Stamping It Out (Part III)

September 11th, 2009 Comments Off

If you began the Stamp routine when I first posted Stamping It Out (part I), you may be
wondering why you have wasted your time on all this silliness while you could have
actually been getting something accomplished in your practice routine. Don’t worry, that
is normal. I felt the same way when I first began this routine, and I put it away for months
before coming back to it and giving it a second chance. You must have a great deal of
patience while learning to play these exercises correctly, but we all know patience is a
virtue, and it will not go unrewarded.

In this last installment of the series on the Stamp book, we will be looking at exercises
4a, 4b, and 5. These exercises are the key to being able to play centered and balanced
throughout the entire range. All of these exercises should be played softly and with
absolute ease. If you feel the need to force, or if you feel out of center, you should stop
the exercise and repeat the bar.

Exercise 4a should be played faster than most people think. This exercise has the
potential to suck the most time out of our practice day with the smallest return on
investment. I play this exercise at dotted half = 60-70, and if you have played these
exercises before, then that is likely much faster than you have been playing it. I see no
reason that this exercise should take a substantial amount of time, though. It is built on
one primary idea: suspending the bottom octave from the position of the upper octave.
This is focused practice on the concept of thinking down while you are going up, and
thinking up while you are going down. This exercise can really help you get the feel of
playing the lower octave with the same embouchure, or same position, as the upper. I find
this technique easier to apply at a faster tempo, as indicated above, than at a slower
tempo. When playing this exercise, be adamant about keeping the embouchure in position
when you make the jump to the lower octave, and be sure to rest at least 2 beats between
bars. If you have had difficulty keeping the lips from collapsing into the mouthpiece as
you descend into the pedal register, then this exercise will be a great resource for you.
Really visualize that you are jumping up an octave, rather than down. Strive to maintain a
focused sound in the pedal register.

Exercise 4b continues the odd numbering practice of this book, as I don’t see these
exercises as anymore related than others in this warm-up. Whatever you number it as,
though, I find this exercise to be the most important in the entire warm-up. Obviously, it
is simply an extension of #3, but it is through this extension that you will likely see the
most significant improvement in your playing. I like to play this exercise at quarter =
100-120. However, if you need to take some time on the ascending arpeggio in order to
stay centered, then you should definitely do so. Make sure to play this exercise softly, and
with no hint of force. Rest at least 4 beats between bars. Repeat any bar that gives you
difficulty or knocks you out of balance. If there is a place to spend extra time in this
warm up, then this exercise is it. The last line of the exercise covers a full 3 octaves to
high C, then has you play a pedal C after a caesura. What you do during this caesura is
extremely important. Play a nice centered and resonant high C, then freeze the
embouchure, take a breath through the nose, and play the pedal C on the same
embouchure set that you played the high C. If you can do this, then you are truly playing
on one embouchure, and you are much closer to being able to play over the entire range
of the instrument with a pure, centered, and resonant sound.

Exercise #5 is the last in the basic warm-up. This exercise blends elements from 4a and
4b. It is extremely important to play the first note of each bar with a “high” setting.
Remember, the first note is high, the last note low. If the lips are allowed to begin this
exercise too relaxed, or puffed into the mouthpiece, then you will not be able to play
through that bar with a controlled, centered, and resonant sound. When you reach the top
note of the bar, release the note and freeze the embouchure just like the last line of 4b.
Breathe through your nose and play the pedal C on the same “set” as the top note. Like
4a, I prefer to play this exercise at dotted half = 60-70. Be sure to rest at least 4 beats
between bars and with the mouthpiece off of the lips. I simply extend this exercise to as
high as I can go, rather than using the extensions indicated on the rest of page 7. You
should try both and see what works best for you. Be cognizant of the amount of
mouthpiece pressure you are using as you ascend into the upper register. If you feel you
are using too much pressure, you probably are.

At this point, especially after you have been doing this warm-up for a while, you should
feel ready to face whatever the day throws your way. The next thing I prefer to do in my
day is skill set exercises, such as articulation, lip flexibilities, Clarke, and more.
However, if I need to jump in and play something at this point, I am more than ready to
do so. Once you have developed the skills required to move through this routine
effectively and consistently at the tempos I have indicated, then this entire warm-up
should take only a half hour, or even less. For those days when you are pressed for time, I
recommend cutting the following exercises, the first one in the list being the first to be
eliminated:

• 4a• 5• 2 (lips alone)• last half of #3 on the mouthpiece.

