A New Approach to Long Tones.

I had a few epiphanies today:

  If you've read my recent blogs, which you should, because it makes me feel better about myself (kidding) you'll know that I've been fighting to repair a few kinks in my technique. As I explained to my mom, fixing my technique is like fixing a watch. Even if only one or two things aren't working you have to take the whole thing apart to identify what isn't working and then fix it. This got me thinking a lot about what I do in the practice room because my biggest problem is too much tension. Consequently, a few things have happened over the past few days that might have opened a few doors towards getting my technique on track and I may have gotten a few pretty interesting ideas about how for me, and maybe others like me, to practice in a smarter manner.

  On Friday I was very fortunate to have a lesson on 'body mapping' with a guru on the subject; Dr. Stephen Caplan. For those who aren't familiar with body mapping, it's a discipline with the goal of getting the musician's entire body aligned in the best and most natural position for them to play with as little tension and as much comfort as possible. In just an hour of working with Dr. Caplan he was able to identify some issues that I was having even in simply holding my instrument. I saw some fairly significant improvments in one session and that began to carry over to the practice room today.

   So in today's practice session I, like most wind players, began with long tones. They are, of course, one of the absolute most important things we can do, right? Following that it was Lindemann exercises and the first movement of Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche. I was focusing not so much on the exercises or the Milhaud, but on aligning things properly and using only the absolute minimum pressure needed to close or open the keys. It worked! For an hour or so my fingers were flying over the horn deftly, easily...until..

   I began to get tired. I kept catching myself slipping back into my old habits and was having more and more difficulty playing. I didn't want to make it worse so I packed my horn up and went home, contemplating what had just happened and I think I came up with some answers and possible solutions.

  For those who don't know, I have a degree and strong back ground in exercise science. I even spent time as a university strength and conditioning coach (it feels like a lifetime ago). One of the big tenants we preached with our athletes was that when performing complex, technical lifts like the clean or snatch, one should only do a few repetitions per set because as the body fatigued, maintaining proper technique because a really issue and without proper technique, bad things could happen.....including injury.

  Well duh, playing an instrument is a physical activity and a fairly technical one at that. As we fatigue, it stands to reason that our technique and even our approach to the instrument is going to be compromised. Some may have better stamina than others there but eventually it's going to happen, right?

  One of the other things we preached to our athletes was the concept of 'active rest'. Instead of simply sitting down in between sets of an exercise, walk around, stretch, do some push ups, do something light but enough to keep you engaged and keep the blood pumping.

This is what got me thinking about long tones.

  When performing long tones, yes, you are engaged in playing and concentrating (hopefully) on air, tone quality, and intonation against the drone that you should absolutely be using. That's a lot. It isn't so much, however, that you couldn't make sure you are aligned properly (this is where you should find a body mapping or Alexander Technique person. If you've ever done marching band, I can almost guarantee that your alignment is less than great), or keep your hands and wrists nice and relaxed, right? So, you're able to refocus on doing things the right way while still being engaged with practicing and doing something really productive.

   This is what I'm going to do in my next practice session and some of you should try it, too. Begin with a light easy warm up. Start getting into your technical work. When you feel yourself begin to tire physically and mentally...I mean at the first sign of fatigue....get up, get some water, walk around for a second to clear your head, come back and hit long tones. Following that, get water, walk around for a minute, come back and see if you can do technical work comfortably and properly again. Then, finish with another round of long tones. Finishing with long tones allows you to finish on a positive, almost meditative note and you aren't finishing wiped and mad at yourself because you (likely due to fatigue driving technique issues ) couldn't get things right at the end of the practice session.

   What I'm saying here should not be taken to diminish the importance of long tone work. Rather, it should just show that perhaps they could be even more valuable than we know!

Get it a try
Get it done!