www.indyjazz.org > Education Resources > Articles > Practicing Without the Horn

There are many ways to practice and actively improve your playing without using your horn. These include mental practice, physical exercise, breathing exercise, isometric exercise of your embouchure, free buzzing, and mouthpiece practice. While I will be presenting these techniques from the point of view of a brass player, several of them can be used by all musicians. I have found these techniques to be a valuable augmentation and enhancement of my regular daily practice. I have also found that these techniques help me maintain my musical abilities when I am away from my horns - for example, while I am on vacation. While these techniques have worked very well for me, remember that no two people are exactly alike. You should modify these exercises so that they work best for you. Above all, be active in your practice. Practicing without a goal, without concentration, or "just going through the motions" can result in a loss of musical ability and is just a waste of your time. During any day, there are many "down" times that do not require mental concentration. These are great times to use mental practice to improve your musical ability. This is a technique that many excellent musicians and sports figures use to improve their performance. Remember that mental practice will take all of your concentration. Do not attempt these exercises when your attention is needed elsewhere - for example, while driving. You can mentally practice anything from simple technical exercises to short musical phrases to complete solos or songs. While mentally practicing, imagine all of the senses you experience while playing your horn. Since you are using your imagination, use your mind's ear to hear the most beautiful tone possible. Imagine a technically accurate and musical performance. Mental practice is a good way to help alleviate stage fright. Visualize yourself on stage confidently performing with musical and technical perfection. The book "The Inner Game of Music" (Doubleday, written by Barry Green with W. Timothy Gallwey) is an excellent source for more information on this subject. All musicians should own this book. In National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation, Wayne Newton states "a singer's body is his instrument and I believe in keeping my instrument finely tuned." While this statement was used for comedic effect in the movie, it is a statement that is true for all musicians. Your body is your instrument and you should keep it finely tuned. Aerobic and cardio-vascular exercises such as brisk walking, running, or swimming will help develop lung capacity. Sit-ups help develop abdominal muscle strength. Push-ups help develop both abdominal and intercostal muscle strength. You should try to keep your throat, tongue, facial muscles, and fingers relaxed while exercising. This separation of muscle groups mimics performance. When you play your horn you have to contract your abdominal and intercostal muscles while keeping your throat, tongue, fingers, and arms relaxed. Staying physically fit will also help the mental aspects of playing. Your body is your instrument and your lungs are its power supply. Breathing exercises will help you develop lung capacity and intercostal strength. The breathing exercise that I like is as follows. While walking briskly breathe in for five steps (a full breath), hold for five steps, breathe out for five steps (exhale completely), hold for five steps, and repeat. You can modify this exercise by adjusting the number of steps either up or down. You can do this exercise anytime that you are walking. It will help your upper range and your ability to play longer phrases. When doing this exercise, practice keeping your throat, tongue, facial muscles, and fingers relaxed. Brass players, especially those who play in the upper register, must have embouchures with very firm corners. Firm corners help secure the upper register, increase endurance, and reduce excessive mouthpiece pressure. You can use isometric exercise of the embouchure muscles, especially the orbicular oris, to help strengthen the corners. To do this exercise, form your embouchure and firm the corners. Hold this set until the corners start to burn. Once you feel the burn, try to hold your set for an additional one to two minutes. Do this exercise two are three times each day. As with any exercise, try to isolate the muscles you are working on by keeping all other muscles as relaxed as possible. It is especially important to keep your tongue relaxed. It also helps to keep your breathing regular and relaxed. Free buzzing is the process of playing without your horn or mouthpiece. Free buzzing can help set the embouchure, develop embouchure strength, develop a pitch/embouchure relationship, and improve tone quality by encouraging a soft and resonant embouchure center. When free buzzing, it is very important to use the same embouchure that you use while playing. It is also very important to keep the aperture (the embouchure hole that you blow the air through) in the exact same position that it is while you are playing your horn. You might want to start by playing a D4 (bottom of the treble clef) on your horn, buzzing the same note on your mouthpiece, and then free buzzing the same note. Once you get a good free buzz sound with your normal embouchure setting, trying working both up and down from D4. The free buzzing exercise that I found to be most beneficial is simply glissing down from the starting pitch. This will help you develop a soft and relaxed aperture. Other free buzzing exercises you can do include glissing up, buzzing scales, and buzzing simple tunes. Be sure to check your free buzzing setting often to make sure that it is the same as your normal embouchure. When free buzzing, be sure to isolate your embouchure muscles from all of your other muscles. It is important to keep all of your tongue, neck, arm, and finger muscles relaxed. Mouthpiece buzzing has the same benefits as free buzzing and is a little bit easier to do. Follow the same warnings and suggestions that apply to free buzzing. Again, it is crucial that your mouthpiece buzzing embouchure is exactly the same as your regular playing embouchure. If you are having trouble playing a particular passage on your horn, try buzzing the same passage several times on your mouthpiece. When you go back to playing the passage on your horn, you will find that it is much easier to play and that you will have a much better tone. While there is no substitute for practice with the horn, these techniques can help maintain your playing abilities when you have to be away from the horn. They are also an excellent way to enhance your regular daily practice and improve your skills. Use them carefully and conscientiously and you will see great improvement in your playing.