Discussion on “The Pedagogy of Arnold Jacobs” by David Brubeck

Recently I came across a nice two-part article on the pedagogy of Arnold Jacobs (Part 1, Part 2), written by trombonist Dr. David Brubeck.  I’ve already briefly discussed the pedagogy of Arnold Jacobs before here and here.  I’ve been personally very influenced by Jacobs.  Many of my teachers utilized his “song and wind” approach, I was fortunate to see a master class by him live as a college student, and I’ve borrowed heavily from what I’ve learned about his pedagogy in my own teaching and practicing.

Often times the recorded advice Jacobs gave students may seem contradictory, as he was known for addressing the individual student, yet much of the core of his method is remarkably consistent from source to source.  For those of you who have already read some of the books about Jacobs or seen some of his master classes, Dr. Brubeck’s article will be familiar.  If you’re not, it makes for a good introduction into how Arnold Jacobs taught, or at least how his teaching has been interpreted and carried on by former students.

As with any teaching method, there is a danger of misinterpretation by those who would seek to superficially garner a nugget here and there without understanding the underlying principles and objectives.

Brubeck’s warning at the beginning of his article is worth repeating and also serves as a good reminder to take all my following comments with a grain of salt.

Though most widely known for his breathing expertise, Mr. Jacobs is quick to point out that music comes first, last, and always. He commonly draws one conclusion from his experience teaching students from all over the world,: “They lack artistry.” He believes that training a musician should not merely be the training of an instrumentalist, but the training of a great artist as well. Emphasizing to students that sound is their medium, Mr. Jacobs encourages them to become expressive and interpretative or to become “story tellers of sound.” By providing them with goals of excellence, creative imagery and an excellent set of ears, he sets for his students the highest standards possible. Perhaps the most important musical concept is the latter part of his famous phrase “Wind and Song,” where students are encouraged to sing the music in their heads while they are playing, as they would like to hear it played.

Based on my understanding, this is a very accurate and concise summary of Jacobs’s teaching, however I believe that Jacobs himself preferred to describe it as “song and wind,” since it was the music (song) that was to be considered more important than the breathing (wind).

Emphasis on musical expression is a remarkably effective way to get a music student playing more technically accurate, provided the technique is at a sufficient enough level to at least almost handle the challenges of the music.  As music teachers and students, we all have a tendency to want to work only on the things that we can objectively state is right or wrong.  Either we play the correct notes at the correct times or we’ve made a mistake.  Playing with expression is much more subjective, and we sometimes have a tendency to forget that the technique should be in service to the music.  By emphasizing the musical expression and forcing the student to (temporarily) forget about technique he or she can often transcend how to play the instrument.

But again, there needs to be a certain level of technical mastery already established before this sort of practice can really be effective.  I believe that this is something Jacobs understood, but in his teaching he seemed to insist that the student avoid analysis altogether and trust his instructions.  Or at least this is how his pedagogy has been interpreted today.

Careful to direct the flow of multi-sensory input, Arnold Jacobs emphasizes that students should focus upon their performance rather than themselves, emphasizing product rather than process.

Superficially, the above quote might suggest that a focus always on product over process was what Jacobs suggested.  Many people today interpret that this is indeed what Jacobs meant, but I’m not so certain.  Keep in mind that Jacobs regularly discussed the mechanics of breathing and other many areas of brass technique, he simply didn’t want his students to be focusing on those things at the wrong time.  In order to assist with this, he employed some psychological “tricks” to help get his students’ attention back on the music when it matter.  One of the most effective was to remove the act of actually playing the instrument in order to correct breathing issues.

For example, in order to change the preconditioned responses elicited in a student when playing his or her instrument, Mr. Jacobs will simply remove the musical instrument and have the student blow on the back of the hand, buzz on a mouthpiece, or breathe into a strange apparatus. By conditioning the correct response away from the horn, it is then transferable to the instrument. This offers the additional benefits of keeping exercises from dulling musical passion, enhancing strangeness, allowing a multi-sensoral approach, and avoiding previously conditioned baggage. Most importantly, this additive approach keeps players from having to go back to square one on their instruments-particularly valuable for professional players who must maintain a busy schedule. Thus instead of altering a bad behavior, Mr Jacobs advocates that one simply learn a new correct behavior to supplant it by changing stimuli and eventually transferring the response back to the horn. Meanwhile, the old, undesired behavior will extinguish itself from lack of use.

