Fingers and Flexibility with a dose of the low range

Today I thought I would go the opposite of last week. Last week I outlined a high range flexibility session using lots of lip. Today, low range and the fingers.

The Routine

  • Breathing - Flow studies and air patterns (use some song you like and rock out)

  • Caruso - 6 note drill. (I use the Flexus Book by Laurie Frink, I do no.1 and no.2)

  • Caruso - 6 note lower octave

  • Flexus - Flexibility One - 1 - 4 (down the octave from written, and as written)

  • Flexus - Flexibility Two - Flexando 1 (Use all the notes of the horn’s harmonic series, all F-horn side)

  • Flexus - Flexibility Four - 1 (as high as you can)

  • Brophy Technical Studies book - Low range nos.3 and 5.

  • Low range scales - various rhythms and articulations. Repeated on each note. Pick several scales and several patterns. Spend time getting in and out of that range.

  • Low range flutter scales - Quarter notes, slurred, with flutter tongue. From the top, and the bottom of the scale, 1 octave.

  • Spiders - Pick a couple (Flexus book has these) (The Dufrense Routine does as well, exercise no.3 The difference between these is that the Flexus approach is chromatic from a pivot as the Dufrense is scale based.)

  • Farkas Book - Low range (First half, and extend it all the way down to F123 (harm 2) repeat this 3 times with a short rest 30 - 45 seconds in between.

  • Kopprasch Pick one, down the octave.

That is it.

Comment, share, like, and see you next time.

Clarke, Schlossberg, and Lip flips.

The session today is based around some of my favorites, Clarke, Schlossberg and others. This is a “primary session” so it is based around the nuts and bolts of playing.

The Routine

  • Some breathing, your choice, I also threw in some constructive rest (Alexander technique) today.

  • Clarke 3 - Play each one twice, once slurred, once tongued. Aim for keeping these as soft as possible.

  • Schlossberg - No. 13 Quarter = 40 try to not telegraph which way the slur is about to go.

  • Schlossberg - No. 20 Half = 60 Legato tongue

  • Schlossberg - No. 64 Quarter = 60 mf only, Final note down two octaves (harm 2)

  • Schlossberg no.62 - First two lines, as fast as you can do them clean. All lip slurs, as written and down the octave. Once slurred, once tongued.

  • Schlossberg no.59 - As written, fast as clean. One time slurred, one time tongued.

  • Brass gym - Lip flips. Major third, Perfect fourth low, octave (on 1 side of the horn only), perfect 5th low.

  • Flutter tongue scales in the low range. (can’t flutter?)

That is it.

Comment, share, leave a like, and thanks for stopping by.

Gekker and Schlossberg for control and ease

The session today makes use of Chris Gekker’s book Endurance Drills for Performance Skills and the Schlossberg book again. If you don’t have the Gekker book you could find similar approaches in Clarke, Shuebruk, and Nagel. I just really like the Gekker book, it is also a nice way to take a step back from the Clarke book and let that refresh itself.

Once we hit our stride this becomes a back and forth of technical and flow/flex. Also pay close attention to the concepts of the Gekker book and what is being worked on, spoiler, it isn’t speed.

The Routine

  • Breathing exercises - Flow but focusing on expanding the breath (so instead of working to in for 1 out for 1, work your way up to something like in for 16 out for 16 with a metronome at 52 bpm. Great one to use a breathing tube with)

  • Schlossberg no.6 down an octave. This is just so we start on Harmonic 4 instead of 8.

  • Schlossberg no.12 (as written)

  • Schlossberg no.21 and ascending on the Bb horn.

  • Gekker no.1 going as high as can be controlled. No tension or straining in the Gekker exercises.

  • Schlossberg no.15

  • Gekker no.3

  • Schlossberg no.25 (same was as in the Schlossberg session starting on the harm 4 C)

  • Gekker no.7

  • Schlossberg no.52 (following procedures from the Sclossberg session)

  • Gekker no.10

  • Etude of choice, I’d go with Kopprasch or Kling, something focusing on articulation and moving around the horn to reinforce what we worked on.

That is it. It is a focused session and heavy work. If you start losing the ability to keep it in control, jump to the etude after a 5 minute break and call it.

The commercial drill

So there is a sporting event today. One thing I love to do when watching something full of break and commercials is what I call the “commercial drill”.

Here is how it works

Tools: Horn, metronome, random number generator.

