{"id":249,"date":"2010-06-03T02:46:57","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T02:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wilktone.com\/?p=249"},"modified":"2023-03-26T11:02:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-26T15:02:38","slug":"arnold-jacobs-on-embouchure-a-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/?p=249","title":{"rendered":"Arnold Jacobs on Embouchure: A Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today I’m going to go after one of brass pedagogy’s sacred cows, Arnold Jacobs<\/a>.  Since so many teachers and players have been strongly influenced by Jacobs’ teaching (myself included), I should give a little background first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacobs sometimes summarized his teaching philosophy as “Song & Wind.”  This influential concept is sometimes described as the musician’s focus should first and foremost should be on being a musical communicator, the “song.”  After that, a brass musician’s attention should be placed on good breathing, the “wind.”  One of the reasons that this is such a popular pedagogical method is because it’s very effective.  Putting attention on the musical expression does have a tendency to work out the kinks in a player’s technique.  Efficient breathing is also an extremely important part of good brass technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just so I’m clear here, I’m not advocating that we throw the baby out with the bathwater.  However, just because Jacobs had an expert understanding of the physiology of breathing and application of that knowledge to playing brasswind instruments doesn’t mean that his statements on other areas should be taken for gospel truth, as many seem to think.  Case in point, his statements on the embouchure<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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