How long does your line warm up?

[redbeard]

I've known some groups that run 8's for days (Hours)! How long do you do warm ups, and when do you incorporate your show rhythms into your exercise routine? How much full ensemble warm ups do you do? Many groups do a lot of sectional (bass, snare, tenor, cymbs, pit) warm ups on their own. What do you feel acomplishes the best group sound?

[power2datrumpets]

my lines warm up incorporates a lot of rudimental techniques. if we have say a two or three hour rehearsal ahead, we will usually run through each warm up twice or three times and we're done within a half hour.

[thunderdrmz]

I think of warming up and skill development as the same. It is obviously important to actually warm the muscles up but I will usually spend at least half a class on skill development. Exercises used are always related to the further devlopment of the students as percussionist as well as show specific exercises. That being said, necessity always manages to work its way into my life and sometimes you just have to work on accomplishing the necessary goal to move forward i.e spending more time on the show.

If they can play a clean roll in an exercise then they have a chance to do it in the show.

[Teever]

20 reps seems to be the universal magic number to reinforce any fundamental skill. Depending on what you're planning to do with your rehearsal time, your warm ups should vary accordingly. For instance, it doesn't make much sense to start with a half hour of warm up/skill development and then move into an hour of learning drill, but if you're focus that day is on cleaning music, then that amount of time would be valid. The key is to work your exercises for a purpose, not just for a set routine or amount of time.

[redbeard]

I agree with the lesson plan suggestions. Many warm ups are standard chop and timing building exercises that help in any situation.
I also incorporate show excerpts into a warm up form.

[Steven]

How long do you do warm ups?

That really depends on what the group is warming up for. If its practice early season, warmups might take up a couple weeks. If were late for a show. The warmup is going to be short.

When do you incorporate your show rhythms into your exercise routine?

Immediately. If you play a bunch of flam drags in your show your exercises should have flam drags. Same with any rhythm/rudiment/scale/arpeggio/grip/ext.

How much full ensemble warm ups do you do? Many groups do a lot of sectional (bass, snare, tenor, cymbs, pit) warm ups on their own. What do you feel acomplishes the best group sound?

Again it depends on the specifics. If you have a bunch of music to learn sectionals are good. On the flip side the more the sections play together the more mature the ensemble will sound. I love hearing a clean roll between the snares and tenors over top a nice clear articulate bass run.

[diminaband]

Ok, let me start by saying there is no right or wrong way.. The way that I have found works best for my teaching methods is as follows: Warms ups are more than just to warm up your hands and arms. You have to incorporate your performance into the warm ups for sure. Otherwise they are kind of pointless and just flash. When running warmups with my students, I always run 8's until I can hear a clean, unison stick on plastic sound. I never want to leave 8's with dirt still lingering. I judge the amount of time based on the lines needs at the time. This can vary from 10 minutes to 3 hours. Yes, I have ran 8's for 3 hours straight. Then we move on to the fun stuff. They have to earn it though.

Any ways, before shows, we always run as a group unless I need to work with somebody(or a section needs help), but we always do that before we are scheduled to start warming up. For practice, I find starting as a line then breaking off to work on the "MUSIC" only, works the great.

As far as best group sound, I always let the pit and drumline do their own thing for a while until the two have their parts under control. Then I let them here what eachother do.. You have to teach the drumline and the pit how to play together on the field, because of sound latency, the pit has to learn how to play while listening back. BLAH BLAH, you know that stuff already.

Newho, point is, no right or wrong, just take into account what your lines' needs are, and make sure you are on top of it..

Hope that helped... at least some

[Bacon]

I've known some groups that run 8's for days (Hours)! How long do you do warm ups, and when do you incorporate your show rhythms into your exercise routine? How much full ensemble warm ups do you do? Many groups do a lot of sectional (bass, snare, tenor, cymbs, pit) warm ups on their own. What do you feel acomplishes the best group sound?

It depends on the time and day of the season, skill level of the group, technique. Some days we schedule sectionals. At the beginning of the season we usually don't have music so we work on exercises a lot... I've incorporated show rhythms in exercises before. I think sectionals is very helpful in a mature group, especially if you have techs for each section. When you break into sectionals you can usually hear better what's going on. You can check notes/rhythms together. If there is a section that needs worked on, you wont be holding up the rest of the ensemble by working on it during sectional time... There's plenty of good reasons.
The best sound? Well, matching techniques, good sense of timing, syncopation, cleanliness, overexageration in certain areas, playing music at your groups' level...

[phatbob2007]

I to agree that warm ups are not just to warm up you hands and arms but to work towards a good clean sound, if your line can't play 8's clean, you shouldn't be worried about your show, you should be worries as to why your line can't play 8's. I also like to use warm up time to get my line focused in on the performance or practice ahead. while warming up musically is important, i believe that warming up mentally is a bigger factor. and as far as making them earn the fun stuff, i agree to an extent but often time if we are doing a warm up over and over and over and it just isn't clean i will allow my line a short break, let them get water and re-focus their attention back on the warm up and often times when they come back it will be clean.

if we are running drill all day we don't do musical warm ups instead we stretch a little bit, do a light jog, come back stretch a little more then go into drill.