By cutting these exercises out, you can trim the time required down to about 15 minutes.
It is very important to realize, though, that this should be done only occasionally and out
of necessity. It is critical that these exercises be included in the basic warm-up on a daily,
or at least almost daily, basis. Remember to rest after each bar for a moment with the
mouthpiece off the lips, never force or stretch, and always play these exercises with ease
and grace. By doing so you will see your playing rise to new heights, and you will be able
to concentrate more on the music you are making, and less on how to play the trumpet. I
hope you have enjoyed this series on the Stamp Warm-Up. This routine has proven to be
invaluable to my students and me. I hope they prove to be equally valuable to you. Good
luck!

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Stamping It Out (Part II)

September 11th, 2009 § 2

If you have been playing the Stamp Warm-Up for the first time over the last couple of
weeks, you are probably either already feeling some benefit from it or you are cursing the
day you ever started this exercise. If you are in the latter group, take heart; it will get
better with time, and these exercises will improve your playing.

In this article, we will begin to look at one of the principles that is a cornerstone to the
Stamp philosophy: thinking down while playing up. To speak more precisely, you will
always be thinking in the direction opposite to the direction of the notes. If the music has
a D going down to a G, then you will think D up to a G. “What kind of voodoo is this?”
you may ask, “How is this supposed to help my playing?” Perhaps a more detailed
description will make this clearer.

Imagine that you are playing facing a tall brick wall (if you have an actual brick wall, that
will be even better). Assign each brick its own unique note. The top brick on the wall is
pedal C; the bottom brick is however high you are able to play; Bb, C, or A should be
right in the middle. Before you play any note, find its location on the brick wall, and then
place the note there when you play. Thinking in this manner improves three things: 1) As
mentioned in the book, it helps to keep you from playing sharp in the upper register and
flat in the lower register. 2) It keeps you balanced when you play, preventing you from
puckering out too much when you are in the lower register, and from stretching too much
when you are in the upper register. 3) It gives you a more concrete placement of each
note before you play it. When playing the trumpet, we have almost no visual feedback or
guidance. If you play the piano, you know where every note is; they are all laid out in
front of you. The same thing is true of string instruments, albeit to a lesser degree. With
the trumpet, however, we have almost no visual help. But if you visualize the place each
note resides on your virtual (or hopefully real) brick wall, then it will reinforce to your
body where each note goes, and what is involved in placing it there.

Stamping It Out (Part I) left off with buzzing on lips alone through what should be
marked #2 in the book. Now we will begin the mouthpiece buzzing section of the
routine. Before buzzing #2 on the mouthpiece, I like to take a couple of minutes and get
a good buzz established on the mouthpiece. Buzzing on lips alone and buzzing on the
mouthpiece are very different things. Do not be fooled into thinking that you do them in
the exact same way. Buzzing on lips alone involves a great deal more lip tension than
buzzing the same note on the mouthpiece. For example, if I buzz a Bb in the staff on my
mouthpiece, then remove the mouthpiece from my lips while playing, the corresponding
lip buzz will be roughly an octave lower. So for me, the mouthpiece adds roughly an
octave to my lip buzz pitch. This will vary from player to player, but with everyone I
have done this test on, they lip buzz at least a fourth lower after removing the
mouthpiece. For this reason, I like to buzz a low Bb on the mouthpiece several times
before playing #2 on the mouthpiece. The sound should still be started using the “pooh”
attack as discussed in part I. Play a Bb on the piano, imagine the “brick” that
corresponds with the note (fairly high up the wall), and then buzz the Bb on the
mouthpiece. Allow for the tension to diminish, and listen for a warm resonant buzzing
sound. Repeat several times until you feel comfortable and centered on the Bb. Then,
begin #2 on the mouthpiece.

As you buzz through #2, you should place each note according to its “brick.” As the
musical line ascends, the placement of the note on the wall descends. Conversely, as the
musical line descends, the placement on the wall ascends. This is what is meant by
“thinking up while playing down.” You should perform this exercise with a metronome
at roughly quarter = 60. Begin with a “pooh” attack and sustain the fermata for at least
two and a half beats. Observe the marking over the three eighth notes after the fermata
indicating square corners. This marking indicates that you should not allow yourself to
slide from one pitch to the next, but instead move crisply and quickly. Remember that
you should move through this exercise diatonically rather than chromatically. So the first
one is Bb-C-D-Eb-F, etc., the second is C-D-Eb-F-G, etc., and the third is D-Eb-F-G-A,
and so on. Continue with this exercise as high as you can go without excessive pressure
or strain. Be patient. The range will increase with time. Speaking of pressure, take note
of how James Stamp describes holding the mouthpiece in the book. This is an excellent
way to hold the mouthpiece to help reduce pressure.

