Do you warm up before your practice sessions? How about before your lessons? Do you have any warm up tips you'd like to share?
Warm ups are important to avoid injury and to ease into your playing each day. Try warming up at the beginning of each practice session, and before each lesson!
A great place to start is with long tones. Try starting with the medium range of your instrument. For flute, I usually start at the A on the staff. I hold the note for at least 6 beats before moving chromatically up to the G on top of the staff, giving each note in between 6 beats of solid, beautiful tone. Then, I return to the A and go down to the low C. Once I finish with all of that, I start on the G on top of the staff and go to the C above the staff. To end the long tones, I go from that C, to the highest D.
What do you begin your practice with?
My favorite warm ups for flute involve extended techniques. I find that singing and playing, flutter tonguing, and harmonics are a great way to help you open up your throat and your sound and find your support right from the beginning. I often play starting on F on the top of the staff and go down five notes in a major scale (F-Eb-D-C-Bb), then start on E, and from there follow the pattern all the way down to the lowest notes. While doing this I will sing a low pitched drone or flutter tongue, or even both at the same time. In order to get the lowest notes out, my throat and embouchure has to be very relaxed and my sound open and free. This keeps me from developing unwanted tension. I also practice starting on low C and playing the first five notes of the scale and back (C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C) several times, then I continue the pattern with the same fingerings but go up the harmonics. I then do the same thing starting on D. The trick is to play it very softly but clearly. This practice helps me find support for my sound. Afterwards, I do scales and other technical work to find my fingers and get my brain going.
Warming up before playing is super important! A good warm up will set you up for success for the rest of the day. Playing an instrument is a full-body experience, so I like to start my day with some stretching, breathing exercises, and occasionally, mindfulness activities, such as meditation . I find that making sure that my body is relaxed, and my mind is centered, helps me focus on making music!
In terms of technique on the instrument, I always like to start with slow longtones or scales in the middle/low register. I try to focus on the physical sensations of playing: feeling my lungs expand, engaging my support muscles, forming my embouchure, and correct hand position/ posture. This is a great opportunity to "check in" with yourself and develop awareness of the body in relation to the instrument/reeds, and also avoid creating tension while playing. A good warm up leaves me feeling relaxed, but energized and ready to tackle more specific practice, rehearsals or lessons.
I THIS THREAD!! :D
Yesss! All of these warm-up exercises are effective and work well. It is so powerful to be in a relaxed state of mind before doing this. Practicing mindfulness in the practice room is key.
My teacher once made me play everything (Major and Minor, Melodic modes, arpeggios, diminished and dominants) scale on C. Then move on to C#, then D, then D#, then E and so on...
Have you ever heard of Dr Sanchez's Epic Flute Warm-up? Click the link below and try it out.