by Kody Myhra February 12, 2022
With my students, I like to change things up in my lessons quite often. We always stick to a set structure, but I find that if that structure becomes redundant, the students lose interest. One way I like to change things up is by incorporating different warmup routines. I teach my students later in the evening, and choose to incorporate these warmups to ensure that they are physically and mentally in the right mindset to play for our lesson. Most times, my students have not played since their morning time in band class, so a warmup really goes a long way.
Here are some warmup ideas I have used in my lessons!
Long Tones
As simple as it seems, we all need a good long tone warmup. This gets our airways activated and reminds our internal muscles and embouchure how it feels to play in our different octaves. I like to set my metronome to about quarter note = 60BPM and do this exercise in whole notes. For a little more fun, I ask my student to pick a note and we will start our long tones up or down from the note they picked. sometimes, if the note they picked is in a key they are able to play in by memory, we will do scalar long tones. It definitely keeps my students on their toes and allows them to be in control of how this exercise will turn out for them. Another thing you can do is playing the long tones with a tuning drone for pitch stability.
Scales
Scales are one of the easiest things to gravitate towards when making a warmup routine. One way you can spice up these scales with your students is to make it a game of Simon Says. The teacher will start, coming up with a fun rhythm for about 4 beats on the first note of the scale. The student will respond with that same rhythm on the same note for the next four beats. this will continue up and down the scale to a metronome between 60-80 BPM. I find that students like playing games, especially if the instructor starts them off.
For more advanced students, switch the roles! Allowing the students to improvise gives them creative liberty and demonstrates their command of rhythm.
Increasing Rhythm Exercise
I came up with this exercise for my older students, but can easily be given to any age as long as the rhythmic integrity is there. I found that this warmup does three major things:
Prepares our mind to play increasing rhythms that we may not play everyday
Prepares us to play in our different ranges of the instrument
Warms up our articulation speed
When doing this exercise with my students for the first time, I ask them how it gets them warmed up to play, and generally, they can draw these conclusions as well. All you have to do is set a metronome to a tempo that the student can comfortably play the sixteenth notes, but also push themselves to go faster. I generally have the metronome between 70-100 BPM. I have attached the worksheet for anyone who would like to use it!
Creating Your Own Exercises
Making your own exercises can be. a really fun activity for both you and your student. Here are some steps I take to creating exercises for my students:
What does the student need to improve in most? Articulation? Finger Position? Air Support? Etc.
Set some goals with your student. In what areas of their playing have they mentioned they wanted to get better in?
Think about the future. Are there any etudes or pieces your student is playing that could benefit from outside help? For example: an etudes that has a bunch of third intervals could definitely benefit the student if you incorporate some third interval exercises.
Feel stuck? Do something without the instrument! Things like this could include clapping rhythms, marching to musical beats, or even playing their music on a kazoo to develop better audition skills. The possibilities are endless!
I hope that by finding some fun warmups for your students (or even yourself!), the fun can be brought back into playing music. These are just a few of the tips I have from previous experiences, and I hope to gain more ideas as time goes on. As always, happy practicing, and have an awesome week ahead!
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