The next exercise is #3. This exercise is the centerpiece of the Stamp routine, and great
care should be taken to apply all of the concepts mentioned up to this point on this
exercise. During #3 we venture, for the first time in the book, into the pedal register. It
is imperative that we play pedal tones in the “correct” way if we are to receive the
intended benefit of them. This “correct” way, though, can be difficult to understand. The
main points to remember throughout this exercise are to keep embouchure movement to a
bare minimum and to concentrate intensely on placing each note on its corresponding
“brick.” When you begin the exercise, feel the position of your face, the expression you
are holding. Think of this as your trumpet face. Keep the same face as you play through
the entire exercise. Many people allow themselves a large shift, or allow the embouchure
to collapse into the mouthpiece when descending into the pedal range. Don’t allow this
to happen to you. Train yourself to play into the pedal register with the same
embouchure, the same face as when you play in the middle and upper registers. The key
thing you are trying to establish with this routine is to play in all registers with the same
embouchure, thus improving accuracy, efficiency, control and quality of sound. If you
allow yourself to shift or collapse while descending into the pedal range, it will
undermine the whole purpose of this routine. Remember, even though the book is titled
Warm-Ups, we are using it as a part of the foundation routine as outlined in
Fundamentally Speaking. You should not think of this as a warm-up, but as practice on
the true fundamentals of playing the instrument.

Exercise #3 is to be performed in its entirety, first on the mouthpiece, and then on the
instrument. I like to begin this exercise at approx. quarter = 80, then increase the tempo
to approx. quarter = 100 for the second half of the exercise, which ends with the
ascending arpeggios. When buzzing on the mouthpiece you will likely experience a
natural break somewhere between pedal low G and pedal Eb. This break will be a zone
where it is difficult to get the sound to focus, and perhaps where it is difficult to make a
sound at all. Be very patient when playing through the break, and be absolutely adamant
about maintaining your same embouchure. Keep the same “face” as you descend. This
point is absolutely critical. If you are unable to make it all the way down to pedal C
without shifting, then simply go as low as you are able. From there, skip to the
corresponding place in the second half of the exercise and play it through to the end.

After completing #3 on the mouthpiece, you may find it helpful to do some long tones or
lip bends (to be discussed in a future article), to help ease the transition from buzzing to
playing on the instrument. Mouthpiece buzzing, while closely related to playing on the
instrument, is indeed different from playing the instrument. There is more lip tension
involved in buzzing on the mouthpiece, and that lip tension can be flushed out quite
effectively by doing lip bends or long tones. There is no need to spend more than a
couple of minutes on this before beginning #3 on the instrument.

In spite of all of your efforts, it is likely that you will not play the pedal notes in the most
effective way when you begin. This will result in your finishing the exercise feeling like
you can barely squeeze out the F at the end. This will change with time, patience, and
diligence. It took me about a month before I started feeling good at the end of this
exercise, and you could well experience the same thing. Hopefully, this advice will make
the path a bit easier and quicker for you. Good luck!

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Stamping It Out (Part I)

September 11th, 2009 Comments Off

When it comes to establishing a daily routine and warm up, trumpet players are all over
the map. In spite of this fact, the Stamp Warm-Up routine has found its way into almost
every player’s routine at some point. Usually, it seems that people have just been
introduced to one fragment of the routine, or one exercise. The purpose of this article,
though, is to introduce you to the entire warm up routine as I use it, and as I use it with
my students. When done properly, the Stamp routine can help a student work through
inefficiencies in his technique, and allow him to play in a way that he could previously
only imagine. It is important to remember that I am not trying to pose as a “Stamp
Expert” who knows every in and out of how James Stamp would have instructed a
student to play. Rather, I am presenting to you my ideas of how to use this routine in
order to see real and tangible improvements in your playing. The method has worked for
me, and it has worked for my students. It is because of these experiences that I have
decided it is important to write this article.

The first and most elemental step is simple: buy the book! It is published by BIM and is
titled James Stamp, Warm-Ups + Studies. Don’t make a copy of your buddy’s or your
teacher’s book. Get your own. Why? Because we need companies that print books like
this to make money, so that they can continue printing them in the future. In addition,
when you own your own book you can make all of your own markings in it, and the
commitment you show in purchasing the book will be more likely to be continued into
actual use of the book.

