How to Practice and What To Practice

When I started playing the trumpet I assumed that by practicing one would automatically improve. This is not true. If one does not practice the correct way, it’s very possible to worsen as a player. Although I had the right motivations I didn’t know how to practice or what to practice.

After years of experimentation and observing how professional musicians practice I’ve managed to put something together that works for me. I hope that with this essay you’ll be able to get some ideas. So here we go…

First a few rules:

· Stay Focused - 1 hour of focused practice is the equivalent of 3-4 hours of unfocused practice.

· Set Goals – Setting goals gives you something to aim for.

· Practice with Purpose - Know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

· Rest as much as you play – The lips are muscles too, if they don’t get proper rest they will deteriorate. Resting also helps to stay mentally fresh.

· Practice with Enthusiasm – If you don’t feel like practicing then don’t. You’ll only be wasting time.

· Accuracy First then Speed will Come

· Practice everything with a great sound


Breaking up your practice into separate sessions is really the key and it’s what’s going to make following those rules a lot easier. There are four main categories:

· Warm Up
· Maintenance Work
· Musical Studies
· Warm Down

Now let’s break down each of those categories and explain what’s going on during each of those sessions.

Warm Up:

- Purpose: to loosen the lips and get the circulation of blood flowing into your lips. It’s the equivalent to an athlete stretching.

Suggested Exercises:

1. Long Tones
2. Buzzing

Maintenance Work:

- Purpose: In simple terms, this is basically the time where you work on your skills. To simplify things even more I’ve narrowed it down to two main things:

Tone Production Practice: This is where I focus strictly on my sound.

- Suggested Exercises:

1. Flow Studies
2. Long Tones
3. Buzzing

Technique Work: This is where I focus on things such as tonguing, dexterity and flexibility.

- Suggested Exercises:

1. Practice an Etude or Song that incorporate all those things.
2. Scales and Arpeggios.
3. Lip Slurs


Musical Studies:

- Purpose: To apply all the things you’ve practiced in a musical setting. To practice rhythm and timing.

Suggested Exercises:

1. Etudes, Solos, Duets, Tunes ext…
2. Practice with a metronome. You can be musical while being on time and rhythmically precise.


Warm Down:

- Purpose: To save your chops for the next day.

Suggested Exercises:

1. Long Tones


*It’s important to know that with a routine such as this one it’s crucial to pace yourself and rest as much as you play. I’d recommend resting between each different area of focus.

You will also notice that for suggested exercises I repeated a lot of the same exercises. In the future I plan to write individual essays to explain how I approach each suggested exercise and to augment even further on what I’ve written here.