also...not presuming to tell anyone what to do, but trying to organize my previous endless/far-too-wordy/blended-together subtopics on this wider topic
> warm up:
To me, this should take about a minute to get my own heart rate up a little bit, get my own awareness up a little bit, and get my instrument at optimum operating temperature. It doesn't involve anything in particular other than playing most anything, and I personally believe there should be no superstition regarding what should be played first when picking up an instrument (ie. "Not playing some beautiful quiet long tones on the front end" is not going to ruin anyone's embouchure or anyone's skill sets.) Personally, I sort of like to go outside and briskly walk up and down the road into this place to get myself moving around and a bit more awake/aware before even picking up the instrument, but everyone has their own thing.
> a "routine":
- I'm not sure that it's completely healthy, attitude-wise, to think of any sort of playing as routine (adverb). If there is a routine (noun), I tend to believe there's going to be a tendency to not pay much attention to one's on playing when going through it, and to not be particularly analytical nor to strive for improving it. Further, days are short and life is short. Every moment spent trying to improve at a serious pursuit should be spent efficiently and thoughtfully, rather than "routinely".
> "working on fundamentals"
- Here it is, right here
, and I have no disagreement with labeling a portion of a practice session as this, or even spending an entire practice session on this, but it shouldn't be "routine". Further, it seems to me that not all the same aspects of playing should be worked on every single time one is practicing to improve. It's pretty easy to sense weaknesses in one's own playing, and working on particular fundamentals should be based on weaknesses, rather than just running through a list of things in the same way at every single practice session. It's the same as learning an etude, sonata, or concerto. If we start at the beginning, and run through (beginning to end) the easy parts every single time and give no more attention to the difficult/messy/not-mastered parts than we give to the easy parts, we won't make any progress towards making those pieces performance ready, and we will also squander a great deal of time playing through passages in performance pieces for etudes or individual skills in a list of playing fundamentals which are already mastered. Yes, all playing fundamentals need to be maintained and reviewed, but surely the ones that are not as well mastered need more attention.> the psychology involved:
I personally believe that we need to give ourselves permission to play well without silently lecturing to ourselves that we need to spend 15, 30, or 45 minutes on the front end of a practice session running through a list of fundamentals drills. I believe it's okay to warm an instrument up for a minute or so and delve right into working on an etude, public performance piece, or on (??) playing a smooth bass line under a particular set of changes, or some nice solo choruses over a set of changes, or on memorization of a piece or a funky bass line, or whatever. I also believe it's okay do not include working on fundamentals in any particular practice session, but to work on them as needed in some or most practice sessions, particularly (again) when we sense particular weaknesses in certain aspects of our playing - weaknesses which we label as "fundamental skills".
> the ability to play (very well) "cold":
- I see this as a very valuable skill, particularly for tuba players. Our instruments are difficult to keep at optimum operating temperature, there are times when we have to sit for quite a few minutes and then play very exposed passages which really matter (while only able to sort of keep our instruments halfway warm using our bodies). A couple of examples are auditions (honor bands, admission to schools, scholarships, part-time/full-time jobs), symphonies with tacet movements, and variety recitals/programs (whereby we sit backstage and quietly wait our turn to perform). I believe this (playing a cold instrument with an embouchure which has been static for a while) is something that should be practiced, and more often than just every once in awhile. ie: I think it's maybe a pretty darn good idea to just pick up an instrument and play through random difficult passages without making a single sound before playing them.
> post script:
I believe that I notice that "tuning exercises" (creating pure intervals, sensing when at-or-near A=440 tuning, knowing what out-of-tune-SOUNDING equal temperament intervals sound like - which are necessary to play with fixed-pitched instruments - more than occasionally, developing the aural skill sets to play with a stretch-tuned keyboard, etc., etc., etc.) are (typically) emphasized the very least (in lists of playing fundamentals) by both students and their teachers, yet these fundamentals (yes?) being #2 in importance on a list past "good time". ie. Which is more desirable to musical colleagues: executing a perfectly smooth slur of a 5th, or - once having moved a 5th in pitch - having the reached pitch be in tune?