The very first page in the book (page 2) shows some breathing exercises. Do them. The
language in the book is clear, and all of them will improve your breath control, and,
consequently, your playing. I find that I tend to pick just one group and do it each day;
the entire group of four tends to take too long for my taste, so I simply rotate through a
new one each day. You should decide for yourself what works for you.

On page 3 are the Preliminary warm-ups, and it is here that more clarification than the
book offers is needed. I do these exercises on either my Bb trumpet or my C trumpet. If
I am doing them on Bb, then all of the buzzing exercises (lips alone, and mouthpiece) are
done in the key of Bb and starting on a Bb concert. If I am going to use C trumpet, then
they are all done in C and starting on C. If you are new to these exercises, then begin by
using your Bb trumpet exclusively.

Lips alone:
Sit down at a piano with a metronome set to quarter note = 60. Play a Bb below middle
C on the piano (low C on a Bb trumpet), count 1, 2, 3, breathe, then blow on beat 1 as
you bring the embouchure together in a “poo” shape. Don’t confuse this with the act of
forcing the lips together and starting the sound with a percussive “p”. Instead, bring the
lips toward a “poo” shape as if embracing the air stream. You don’t want to force the
vibration to begin, but eventually you should be able to start the vibration exactly on 1.
On your first attempt you may not be able to make any sound, or it may be a tight
anemic-sounding buzz. The sound you want is a full sounding, resonant, focused buzz.
There should be just enough tension in the lips for the sound to be produced, no more.
As I said, you might not be able to make a sound the first time you try. In fact, it may
take several days before you can make a sound with the lips alone, but not usually.
Conversely, it may come very easily, and you may rocket through this exercise in no
time.

Once you are capable of producing the first note, count yourself off and sustain the Bb
for 6 counts. Rest 6 counts while you play a B natural on the piano and then buzz the B
natural for 6 counts. Continue in this manner until you get to F on the piano (middle G
on a Bb trumpet). Again, this may happen the first time you do it, or it may take weeks.
If you are not able to reach the F, do not continue with the rest of the warm-up. Simply
begin your day with this exercise, and then continue with your normal routine. Once you
are able to reach the F, then you can move on to what should be titled #1, the first notated
exercise in the book on page 3.

Exercise #1 should be performed at the piano with a metronome set to quarter = 60. Play
a Bb major triad, then count yourself off and buzz the exercise. During the rest, play a B
major triad on the piano and continue in this manner as high as you can go. You should
still begin the sound with the “poo” attack to better focus the embouchure. Read the text
in the book prior to beginning the exercise. There are some good clues there. When
doing this exercise, I tend to turn the last quarter into a half note. The fermata over the
bar line should be a fixed length and at least 2 beats long. Continue as high as you can
go. It is important to mention that Stamp says you should continue to at least a middle C
(concert Bb by my rules). However, since you just now got to where you can buzz an F
lips alone, it is unlikely that you will be able to go any higher than that, and in fact you
might not make it to that F in the context of the exercise. Don’t worry about it! This is
an oversight in the book. Obviously you could not be expected to suddenly be able to
buzz up to a fourth higher than you were previously capable of going. Again, it may take
a few weeks or more to be able to reach that minimum level of Bb concert. Once you are
capable of that, make a point of going at least that far.

The second exercise on page 3 should really be labeled #2, and it is performed both lips
alone and on the mouthpiece. This exercise should be done in the manner described
above with one notable exception. This exercise is diatonic, meaning that all of the notes
are taken from the C major scale (Bb concert). Thus I play a Bb major chord on the
piano for the first bar, then a c minor chord for the second bar, then a d minor chord for
the third bar, etc. The pitches you buzz should all be members of the Bb (on the piano)
major scale. The fermata on the 5th eighth note should be held at least 2 beats. Continue
this exercise as high as you can go, but remember, if you are just starting out you may
only be able to reach a concert F. Thus, you may only be able to buzz the first bar of the
exercise. This will improve with time.

We will continue discussing the next part of the Stamp warm-up in the next installment
of Stamping It Out in the November 1 issue of LivMusic News. In the meantime, focus
on getting as comfortable as possible with buzzing on the lips alone. Be very patient
with this process; it can be quite foreign when you are just starting out. Until we cover
the rest of the Stamp warm-up, you should just add the lip buzzing to the beginning of the
day, then go about the rest of your normal daily routine. Good luck!

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