Flex on the Move is a fun and creative approach to developing flexibility on all brass instruments. Available for trumpet, trombone and tuba. 42 pages and a lifetime of material!
Flex on the Move
There are many great books on flexibility (or ?lip flexibility? as it is commonly called) available to today?s brass players. The commonly used books include Irons 27 Groups, Smith Lip Flexibilities and Colin Advanced Lip Flexibilities. Flexibility studies do go all the way back to Arban and St, Jacome, but became a staple of brass pedagogy in the early 20th Century through teachers and authors like Del Staigers, Herbert L. Clarke, Earl D. Irons and Walter M. Smith.

There are different categories of flexibility exercises. There is ?Long Flexibility? like those found in Colin?s Vol. I of Advanced Lip Flexibilities. With Long Flexibility you stay on one fingering and play a long line that takes you through a large range. Then, there is ?Short Flexibility? similar to what is found in Irons and Smith where you play a repeated pattern on one fingering. Most flexibility falls into the Short Flexibility category. With this book, I would like to add ?Moving Flexibility? to the list. With Moving Flexibility you play a short pattern that takes you up and down through all the fingerings, covering a large range on your instrument. The idea of Moving Flexibility was first introduced in Arban p. 45 #16 and later in Charles Colin, 100 Original Warm-Ups.

Why Practice Flexibility?
Chances are, you?re not going to stand in front of an audience and perform flexibility studies. Flexibility studies are a means to an end, not the end. Most trumpet players practice some form of flexibility every day as it improves overall technique and gets you ready to play music. In our lessons, Claude Gordon would tell me how a particular exercise or routine he was writing would ?get me feelin? good.? So, that is my goal with these studies, to get you ?feelin? good?.

Technique
There are many beliefs among players as to what makes a brass instrument ?work?. Some believe it?s the lip, some believe it?s the tongue, some believe it?s the air, or some (like me) believe it?s a balance or coordination of all three. I don?t think that your chosen methodology will matter when practicing these exercises. If you practice them religiously and correctly, you?re playing will certainly improve.

Exercises for Developing Jazz Improvisation Volume II

This method book covers a further 2 techniques to help the developing jazz player expand their jazz skills. These can also be purchased individually:

Examining Diminished Scales

This section looks at Whole/Half and Half/Whole step diminished scales. It includes ascending/descending broken chord exercises plus scale patterns for both Whole/Half and Half/Whole step diminished scales. There are also 2 written sample solos with audio demonstration and backing tracks to accompany the exercises.

Triad Pairs and Hexatonic Scales

This section focuses on 4 common triad pairs and their related hexatonic scales - 2 major triads a whole step apart, 2 major triads a tritone apart, major/augmented triads a whole step apart and 2 minor triads a whole step apart. There are exercises and patterns for each triad pair/hexatonic scale plus suggested chord applications for each. There are also 2 written sample solos with audio demonstration and backing tracks to accompany the practice exercises and sample solos.

Although originally created for sax students, all books have now been adapted for C, Bb, Eb and Bass Clef instruments.

Most brass players are familiar with the ubiquitous Clarke?s Technical Studies. Here are some creative variations on Studies I, II, III, V and VII. Click our free sample below to read the introduction and try some easy sample exercises. All the variations are progressive so I guarantee they get harder and will be useful to players at all levels and styles.

There are two essential books that just about every trumpet player has studied; Arban?s Conservatory Method and Clarke?s Technical Studies. The Arban is fondly referred to as ?the trumpet player?s bible?. If that is the case, then the Clarke should be ?the new testament?. I consider Herbert L. Clarke to be the ?George Washington? of trumpet, as he was the one of the first Americans to achieve greatness as a performer on the cornet. He was also one of the first notable pedagogues and taught such greats as Rafael Mendez and Claude Gordon, who was my teacher. I am fond of telling my students that they are the great-grandchildren of H. L. Clarke, one of our country?s first great virtuosos.

The impetus for this set of variations is based on the idea of an ?Expanding Scale? or ?Expanding Range?. Each set will start with a small range of notes covering an interval such as a 5th and will expand over the course of the study to the whole range of the trumpet. The idea is to imagine you are ?holding one note? and let your fingers do the rest. This concept is, of course, metaphorical but if employed will greatly enhance your technique and efficiency.

This is a progressive course, so it is recommended that you practice the studies in the order they are presented. Make note of the intervals in each study. Study 1 is all chromatic, so it is easier to transition from one note to another. The second group is based on Clarke Study 5 and is all diatonic. The third group is based on Clarke Study 2 which is diatonic with some thirds. The fourth group is based on Clarke Study 3 which is arpeggios. So with each group the intervals get a little more challenging. I?ve also included more chromatic work based on Studies 7 & 8.

Fifteen Safari Duets for Tubas was composed for playing duets with my tuba students. The fifteen duets are at different levels of difficulty and various styles so that we always had duets to play no matter what ability of student. There is something in each duet for students to learn from the basics of tone production, rhythms, melodic phrasing, jazz, graphic notation, etc. Most are sight readable and some have been performed in concerts. They are all fun to play. Although for tubas, they may be played on any instrument.

