Creating A New Flow
If you’ve read my bio, you’ll know I had an unfortunate experience with the trumpet professor during my undergraduate studies. If you’re familiar with the author of the modern edition of flow studies, you’ll know who I was butting heads with. It was hard to be sold on the idea these exercises were going to magically transform my playing into prestigious, legendary status when the professor himself struggled to play past a high D, even after a year off from playing, which was supposed to fix his issues, but somehow neither that or all the flow studies in the world could make him play any better the next year…
It took quite a while for me to remove my personal affliction with that professor when looking at flow studies. I had always thought “so what, it’s the pentatonic scale, what’s so special about it?” One of the biggest issues I couldn’t get past with that professor was him telling me to focus on the sound when I was telling him it felt wrong when I played. He kept telling me to ignore how it felt and focus on how it sounded, I kept telling him I could imagine all the sounds in the world but it wasn’t going to make a difference if things didn’t feel lined up correctly, or even hurt… Has anyone else felt grooves on the inside of their top lip from their teeth pressing into them because you’re pushing on the mouthpiece so hard? Yeah, it doesn’t have to be that way. That literally never happens to me anymore. Good thing I focused on it and figured out how to prevent it instead of ignoring it!
Years later I figured out what my issue was- over blowing! I had been playing too loud for my entire early career, bad habits undoubtedly left over from playing fanfares in high school at Medieval Times. One night when reading trumpet players argue about which is better, flow studies or Stamp studies, I had the idea to combine the two, because who cares whether you play a flow study or a Stamp study, they’re essentially the same vehicle with the same end goal.
To combine them, I put the flow study up an octave (mostly out of spite) and the Stamp study where it’s normally played. It turned out they fed into each other really well when played this way! I had been developing creating a set point since learning about it in a lesson with Pops McLaughlin, and worked that into my exercise, too. I had success with the Frank Minear routine, which in its latest edition edited by Rich Wetzel, has some timed rests in it I found beneficial. I added dynamics and a lip bend for good measure, and finally I had my my new bastardization of an exercise.
Traditional flow studies I felt focused too heavily on tone production, and not enough on playing the trumpet easily. Because of being told to “just focus on the tone you want” and not getting my desired results (I think if anyone could just imagine what Cat Anderson sounded like, then pick up a trumpet and do it, Cat Anderson wouldn’t have been so special…) I’ve developed a different way to think about tone production- make the trumpet (and you) feel good when you play, and it’ll sound good. Tone is such a subjective area, and I think it’s easier to find your own voice when you focus on making it feel good and easy to produce.
Starting at G in the staff every time made it seem daunting to get to High C or above. Utilizing a G on top of the staff set point, however, has brought everything on the horn so much closer together. Two-hour three-times-a-day insane circus gigs aside, in my busy days as a freelancer in Austin I would do a 1 hr library show with a singer-songwriter in the morning playing soft, improvised melodies, teach for 3-4 hours, have an early dinner gig for 2 hours, then have a late night gig playing lead with obnoxiously loud bands for 2-4 hours at night. 11am-1am, 14 hour days of playing/teaching at times.
There’s no way I could have made it through all those gigs practicing traditional flow studies everyday. They just would not have set me up for success as a working trumpet player. It’s the approach I’ve developed and can teach efficiently through what I call Flaux Studies (lol sue me) that made it possible for me to be pasting F#’s above High C to the back wall at the end of my late night gigs after already having the horn on my face for 6 hours that day.
I strongly believe you should warm up for what you want to be able to play. Do you want to be a professional third chair trumpet player? Cool, then warm up with traditional flow studies. Do you want to be able to tell the trumpet what will come out of it at any given time? Then chances are my Flaux Studies, along with thousands of hours of smart, consistent practice, will help get you there faster.
