AUGUST 1990 Notes -- Monday ARNOLD JACOBS' MASTER CLASS Arnold Jacobs background in music Music is only profession Encouraged at home Discovered that music may be looked at as an art form and as a science Learned to play by ear, wrote own trumpet fingering chart Flooded the brain with great examples (Herbert L. Clarke) Playing by ear leads AJ to study brain's participation in making music. Adoption of body to instrument lead AJ to realize the mechanics of body use -- although this knowledge is not needed for music making. We must consider development of an individual as product of all experiences. In music today, too much emphasis is on instrumental skills and not enough on musicality. Find what thoughts bring success? Simplicity, not complexity of knowledge provides the precise physical control needed to perform. Get mind off of research and allow mind to hand motor functions to lower brainstem. Find an order to thought processes for all direct musical development. Be a story teller in sound. Express emotion in music. Play to feel better. Divisions of the brain that are used for music making are simple. Learn to stay out of the body's way for direct music making. What the brain hears determines the body's response, not what the body feels. The embouchure is a "basket-weave" of muscle tissue. Direct commands can't separate individual function. The brain activates the areas needed to produce results. The body's system of nerves is divided into two sub- systems: sensory and motor. Each sub-system of nerves is a "one-way street." Electrical impulses travel in one direction only. The sensory sub-system transmits to the brain impulses about our relationship to the external world. The motor sub-system broadcasts from the brain impulses to change our relationship to the external world. The external environment is observed using sensory nerves and affected through motor nerves. The feedback of listening to ourselves presents problems because of the independence of the sensory and motor sub-systems. The teacher can show a beginning player the difference between observing and performing. The teachers take the student's instrument and mouthpiece (so only the player is the variable) and plays a single tone as the student observes (both watches and listens). After a long moment's wait, the teacher plays another tone and then another. This develops the student's ability to recall a sound. The student attempts to perform the same sound. Performers have a sound in their head (recall of a model) and a sound in reality (how they utilize their instrument). The best start is by imitation of a great player. After using models of excellence then ask the question, "Do I sound the way I want to sound like?" AUGUST 1990 Notes -- Monday ARNOLD JACOBS' MASTER CLASS Trumpet example: AJ begins talking about the lack of problems and urges "basket case" players to perform in class. Says this trumpet player has a well developed musical brain, tissue, and lung capacity. Works with "breath builder" for directing attention to inspiratory function -- to get suction with minimal friction. Out of crudities, develop skill. Find the minimal motors to move air with greater ease. Because muscles of our bodies are configured in pairs, there is a potential for stiffness. During the performance of an activity, un-needed muscles are often inhibitors. The body uses the respiratory system in three ways * For respiration, a bellows system of enlargement and reduction -- This mode is for wind playing. Only about three pounds of pressure can be generated by this system. *For defecation and childbirth -- This uses pelvic pressure (closed-throat, downward pressure). Many pounds of downward pressure are generated. *For combat -- Tension in the abdominal wall protects vital organs and stabilizes large muscle groups for "fight or flight." The muscle groups here can support weights of over one hundred pounds. Players become involved in pressurization unwittingly. The direct ordering of muscles to provide air pressure rather than air flow leads to constriction of the air path. Posture: The small inward curve in the lumbar area of the back is natural. Stay tall even when seated by maintaining this curve when either standing or sitting. "Psychology of inhalation" *Visualize the air as wind; move wind out and in *Breathe to expand, not expand to breathe -- Body expansion is the result not the cause of moving wind. *For specific development, alter stimulus to alter behavior. * Use less pressure but use more flow Inhale/exhale with breather bag to observe air flow. With a short tube in the mouth, explore the sensation of air moving in and out. Constrict the flow in the tube and notice the difference. Question: Does the diaphragm control the breath? There is no system of nerves in the diaphragm to tell the brain what position the diaphragm is in. The diaphragm only has pain sensing nerves. Suck air in and the diaphragm will perform. Many students equate