Endurance boot camp with Rochut

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SwissTbone
Posts: 1138
Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by SwissTbone »

Inspired by what James Markey is doing over on Instagram (30 minutes of Rochut to gain endurance) I tried that myself today.

I figured 30 minutes was too much for me so I reduced the time to 20 minutes. Rochut as written on bass trombone. I began with number 1 and finished with number 7. Pretty tired!

I actually finished at 18 minutes because I wasn't able to hit anything above F anymore...

Any other methods you use to improve your endurance?
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hyperbolica
Posts: 3990
Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by hyperbolica »

Arbans interval exercises. Make sure you're being accurate and in time. Memorize the pattern and take them as high as you can while maintaining speed and accuracy. I've found intervals do a lot more than just endurance, though. Also if you do it right (use metronome and drone, make sure to re-start if you get more than 1 note wrong, make sure to play at a speed where you can get it all right, then increase speed...), it can improve flexibility, ability to hear and play intervals (which can improve reading), range up and down, sound, articulation, breathing, intonation, time, alternate positions, and the list goes on. Early in my career I played a couple pages of the Arbans stuff daily, and I had chops of steel.
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SwissTbone
Posts: 1138
Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by SwissTbone »

@hyperbolica

Yeah that sounds like good advice also. Brass Banders here in Switzerland are generally really big with Arbans. But I have never spent much time with it honestly. May have to correct that :-)
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ParLawGod
Posts: 133
Joined: Mar 11, 2019

by ParLawGod »

I do something similar myself on a routine basis - I switch between a Rochut and a Tyrell for a half hour or so. I like the latter for focusing on articulations.

Also agree on the Arban's interval exercises. This particular one is my go-to:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fE8zfW6BDeM/hqdefault.jpg

I like (trying) to do each line in one breath. However, no faster than I can play cleanly. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I don't...lol.