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I recall a point in my Doctoral studies, I was taking a pedagogy class led by a trumpet player, and he used the term “flow studies” as though everyone knew exactly what he meant. One of his key points was that we should all be assembling “flow folders” for our practice.
Reality was that I was somewhat stumped by the term. I remember thinking at the time that it had something to do with melodic etudes, and I had plenty of them in standard materials. For me, even today, when I use the term “flow” in relation to any horn playing I hear, it is almost always about the flow of time. Either it flows at a steady pace or there is a change of flow felt in an accelerando or ritardando. Any other thing that breaks the musical flow, such as extra time taken at a breath when this disrupts the flow, is bad.
Over time though I realized that for trumpet players flow studies were a broad category and were certainly considered by many to be the most essential type of thing to study. One blurb I found states that flow studies are studies “designed to help trumpet players learn to effectively use their air flow to achieve smoothness and enhanced musicality.”
So what I’ve been doing in recent weeks in the coronavirus practice routine is look at classic trumpet flow studies. Some of the most essential flow studies are found in the venerable Clarke book, Technical Studies for the Cornet. I’ve been looking at that (I’ve never previously done anything other than the first two studies) and I’ve also been looking at another classic trumpet publication, Twenty-Seven Groups of Exercises for Cornet and Trumpet by Earl Irons, and also a more recent publication, The Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method, book, 1.
In the big picture I think there are two main benefits. For the chops these studies are like long tones with smooth air flow. And for the fingers they are exercises in scale patterns so that those become effortless.
The issue is that trumpet flow studies don’t always translate to horn well for several reasons. The main ones being the phrases can run too long and they go too high. I find myself shortening exercise and putting them in different ranges. It is OK to change things! It’s all good practice.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are a number of what could be considered to be flow studies in The Brass Gym, if you would rather stick to horn publications, check out the horn version of this for some great flow studies.
