Re: Brass playing in the morning


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Posted by Joshua Cutchin on January 15, 2002 at 15:39:11:

In Reply to: Brass playing in the morning posted by Graham W. on January 15, 2002 at 15:20:03:

Graham,
I'll never forget the first time when, in 7th grade, my overzealous best friend and I woke up and immediatly decided to try playing our newly assigned instruments. Frac city. I know exactly the sort of thing you're talking about, and it's something that I've paid quite a bit of attention to in my playing.
I have found that if you wear contact lenses, for example, you'll play better with them than with your glasses. I think the key to the whole "morning playing" problem is merely a state of mind. If you're fully dressed and rearin' to go (i.e. at what I call a "musically enthusiastic" opportunity such as All-State) your body will thusly be more awake than in a (comparably) everyday situation. However, if you can trick your body into feeling "more awake" - doing such things as morning stretches, putting in contacts, etc. - you will find that you have a much more consistent morning practice time. Regardless, I have found that playing in the morning will decrease any uneccessary warm-up time later in the day (I had to go three hours away for a lesson one Saturday, and had to arrive warmed up... I ended up having to play at 6:00 AM), and maybe you can use that extra time behind the horn to do some things that you had planned to do earlier.
~ Josh


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