Gordon

E. Couch Warm Up Series

Thank you for taking the time to look over this series of warm up exercises. After sampling many off
the shelf warm up titles from various publishers and finding them to be either too short, not extensive
enough, or not diving deep enough into ways to work out discrepancies in tone or giving students
enough opportunity to listen, I decided I would make my own. I have used these, or slight variations of
these, with what I would consider a good amount of success since 2004. For my purposes and
philosophy, I used each one daily and for each warm up period prior to contests and halftime
performances; I would also use them in a specific order. I found it beneficial to have these memorized
and I would assign hand signals for each one as, oftentimes, pre-contest warm ups would be held in
busy or loud locations where verbal communication was not efficient or radio communication forbidden
(especially next to busy roads, in the old RCA Dome, or Lucas Oil Stadium). Whenever possible, these
would be performed with a metronome and the given dynamic would almost always be understood to
be mezzo forte. It should also be mentioned the bands for whom I wrote these had instrumentations
between 48 to 64 winds depending on the school. If one chooses to use these for their group, an
alteration in scoring may be necessary. I will list the order in which I chose to use them with specific
details I might listen for during their performance.

1. Long tones: Basic tone production at a mezzo dynamic. Clean changes note-to-note with clean
releases to the following downbeat without any harsh articulations (often I would instruct
students to use an air attack), bulges in dynamic or tone in the middle of the pitches, or taper to
the dynamic or tone at the end of the pitches.
2. Marching Band Scales: Easy scales based in keys commonly found in my marching band
arrangements. Performed either slurred or tongued (or both), students should change cleanly
note-to-not with clean releases where prescribed without any harsh articulations and without
any change of tone or pitch as they move up and down the scales.
3. Lip Slur 1: Lips slurs for brass, scales for woodwinds, moving chromatically downward from
concert Bb with mellophones on concert F. Clean changes in the brass without any lazy pitch
bending or harsh/forced moves between partials with releases on the downbeats and without
any taper toward the release (sometimes a crescendo to pull away from some students natural
tendency to cheat the release is good).
4. Lip Slur 2: Same as lip slur 1.
5. TUNE F.
6. Articulation in F: a battery of common articulations found in my marching band arrangements.
Strive for unison articulation style throughout the ensemble as well as even tone throughout
and maintenance of pitch.
7. Double tongue exercise (sometimes omitted): a build up through a battery of rhythmic figures
designed to help students gain proficiency in double tongue technique.
8. Lip Slur 3: Same as lip slur 1 and 2. Often, I would have students perform this in common time
in the learning phase as the woodwinds go into keys they would sometimes be unfamiliar with
performing. Once the exercise is learned, cut time would be used.
9. 8 Up: A simple concentration exercise used to identify any mental focus issues within the
ensemble and to strive for even successive articulations up and down the scale listening for
evenness of articulation, note length, tone, and pitch while articulating.
10. 8 7 6 With Rests: As with 8 Up, a concentration exercise used to identify any mental focus
issues within the ensemble and to strive for even successive articulations up and down the scale
listening for evenness of articulation, note length, tone, and pitch while articulating.
11. 8 7 6 Without Rests: Also a concentration exercise but without rests leading students
through asymmetric meters up and down the scale.
12. TUNE Bb.
13. Quick Chords: These may need to be rescored based on ones individual needs. Students, in the
learning phases, would be instructed to find the note that would be their owned note. This
owned note would be the note they would play indefinitely each time this exercise was
performed. Use of hand signals, and students familiarity with the hand signals, is essential.
Occasionally, after a few chords had been performed, some instrument groups would be
instructed to play different chords than others. Intonation, balance, blend, are key.
14. Show music.