 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ClarinetBoy
Date: 2001-06-22 08:58
to everyone!
I have been exploring significantly for some time the "method" (if you'd like to call it that) and work of Arnold Jacobs. I found that everything he says can be applied to Clarinet and have adjusted my playing around it, since then I have become a 'Jacobs' convert and am always studying faithfully under the guidelines set by Jacobs. Does anyone here have experiences or study in this manner?
yours in clarinetistry
ClarinetBoy
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Author: Suzanne
Date: 2001-06-22 17:50
My clarinet teacher's husband was a tuba student of Jacobs, and she taught me his song and wind method. It takes trust and then it WORKS. If you want me to tell you more detail of how she taught me, drop me a line.
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Author: Carl Lambein
Date: 2001-06-25 13:31
To those of us in the tuba world, Jacobs is a god. He passed away awhile back but I was fortunate enough to hear him play at several tuba symposiums years ago. The guy was a horse. You want to talk about volume? I'm 205 pounds and have a pretty full lung capacity....but Arnold could take that old Conn of his and sustain for almost two minutes. Try that on a big 'ol C tuba with a bore substancially larger than, say, a clarinet...! If you haven't read "Arnold Jacobs: The Legacy of a Master", do. Also. in his wake are Dr. Donald Stauffer's "A Treatise on Tuba" and J. Kent Mason's "The Tuba Handbook".
Having played tuba for many years professionaly and clarinet semi-professionally, I agree with you; the techniques are similar...to a point. The use of a reed does not permit overblowing (this is not necessarily a bad thing on tuba, at times, depending on the genre...), and brass mouthpieces (especially tuba) are an entirely different experience that any reed mouthpiece. (Putting lips OVER reed and mouthpiece substantially different that placing lips IN a Bach 18 tuba mouthpiece, for example. Some of the same muscles do come into play...some do not. It's the old "brass vs woodwind" senario).
Having said that, I agree with you that we can learn from ANY expert in his field. Many a tuba player borrows from Falcone (the great horn player). I adapted Al Hirt's "round breathing technique" to my tuba playing way back in the easrly 60s after seeing him in a concert and trying to figure out when the heck he took a breath. Even a country fiddler like me learns much from YoYo Ma's technique, or just listening to Hiefitz.
You are to be commended for your curiosity and willingness to expand your boundries. Over the years I have seen more musicians that I care to count content to stay in their comfort zone, never experiment, never question, never expand. I am not judging them...many of them found their "happy zone" and that's where they nest. But I have found, over the last 40-plus years, that music is an adventure, a search for perfection rarely experienced...but the fun (to me) is IN the search. Play on!
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