Warm-Up Magic — Beginning-of-your-playing-day warm-ups for trombone, by Rich Willey

Description

Warm-Up Magic — beginning-of-your-playing-day warm-ups designed to improve embouchure response, build range and endurance, develop tongue speed and accuracy, and facilitate all-around ease and comfort of playing for trombone by Rich Willey.

Presented in five logically organized sections, you play a little out of Section 1, then move on to Section 2, then to Section 3, and so on until you’ve played a little out of all five sections. Once you’ve done “just enough” you’re ready to go have a great playing day, and if you do this daily, over time your chops will become “magically” stronger and your range will also become “magically” better.

Twenty-four pages, printed on high quality paper, GBC comb-bound with heavy (10 ml.) mylar protective covers. If you order Warm-Up Magic  in PDF format you will be able to download it immediately after your order is processed.

From the text of the book:
Developing chops doesn’t happen by magic and there’s no magic way to develop endless range and endurance. There are incremental ways to build up these two key factors for success, but getting from point a to point z in one or two steps just ain’t gonna happen. This book is designed to give you ample material to set up your chops daily for long-term success. So much of the progress we are able to make depends on how we start each and every playing or practicing day.
This material is not intended to wear you out. It is only intended to get your chops to a point where you say to yourself, “Ahh, now my chops feel good. I can go play now.” It might take as little as five minutes to get you to that point, or it could take fifteen minutes, but that’s plenty if you consider this a warm up session and not a full-fledged workout.
We’re not going to expect great results if we routinely play too little before moving on to the next section. We have to figure out how we can play just enough in each section before moving on to the next section. We can expect noticeable results when we play out of each section long enough to get its benefits but not so long that we wear ourselves out or run out of time and don’t do something from all five sections.
When you first work out of this book it is better to stop before you think you need to rather than waiting until you realize you should have stopped much sooner. We’re preparing you to go off and play the rest of the day. We don’t want you wasting your time and we don’t want you to be brutalizing your chops, either. Do just enough, that’s all. Steady progress after months of playing these warm-ups is the real “magic.” — Rich Willey

Testimonials

“I received my Warm-Up Magic  book in August (2012) and have been using it every day since it arrived. Rich has a real gift for communicating important concepts and developing exercises to put these concepts into play on a daily basis. The only thing that I have done differently in my playing for the past 4 months is to use this book for my one session per day (life is very busy, so practice time is at a premium). The best word that I can use to describe my progress is simply transformative!
“I touch on every aspect of playing daily, in a systematic way, using these exercises. I love the Flexibility section (tonguing followed by slurring) directing the player to play softer in the low register and louder in the upper register to encourage an aperture that works efficiently in all registers (this was my danger zone — opening up too much in the low register — and I am able to consciously instill this idea in my daily playing, putting this concept on autopilot when I play in ensembles).
“I’ve also been doing the compression exercises every session, and just a little has made a huge difference in my approach to the upper register. I’m not working hard at all and the notes up to a G are just popping out! I played a job this weekend with several delicate passages well above the staff, and they were dead-on consistent every time. And with the simple way that Rich lays out the tonguing drills, my articulation has never been better. Wow!
“I’m playing a job with both of my teachers this week (doing the Poulenc Gloria and Bach Christmas Oratorio) with many players from the Phoenix Symphony and it is exciting to know that my playing is consistent and really good!
“Thank you so much for putting this material together, Rich! I couldn’t be happier with my playing and I owe this exclusively to Warm-Up Magic!  (Playing from this book is literally the only thing that I have changed in my playing, so the cause and effect is crystal clear). Rich does good work!”
— Derek Reaban, trumpet, December 10, 2012

“Hi, Rich, I worked through your excellent Warm-Up Magic  book today. I set my timer for 3 minutes per section and felt great afterward. I think Doc Reinhardt would be very proud of you and what you have presented in this concise book. There is plenty of material here and gives a player enough to just touch upon the basics to get things going. Thank you!”
— Tom LeMay, trumpeter, Frederick, MD

“Warm-Up Magic  is very nicely organized and makes great sense, at least to my mind. Rich has organized a series of exercises into five sections which focus on the basics of playing. And he constantly reminds the reader to do as much or as little as the musician feels works best from any exercise or any section, cautioning us again and again that these are meant only for warm-ups, not for in-depth working on any of these factors of brass playing.
“I do realize there are players who don’t do any warm-up at all and have gotten further in their professional playing life than I have (or probably ever will), but I definitely fall into the category of being a player who needs to warm up before doing the heavy work of playing and Rich’s book is an excellent resource.
“For everybody who hasn’t been able to find the right combination of exercises to provide a quality start to their playing day, I urge them to spend the $8 and buy this book. The price is extremely reasonable for all the work and experience that went into creating it and for all the great benefits we can reap from using it.
“And if you buy the PDF version you don’t even have to pay shipping!
“Thanks, Rich, for another great addition to my library!”
— David H. Bailey, trumpeter, Nashua, NH