Teaching private brass students I regularly come across conditioned responses to playing the instrument that are awfully difficult to eliminate.  When confronted with a habit that is hindering good playing I usually try to do something similar to Jacobs, remove the act of playing the instrument and try to focus only on the habit we want to encourage.  Once the student has some success doing something correctly, it’s much easier to transfer the same habit onto the instrument and replace the conditioned response.

However, there are some corrections that can only be made by playing the instrument, and this is one area where I must disagree with Jacobs (or again, the interpretation of his pedagogy that is most prevalent).  Jacobs insisted that the student’s attention should be on making music at all times while playing, that analysis is only appropriate away from the instrument.  I liken this to a swimmer who only works on his stroke outside of the water and when actually in the pool only concentrates on swimming fast.  At some point the brass student will need to address technical challenges while actually playing the instrument.

This can be accomplished by removing the music from act of playing.  Most of us already do this without much thought when we play our practice routine.  The exercises we use (long tones, lip slurs, tonguing exercises, etc.) are musically uninteresting precisely because we don’t want to worry about the musical communication at that time, we’re concentrating on playing correctly.  After a period of time working on mechanics (different for different players and at different stages of development), then we move on and go to “song and wind.” We don’t need to reduce our teaching and practice to one or the other, just use the appropriate focus at the appropriate time.

Advocating that the finest quality is what one should intend, Mr. Jacobs insists that habits should be formed based upon excellence. By using imitation, and the creative imagination of excellence, these high goals are established. “Play it like Bud Herseth would,” is a common command Jacobs gives to trumpet students. This begs them not only to recall an excellent example, but also to apply their imagination of it to the piece of music at hand. By flooding their mind with this excellent example, they cannot help but improve what comes out of the bell.

In the context of the above quote I want to reiterate how I started this essay, by reminding us that looking at a snapshot of a particular lesson with a particular student can easily be misinterpreted.  I liken instructing our students only through imitation and imagery to the “Think System.”

Many of Arnold Jacobs’ students recount similar stories of spending an entire lesson perfecting a single phrase, with the explanation that a performer must pay attention to every note in a phrase as well as the big picture. Though the listener senses the phrase direction, the performer must attend to every note to shape this. By setting this high standard, elevating the students’ expectations and helping them focus on the stimulus of the goal in their brain, Mr. Jacobs inspires them to excellence in the brain even if There is mediocrity in the lips. With his guidance, the two will eventually match.

The important part to note here is that it is with Jacobs’s guidance that this method was so effective, not simply imagining the sound.  Of course if you spend an hour working on a single phrase you’re going to make dramatic improvements on that phrase.  That’s exactly what we do when we practice, reinforce playing it correctly over and over so that we don’t need to think about playing correctly, we can concentrate on musical expression.

I never studied with Jacobs personally, so I may be way off here, but if you take a look at what Jacobs said and compare it to what he actually did, I think that there’s a pedagogy lesson in there.  His real genius may not be so much for his “song and wind” approach but for the way he taught students how to play correctly while convincing him that he wasn’t teaching them how to play.  Reducing playing difficulties to a musical solution is attractive.  It’s simple, easy to understand, and doesn’t require any specialized knowledge about how to even play the instrument.  A woodwind player could teach a brass player this way.  Jacobs may have actually stated that music should come “first, last, always,” but he always spent a great deal of time in his master classes talking about and telling his students how to play.  We need to keep this in mind whenever we’re tempted to interpret Jacobs’s advice too literally.

Do you feel differently?  Did you study from Jacobs or get a different interpretation from the article or any other sources?  Please leave your comments below and share your thoughts.