TromboneChat

Dear trombone collegues,

Just curious how you have handled your practicing during corona.

Personally, I had a long period where I could not get my mind around practicing when I knew there were months before my trombone skills were actually needed again. So for a few months, it was just about being able to play for a few minutes for a bunch of weekly trombone lessons.

Needless to say, my chops did not improve in this period If anything positive could be said, it is that I have been forced to find my way back to healthy chops again, and have made some personal revelations about embouchure, etc that are now helping me on a daily basis.

I am based in Denmark.

What were your experiences - good and/or bad?

Hi

I practiced every day for a couple of months and put up some videos on facebook to entertain whoever showed intersest. Many did their own "corona-concerts". That kept me going for a while.
I started a project to take a walk for 10000 steps a day for one year and did fulfill that goal too. It took 1,5 hour/day. I walked in reign, snow, in darkness (at night) and when the weather was so awful I could not do it I walked indoors. During this time I also got the idea to pick up all brass instruments I always wanted to try but never had time to learn. I bought a trumpet, cornet, flugel and a french horn and played them every day. I did that for about a year until the bands started to rehearse. Now most are back to normal so I need the time on trombone and bass trombone. I did get some chops on all those side instruments and I do pick up them now and then but have no place to play them so it's hard to evolve furthermore. It had a side effect and that is it did improve my playing on trombone.

Here is my thread about my efforts to learn side instruments:
https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16335

/Tom

I was teaching online through most of the lockdown periods, so I never completely stopped playing, though I did not have much motivation to practice for pretty long stretches.

I did make a project for myself to play most of the Arban's book, both as is and down an octave, and I found some things in there I had never spent time with before, such as the Ornamentation studies and Arpeggio/Chord studies, which I now use in teaching and for my own maintenance.

I was also fortunate to be asked to play an unaccompanied recital over zoom for a local community orchestra, which gave me a reason to work on some new repertoire and revisit some pieces I have performed before.

I figured I would never get such an opportunity for uninterrupted practice again, so I played every day for as long as I could. There were some serious ups and downs (mostly related to playing in the same basement room for... 10 months) but I improved more than I ever have. Instead of treating it like a grind, I just approached practice like a job; I had to put in my hours every day, no matter what.


Without practice I would have had a much darker lockdown.

used this period as a chance to go on my first mouthpiece hunt, and ended up with a new to me horn to boot. also reached out to some players i admire and got some great feedback on how to improve, and became more active online with younger students and posting teaching materials.

I practiced every day with the exception of one business trip, and learned how to record in Reaper. I learned a LOT about audio engineering, especially EQ, reverb, and mastering.

Now that we are back at work, I don't have time to use any of these skills.....