Canadian Brass - FEATURE STORY

Arnold Jacobs - Musical Dominance Over the Instrument

Canadian Brass has a long history associated with Arnold Jacobs. It is no exaggeration to say Mr. Jacob's legacy is evident in most, if not all of North America's orchestra's brass sections, and his influence extends to orchestras all over the world. Both Chuck and Gene studied with Arnold Jacobs in the sixties, and Ryan, Joe, and I have all studied with students of Jacobs as well. Our lessons with him are still being passed along in many ways. Jacob's ideas are being shared musically through our recordings, and theoretically through CB master classes, and daily discourse.

Here are a few direct channels to Arnold Jacob's incredibly clear guidance on the pursuit of excellence in the musical art form. His book is titled "Song and Wind". Another wonderful collection of songs and words is a CD that includes musical and rhetorical examples of Mr. Jacob's message. Here is a sample of some of the words that helped shape generations of brass playing. This excerpt is a direct transcription of part of a lecture found on his CD "The Legacy of Arnold Jacobs".

"This is an art form. It should be considered an art form. I don't like this constant stress on instrumental playing, in other words, "I am learning to play the trumpet. I am learning to play the trombone. I am learning to play the clarinet" where there's such an instrumental learning. I want a tremendous dominance of learning the music for these instruments so the psychology of it goes heavily into the music that you play on these instruments, and as you develop the music, you are also learning the instrument. I don't want the instrumental dominance over the music; I want the musical dominance over the instrument. In other words, it becomes a fight, otherwise, where you begin to fight with yourself, or fight your horn, or you fight your trumpet, whatever instrument you play to play better and better. The whole attitude is to go home and practice my horn more and more. If instead, you do the same amount of practice, of course, but you do it in stylist aspects of it. What do you want it to sound like? Whether it's Dixieland Jazz, or Bach or wonderful concertos or ensemble music. Whatever it is, in other words, it should always be from you to an audience, so the sounds are dominant over the methodology of how to produce the sound. The reason I say this is I've found the human body always works on products, not methods. If I want to move this chair over, I'm tired of standing, and I'll just bring it over, and I'll sit down. This is a product. In other words, I'm moving the chair from over there to here, I'll sit myself down, I'm very comfortable. This is very nice. It's not as practical as standing however. (stands up) These are products. No matter what I do, I'm always going for what I'm trying to accomplish, not how I'm trying to accomplish it."

Canadian Brass speaks often about singing your parts, playing on the mouthpiece, and many other techniques to reveal the music inside you - away from your instruments. There are endless opportunity to do so...it is only limited by your imagination. Don't let that right side of your brain be neglected!! Go for it!!

Get this book now!

Find out more about Arnold Jacobs and this book at:

www.windsongpress.com

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