When the commercial begins grab your horn and get to town. Set the random number generator to have a range of say 42 - 136 this is your tempo range. You will also want a way to pick note duration (quarter, eighth, triplets, sixteenths, quintuplets, etc.), and scale.

  • Hit those randomizers, when you get your results play the scale up one octave, down two, up one. Then break right into the arpeggio to cover the same range. (do various articulations)

  • Rep the scale a few times with different note duration. You can do beat division on each note, or play the scale in that pattern.

Do this until you hit all 12 major and minor scales.

Now you have done all your scales, you feel great. But now what, there are more sportings going on. Time to up the anti. Interval time. Using the same setup as before just add one more way to pick a random interval, I use thirds through tenths. Get your scale, your intervals, and for fun let’s just go max range. Start from the bottom and work all the way to the top of your range (Singer style)

Repeat the above using the outcomes until you guessed it, all 12 major and minor scales.

More sports? More fun!

Now we are going to do non-standard scales, pentatonic, Limited transpositions, whole-tone, diminished, etc. You get the idea this is all about fluency and breaking the normal habits we all have

That is it, happy sporting watching and happy scales.


Practice session - General morning

Today’s session is another mixed bag. It isn’t based around anyone book, it is “practice aid heavy” but that is alright. It is also going to be a pretty quick one, so lets go.

The Session

  • Breathing exercises (5 min)

    • Inhalation with a Triflo

      • 4 reps with each ball

    • Peak flow meter 8 reps going for target

  • Long Tones (pick 4 pitches, do them in all octaves with hairpins)

    • Do these with a tuner or pitch visualizer for stability

  • Scales numbers are scale degrees

    • 1-5-1-5-1-9-5-9-5-9-1-3-5-8-10-12-10-8-5-3-1 (in 16th notes, various articulations, pick several scales)

    • Major Pentatonic scales over 3 octaves

    • Whole tone scale from G over the entire range of the horn slurred and tongued

    • 1 octave descending scales with flutter tongue, going over the break

  • Lip slurs (recorded and reviewed.)

    • Farkas style

      • Play the quarter note version that starts on middle C (or Harm 5 of whatever valve combo you are using) complete the exercise. Take a deep breath and do the 8th note version from the bottom (harm 2)

  • Etude

    • Kopprasch no.13 with repeats

      • As written and down the ocatve.


That is it, another quick and focused one, the next post will be some insight into why I don’t have a set routine. So until then, happy horning.




Rehearsal day morning session

So, a reason there haven’t been tons of practice logs this week, I have been busy in rehearsals for a show with Timepoint next week in Edmonton, as well as preparing for giving a masterclass. This all leads to this post. I have a few short routines I like to do really early in the morning, we are talking around 6 or 7am on rehearsal days.

Leave a comment, hit like, or share, enjoy the session below.

The Session

Done best with some caffeine

  • Stretch and breath.

    • The goal here is to jump start in to the day. Focus on air.

  • Adams Simple long tones (you may notice I really like these…)

  • Teuber 7a and 7b

  • Remington slurs, starting at T0 and work down

    • Slurred and tongued

  • Scales (use dice, or another random way to pick scales) About 5 minutes worth.

    • Do lots of different patterns, throw in arpeggios, etc.

    • Lots of different scales, the random choice can be the starting note for pentatonic, limited transpositions, etc.

  • Some kind of power work/loud playing for a few minutes.

    • Stamp Power exercise or Schlossberg no. 17 (in a bunch of diff. articulations) are some of my go to choices.


That’s it, short and sweet, but it gets me locked in. I vary this a bunch, but the elements remain the same.

Happy Horning

First session of the day with Plog

Today I am going to share my session out of the Plog books, it was how I started my day and thought it was a good candidate for the blog today.

There is a bit more writing today, since certain aspects need to be explained (exercise no.4b as an example)

About the books, they are broken into sections. For example in Book 1 you will see more than one no.1, BUT it will in a diff grouping of warm up I, or II, etc. I tried to make it clear below, when you see a section show up stay in that section until a new one is mentioned in bold.

The Session

  • Constructive rest (Alexander Technique) (Learn about it here if you haven’t studied Alexander)

  • Breathing Exercises- I did the following ones

    • 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

    • Inhale therapy - sips - Exhale therapy x 2

      • First time with a total seal, second time with a leak.

