Warming UP

When I was taking Skype lessons 15 minutes to 1/2 hour worked for me, although looking back on it I think I may have had a slightly leaky shakuhachi that I wasn't storing properly and that could have been the amount of time it took to coat the bore with condensation. Keep in mind that face to face lessons very seldom permit a student to practice immediately before a lesson. Most lessons, face to face or Skype, usually start with some long tones anyway, which was what my individual warm up consisted of and 5 to 10 minutes of long tones should normally be sufficient warm up before working on pieces or exercises in a lesson anyway, so I'd think that a warm up period prior to a lesson isn't a necessity, but just a nicety that Skype lessons permit.

I try to get at least 15 minutes of warm up time in my car before I go in. Ro buki...and often will play a bit of the piece we most recently were working on. Gekko Reibo has become sort of a standard warm up too. But considering how good I feel after 1 to 2 hours of practice, maybe that would be a better warm up regimen...haha! How 'bout you Erin? Any go to pieces or practices for warm ups?

Before my Skype lessons i try to warm up for about 30 minutes now. The first lessons i can't do any warm up because my embouchere was tired after 30 minutes. But now its bettere to warm up . Doing ro-buki and the piece in question, but not to much kan because this still tiress my embouchere when done to much.

In face to face lessons there is no time to warm up. Playing some ro with the teacher to start and then start with the actuel piece.

Skype lessons are indeed great for offering all kinds of warm up opportunities.

I generally set aside about half an hour to do some long tones, flexibility exercises, trills and then to run through the piece of pieces we've been working on a few times.

I've found that it really makes a lot of difference to warm up which became even more apparent on one occasion when I was caught short due to some technical computer problems that robbed the warm up time just before starting a skype lesson. It actually felt like my embouchure was tight and cold when I started to play during the lesson without having first warmed up.

The few times I did take face to face lessons, like Nathan I would warm up in the car (it was wintertime so though the car was cold, it was even colder outdoors). At that time my playing was very raw but I found that even just robuki did a lot to prepare not only my embouchure but also my mind for the lesson to follow.