In 1988 I spent a month in Kenya on safari and experiencing the African wildlife and culture, thus the inspiration for these duets that were composed soon after the trip in 1989 and 1990 and have been a regular part of my teaching ever since. Four of these duets are recorded on the compact disc ?Tuba Safari? (Troy 1173) on Albany Records.

1. Elephants at Stave

This duet presents the cantabile style studied for playing the tuba. I find that this duet helps the student much like the melodies of Borgodni etudes. There are more elephants in Tsavo than anywhere else in Kenya. It was not uncommon to see large families of thirty elephants at a time.

2. Gallop ? Thompson Gazelle at Amboseli

This duet provides an opportunity to read in a sharp key, D major, as well as basic rhythms and articulations. I find that the more advanced students can read in a faster tempo and other students can work in a slower tempo ? a common choice in all of the duets. Large herds of playful Thompson Gazelle were a usual occurrence in most of the game parks in Kenya.

3. Rhinos at Nairobi Game Park

This waltz helps the student match phrasing in a cantabile setting. There are a few instances where the teacher (playing the first part) plays a phrase then the student plays a similar phrase. The rhinoceros is a very noble animal that can grow to more that 1,000 pounds and is known for its horn. The Nairobi game park is located just outside the city, giving a sense of surrealism to the panorama.

4. Giraffes at Nairobi Twiga Park

This is in a ?rock? style with syncopated rhythms and cantabile melodies. The Nairobi Twiga park is just outside the city and is the only place where one can feed the giraffes. Along with their long necks they have very long tongues.

5. Warthogs at Ngulia

Legato scales and syncopated rhythms are the features of this duet. Warthogs have tails that are held upright when they run.

6. Baboons at Kiliguni

This duets alternates in rock style and swing. Baboons are sometimes a problem because they will try to steal food from the tourists? tables. They will work together where one causes a diversion while the others steal.

7. Pastoral ? Cape Buffalo at Samburu

The key of A for this duet gives variation for the students. Cape Buffalo are in large herds on the savanna. The Samburu Lodge dining area was built next to a watering hole. At the beginning of breakfast there were no animals, but in fifteen minutes more than 500 cape buffalo were at the water hole.

8. Song - Hippos at Mzima Springs

This is the easiest of rhythms and range of the duets, especially for the 2nd(student) part. Hippopotamuses can grow up to 4,000 pounds and spend most of their time sleeping in the water during the day. At night they go on land to hunt.

9. Leopards at Kimana Lodge

This duet is non-metric and uses graphic notation. This was a favorite duet of my students as many have never experienced this notation before. The leopard is a large predatory cat that usually hunts at night.

10. Colobus Monkeys at the Ark

This is an Invention in the Bach style. The Ark is a building that was built in 1969 at a watering hole for tourists to watch wildlife. The colobus monkey is black with white on its forearms and chest.

11. Zebra Migration at Masai Mara

This duet is in a ?Medium Swing? jazz style. The great migration between the Masai Mara and Serengeti involves about two million wildebeest, zebras and other animals every year. It is considered one of the most impressive natural events worldwide.

12. Ostrich at Samburu

This duet works on double time and half time. The ostrich is the largest bird in the world. In Samburu there was an ostrich that hung around the lodge, her name was Margaret. She was very friendly with everybody but she would steal your hat.

13. Cheetah at Voi

This is another duet that includes graphic notation. The cheetah can run up to 80 miles an hour when chasing after prey. When not hunting prey it often walks very slowly.

14. Gallop ? Gerenuk at Buffalo Springs

This gallop displays different types of articulation. The gerenuk is an antelope with a slightly extended neck so it can eat higher leaves from trees.

15. Lions at Mara Sopa

This duet is in the style of a fanfare. The lion is considered the king of the savanna.

Gregory Fritze is a prize-winning composer and Fulbright Scholar, as well as an active performer. He recently retired from Berklee College of Music where he was Tuba Professor and Chair of Composition, serving on the faculty from 1979 to 2016. He has written over one hundred compositions for orchestra, band, chamber ensembles and soloists. He has won over sixty composition awards both nationally and internationally including First Prize in the 1991 TUBA Etude Contest. His compositions include works published by several publishers in the United States, South America and Europe that have been performed extensively throughout the world. Many of his compositions are available on ITunes, Youtube and Soundcloud.

His compositions are recorded on Albany Records, MSR Classics, Crystal Records, Mark Records and others. He has been a guest lecturer, conductor and performer at many colleges, universities and music festivals in the United States, Canada, Japan, South America and Europe. He was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1954 and has Composition degrees from the Boston Conservatory and Indiana University. He now resides in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida.

A creative and thorough way to warm-up and keep your chops in shape in less than 30 minutes daily!

Description
The Warm Up is an integral component of every brass player?s daily practice. Brass teachers have always been at odds as to what a good warm-up should consist of. My teacher Claude Gordon believed that there should be no prescribed warm-up, as the first notes of the day would fill that need. Others believe in a set warm-up that is done the same every day and never changes. And then there are those teachers who believe a warm-up should cover every aspect of playing, sometimes lasting two hours or more. I end up in the middle of all this with The Progressive Warm-Up.