  • Bill Adams long tones (not the advanced set) Start on a G in the staff, one tone at a time work your way outwards (G,F#,Ab,F,A,etc..) until G.

  • Plog Bk.1 -Warm up exercises I - 1a/c/e/g

    • Variation - do cells on the B horn only, the f horn only, and normal.

    • Buzz some (On a BERP if you have one)

  • Plog Bk.1 - 2b/d

    • Extend these patterns by repeating the last two notes down the octave

  • Take a short rest, stretch something that is tight.

  • Plog Bk.1 - 4a/b

    • 4a - first 3 notes are lip slurs, start F0 go all the way down through the B horn.

    • 4b - first 5 notes are lip slurs, as are the final 7 (only 1 not isn’t) on the F horn versions. The B horn harmonics don’t work for the same patter once you hit the written F so lip slur what you can but do those all on the B horn.

  • Plog Bk.1 - Warm up exercises II - 1a/b/d

    • All normal fingerings.

  • Plog Bk.1 - Warm up exercises III - 2b/c/d

  • Plog Bk.1 - Warm up Etude no.1

  • Take another short rest, stretch something out.

  • Plog Bk.5 - No.1

    • Use your own judgment how much of this one you do., there are TONS OF PATTERNS, don’t forget about the B horn, transpose some down the octave, they still work. Some of these can get wicked high with the B horn.

      • My usuall approach is play as written startign on 123 and working up and through the B horn all the way to T0. THEN do it down the octave SLOWLY on the F horn.

  • Plog Bk.5 - no.8

    • The third line only.

  • Plog Bk.5 - no.9

    • First line only.

  • Rest

  • Plog Bk.5 - no.9

    • Third line

  • Plog Bk.5 - Flexibility Etude no.4

    • After you get through it, if you don’t need to work on parts of it, repeat the first phrase down the octave

That is it, that is all.

Happy horning.

3 horn duets inspired by Concone and Bordogni

Getting back in shape after the break

Here we are, full of cheese and confused. Perhaps there is a light layer of dust on the horn from the holidays. WELL it is time to brush it off and get back at it.

The slow methodical build

This one is my favourites when I have time on my side. The idea behind it is to start in slow digestible chunks and focus on efficiency and the basics of sound production. It breaks down like this:

  • First session:

    • Buzzing with the mouthpiece, simple melodies, or the Jacobs exercises. (Use a tuner/drone, etc)

    • Easy long tones. 6 note exercise from Caruso is great here. (I like to use tonal energy with the pitch visualizer for stability)

    • Simple lip slurs, harmonics 4-5-6 in various configurations, but always adjacent. Do these with a BERP and on the horn. (did someone say metronome?)

    • Kopprasch no.2

    • Concone lyrical studies no.1

  • Second Session (we are only doing two today.)

    • Teuber no.1

    • Teuber 3a

    • Kopprasch - Pick a couple

    • Concone lyrical studies - Pick a couple

    • Improvise something, work off a lead sheet, etc.

  • Third Session (for after the first day, be aware how you feel don’t push to far to soon)

    • Long tones- Start on a G below treble clef, ascend with diminished arp. (G, Bb, Dd, E, etc.) Up until it stops being easy. Then descend with the same pattern all the way to the pedal range. (Same as session 1, drone/tuner/pitch visualizer etc)

      • Change the starting note each day, or do multiple reps changing the starting pitch.

    • Scales - be creative… if you need a systematic approach, set a timer for 20 minutes, grab the Schantl Scale book and start going, leave a bookmark, pick up from where you left off. (Great option for drone work). Another great option is the Modern Jazz Trumpet by Eric Bolvin.

    • Arbans - no. 16 - 27. Work up to playing them all twice, once tongued once slurred, various dynamics, do them in various registers as well.

    • Improvise something, work off a lead sheet, etc.

  • General note

    • This is sort of day one and a third session. Expand on the concepts working back to your regular approach/routines.

    • Start off with a practice mute for a few minutes, this can really help stay open and get the chops working.

    • BUZZ often, use a BERP, etc.

    • Focus on the basic mechanics, process over product.

    • Make sure to make use of practice tools, drones, etc. We want to get our ears back in the game as well.

Just some ideas. I think personally the important part is to get your feet back under you and not get out of the gate too soon. Read… don’t injure yourself.

3 horn duets inspired by Concone and Bordogni