff Reynolds?): Put your finger in front of the mouthpiece, then blow (no air should come through the mouthpiece, resulting in no sound). Rest and repeat some times.

[savio]

It helps to keep the mouthpiece some warm before playing. Then its not so cold.....wow    (strange english or.. )

Leif

[fluor]

Some players think plastic mouthpieces help them coming in cold

[Fishlips]

stop telling yourself you need a warm horn to sound good. Practice picking your horn up during the day and sounding good from the first note. Many private lesson teachers do this everyday and Orchestral trombonists too.

Excellent suggestion. Case in point...our principal trombonist was late to rehearsal and flopped in his chair right on the downbeat of the Mozart Overture to Magic Flute which has a rangy first part that stays around high C. He nailed every note, perfectly in tune, on a cold Bach 42B that came right out the trunk of his cold car.

In opera especially, you'll have LONG periods of rest and if on first part will often have to nail really high notes right out of the gate, or really soft low notes that don't speak well on a cold horn.

You can practice playing cold, true, but it's a mind-set too. You just gotta be good at it.

[cmillar]

All the precious suggestions and ideas are great.

Here's another.... say you have a cold horn coming out of the trunk of your car, or you just have time to get your horn out of it's case and may have only a few minutes before the gig.

Try finding some warm/hot water and a cup of some kind..... (maybe that coffee cup you had in the car on the way to the gig!)

Get your slide section, and pour the warm water into it..... move the slide a couple of times..... take the slide apart...... dump out the water safely somewhere .... (like in the tuba players bell or somewhere.)..... put slide back together.

This water will warm up your lead-pipe and slide, and make your horn respond nicely..... and helps to re-energizes your old slide cream or whatever as well in order to get you through the first set or to the first break.

I learnt this from Sharman King in Vancouver. He's the master at pulling the horn from the trunk of his car and getting a beautiful sound! Maybe he learnt this in the late sixties when he was in the Buddy Rich band and had to get off the bus and be ready to play.... or else he found that it worked for all the session work and gigging he's done over his career.

But, it

[macbone]

Trumpet great Bill Vacchiano allegedly ghosted the first note or 2 just before a tricky entrance, cold or not.  This works well for me too.  Also, just as athletes and soldiers train in extreme conditions, I think it's important to practice cold on purpose sometimes to see how well you can do.  This was mentioned earlier and I'm an advocate.  Train hard, battle easy!

[DocHoss]

The two most useful things for this are the two shortest: air, and ear.  Get used to blowing a little more air when you first start your playing session, and the lips will fall where they're supposed to.  And if you know what it's supposed to sound like (in your ears) and don't think much about the mechanics of it, it will just happen.  Then you win!

To let you know, I have quite a bit of experience playing cold.  When I was with Synergy Brass, we would often have 7:30am shows for band classes after travelling literally all night to get there from the show the night before.  This would usually leave us just enough time to pull the horn from the case, put it together, slam it to our lips, and start playing.  I had dozens of shows where the opening of "Procession of the Nobles" by the horn and trumpet would occur when I hadn't even gotten my trombone out of the case yet.  Man, was that fun!

I had to use air and ear to get through it.  Worked well.

[macbone]

Great advice and story, DocHoss.  I can empathize!

[fluor]

It is strange, but I feel that when I am not in top shape, I need much less warm up than if I am in super good shape...

I have been on some school concert tours, and then I don't practice much more than 30 minutes outside of the concerts. I won't be in top shape (good enough for what we are playing of course), and I don't need more than 5 minutes to feel comfortable

[WaltTrombone]

The two most useful things for this are the two shortest: air, and ear.  Get used to blowing a little more air when you first start your playing session, and the lips will fall where they're supposed to.  And if you know what it's supposed to sound like (in your ears) and don't think much about the mechanics of it, it will just happen.  Then you win!

To let you know, I have quite a bit of experience playing cold.  When I was with Synergy Brass, we would often have 7:30am shows for band classes after travelling literally all night to get there from the show the night before.  This would usually leave us just enough time to pull the horn from the case, put it together, slam it to our lips, and start playing.  I had dozens of shows where the opening of "Procession of the Nobles" by the horn and trumpet would occur when I hadn't even gotten my trombone out of the case yet.  Man, was that fun!

I had to use air and ear to get through it.  Worked well.

AMEN! Reminded me of a week of kiddie concerts I did a few years back, subbing with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. An early wakeup, a long drive, and the first piece on the program would be the Mambo from West Side Story, followed by the Finale of Beethoven's Fifth (on alto), then the last few bits of Tchaikowski's Romeo And Juliet, and 1812. That was some week! Nothing like smashing out some high B's first thing in the morning.

[Burgerbob]

Sam said what I do- I just put warm air through the horn. If you're sitting at a concert, there's no reason you can't pick it up a few bars early and warm it up.

Some days, I have to go to jazz band rehearsal five minutes after a class with no warmup. I just treat what I'm playing like a warmup (hopefully it's not too low or high) and it all works out. I usually only warm up for maybe 7 minutes on a good day, though.