Hi,

I've been away from home, in a work trip, for one whole week. Even if I knew I wouldn't have much time to practice, I took my mouthpiece with me. I've got Volume 1 of Daniel Bourge's Florilege, so I also took a photocopy of the first page of mouthpiece exercises. But I really couldn't do much. I suppose those exercises are very helpful when you can play them, but how do you get to play them? I'd never done mouthpiece practice before, and all I could get was a weak buzz, and change the pitch with some effort. Since I think I'll be away from home again before my lessons start in October, would anyone recommend me some exercise for when I cannot practice with the horn?

Thanks in advance.

My suggestion is just do your basic lip slur exercises. And then just buzz tunes you know or piece you're working on. Play along with what you hear on the radio.

I'm sure there will be more suggestions.

JOhn's suggestion was good: Play along with what you hear on the radio. (unless you're not the only one in the vicinity) Some people get pretty good at singing by singing along to their favorite songs on the radio, so why wouldn't it work with buzzing a mouthpiece? Once you get comfortable with it though, I would suggest also concentrating a bit on the exercises you have that are designed for this purpose.

It took me a long time to get used to playing with the mpc only. I felt so "silly" -- still do. I'm still not convinced it has any value to my horn playing other than a way to stay in shape when I can't practice. Start with very simple 3 to five note nursery songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or any others you may be more familiar with. I like the radio idea. You might try harmonizing with what you hear on the radio, too.

Valerie Wells
http://bebabe.wordpress.com/
http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/

Thank you very much to everybody. I haven't answered before because I was on another trip. I'll certainly try to play along with the radio, as well as easy tunes. I hadn't realized it, but it will surely be much more fun than just struggling to play scales and exercises I cannot play.

I think that playing only with the mouthpiece is, as Val says, a good way to stay in shape. I don't know whether it has other advantages, but that one is a good one, I think. I've got a job that involves several one-week-long trips each year, so I like to take my mouthpiece with me whenever I can. I don't usually play in my hotel room, because I don't want to disturb other people, but the good part of being away from one's town is that one can afford to sit on a bench on a street and practice without caring about what other people think!