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Master Class — Chops Goals: A Three-Part Practice Regimen Designed for Long-Term Trumpet Achievement
A Jazz Educational Series
by Sean Jones
I have been approached by many jazz trumpet players
inquiring about “chops” endurance, flexibility and other pedagogical
aspects of performance. I immediately refer to my classical studies and
bring up various exercises, etudes, excerpts and methods that I’ve
worked on. After answering questions about these issues, I am almost
always asked how to incorporate this into jazz and how to practice
these exercises and have time to work on jazz performance.
This always amazes me. Many trumpet players—musicians in general, for
that matter—go through their careers without an effective, daily
practice routine that incorporates the musicianship necessary to play
jazz and the pedagogical skills to execute musical ideas clearly. I
believe this is due to the overwhelming task that many aspiring jazz
trumpet players face. Not only do you have to spend hours gaining
technique, flexibility, range and correct breathing practices, but you
have to practice lines, chords, tunes, patterns and other components of
jazz pedagogy without getting fatigued. All of this practice can be
frustrating without a clear plan.
Throughout my early study, I had teachers and mentors who
instilled in me the importance of having great technique and facility
as well as a good working knowledge of jazz practices and pedagogy.
While studying these aspects of playing, I began to come up with a
practice routine that fit my needs and helped me accomplish my goals.
Over the years, I have adjusted it slightly as I accumulate knowledge,
taking what I can from every method of study that I come across and
assessing whether it fits my needs and is applicable to my general way
of playing.
Before developing a practice routine, you must have clear goals in
mind, both long-term and short-term. You have to decide what kind of
player you would like to be. This will help you have a clear focus
while studying musical and pedagogical ideas. About 15 years ago, I
wrote out my career goals in five-, 10-, 20-, 30- and 40-year
increments, accounting for what genres of music I wanted to play, what
bands I wanted to play in, and what type of music I wanted to write and
perform in my own bands. From this, I devised a plan of action.
I researched what techniques and skills I would need to achieve
these goals, found people with similar career paths and sought advice.
I began to take the knowledge that I learned and came up with a
practice schedule that would help me achieve these goals—a routine that
would give me musical and technical proficiency. This routine breaks
down into 10-, five-, three- and one-year goals, as well as quarterly,
monthly, weekly and daily goals, which mirror my plan of action. I
continue to use the bulk of the routine that I developed years ago.
My daily routine is broken down into three segments. First, I
have my maintenance routine, which includes exercises that are used to
maintain basic trumpet technique and proficiency. Included are
expansive long tones, flow studies, Herbert L. Clarke exercises 1–3,
tongue slurs, scales and arpeggios. This routine typically lasts about
an hour-and-a-half and includes 15 minutes of silence at the start and
an assessment period at the end. The silence prepares my mind for
practicing, and allows me to assess progress in the practice session
when it is complete. The assessment is documented in a daily journal,
which contains daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals as a reminder of
why I am practicing.
Due to fatigue and time constraints, it is not possible for most people
to practice all day. Therefore, it is crucial that you practice with
your mind as frequently as you practice with your body. Meditation on
practice routines and goals will help to reinforce muscle memory and
personal assessment and achievement.
During my second practice routine, ranging from an hour to an
hour-and-a-half, I include articulation exercises, various etude books
including the Marcel Bitsch, Jean-Baptiste Arban, Theo Charlier and top
tones books. I also incorporate excerpts from symphonic repertoire as
well as solo literature from the classical genre. These methods and
repertoire are crucial in the reinforcement of a daily maintenance
routine. They reinforce basic tone production, clear articulation, flow
and flexibility.
If you choose to use jazz repertoire to achieve this type of
reinforcement, you must keep in mind that the primary aim of this
practice session is to reinforce instrumental pedagogy. The difficult
in using jazz repertoire to reinforce pedagogy is that it’s easy to get
caught up in the musicality of jazz and the freedom of it and not focus
on the discipline that it takes to reinforce trumpet pedagogy. This is
why I stick to the classical repertoire, as instrumental discipline is
established and reinforced in the genre. This is not to say that it
isn’t present in jazz. However, in most studying, a direct association
is made between instrumental pedagogy and the classical genre. Perhaps
in the future, those of us who have studied both genres will began
writing excerpt books and etudes that focus on instrumental techniques
inside of jazz.
My third practice session, being my longest (one-and-a-half to two
hours), is dedicated to jazz. This session includes transcribing solos,
learning tunes, and working on lines, patterns and harmonic concepts. I
do my best to work on these items in all keys through the cycle of
fourths and in all registers. In a given week, I will have a certain
solo, tunes and harmonic concepts that I’ll work on and have clear
goals that I want to achieve by week’s end. This varies from week to
week, as my second session also varies from week to week. The first
session is typically the same. During my jazz session, I retain the
technical discipline that I’ve worked on in the first two practice
sessions while developing my concepts in jazz. It is important that all
of your practice habits feed into each other. After all, specific goals
all lead to your long-term musical goals and ambitions.
Over time, it is important that the methods you study and
habits you take from others are then refined into your own concept of
playing and practicing. I heard Wynton Marsalis speaking about
Thelonious Monk during one of our Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
concerts and he discussed something that Monk said in regard to genius.
He said, “Monk believed that a true genius is the person who is most
like himself.”
This is also true in your practice routine. Your greatest
development will come through your self-discovery in the process. After
careful study of everyone else’s methods and assessment of what works
for you, you will put together your own plan and achieve what you wish,
your way. DB
5:59 PM
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