air movement with air pressure. Order air as wind. Remember the contracted torso can support 100 pounds; only three pounds are needed for air flow. AUGUST 1990 Notes -- Monday ARNOLD JACOBS' MASTER CLASS Trombone example: Several styles used during warm-up (very good!). A multi- style approach is important but neglected by "trained" performers. Players are often too used to reading notes and don't rely on memory for generating music. A crowded oral cavity with tongue and tonsils can constrict air flow. Say "tee, yee, tee, yee" to experience a constricted air flow. Say ah, oh, oo to experience an open airway. The tongue is an unruly muscle. Even though its nerves have four times the fire power compared to the biceps, the nerves provide very little information to the brain. Learn the dimensions of the tongue and the oral cavity from spoken language. Language is learned so early that it serves as an excellent model. Exercise: In a regular pulse, say "ah, oh, oo, oh, ah, oh" then inhale. (Inhale in time.) Discover the sensation of inhale through a large oral cavity. For recognition, move activities to extremes. Don't stop air before starting sound. Achieve a smooth "up-bow, down-bow" quality to inhalation/exhalation. Balance the breath/embouchure connection. The word "who" is an example of a blown attack. The word "too" is an articulated attack. Practice the different attacks away from your horn. Say "who, too, who, too" and balance the air flow. Check the air flow by "articulating" on the back of your hand. Use the same air flow but with only the addition of the "t" for "too." With your instrument, practice sequences of five blown attacks with no stopping the tone between attacks. Five quarter notes, no gaps, only blown attacks. Think like a child so simplicity comes through. Rely on mental sound pictures. Don't practice as a teacher teaching yourself. Question: Will different language backgrounds produce different articulation skills? A much qualified yes -- At first, ingrained language training set the norm, but a concept of musical sound and training overrides the language skill. How you want to sound is the chief control. JULY 1990 Notes -- Tuesday ARNOLD JACOBS' MASTER CLASS Question: Did the trombonist in Monday's session have problems with the pallet rising properly? AJ looks at the oral cavity in general: size of tongue, tonsils, feels for tension. An open throat is a relaxed throat. The goal is to promote general relaxation in the area rather than to pinpoint the specific component which gives difficulty. Everyone can cope with the air pressures demanded by music performance. The one exception -- After a poorly performed tonsillectomy, a trumpet player was unable to handle pressures of four ounces without air escaping through the nose. For trumpet playing, six to seven ounces are needed for soft mid-range playing. Even this minimal amount was impossible for the performer. The operation effectively ended the player's career. For a performer to examine a specific area of the body, the study of function must be made away from music. An examination of the back of the oral cavity, for example, would include a study of this area as it functions in the activity of chewing, swallowing, and language production. Exercises to normalize function are established away from music to correct a malfunction. The instrument often becomes a trigger for conditioned reflexes. It is the sum of all the good and bad musical experiences. To avoid conflicts, remove the trigger. Work with the instrument aside. Sight is a powerful stimulus for functional improvement. Work with auxiliary equipment which uses visual cues. Question: Discuss the breathing tube used by the trumpeter in Monday's class. Conditioned response to a stimulus is the norm. If we desire a changed response, the stimulus must be changed. Students often understand verbal instruction but can't communicate with their bodies. The introduction of strangeness is needed to start change. The tube helps put the focus at the back of the oral cavity. In general, these devices promote non-verbal awareness. Use the tube to get away from music -- then work on transference of new skills to music. AJ began work with physicians to discover function away from music. Got first spirometer, began studies at the University of Chicago using Chicago Symphony wind players, began accumulating equipment from heating/cooling industry. For $5000 equipped a studio that gave the effective information of a $25,000 lab. Often a "musician's breath" (low or regional breath) doesn't extend to the top of the lungs. Use the breathing tube (about 7/8 of an inch in diameter, three or four inches long) to focus attention on the air entering the mouth. Partially block the opening to change the flow rate. Feel the air entering at different rates. A full breath involves complete enlargement. Establish full-empty cycle to increase enlargement. You feel air movement within the body only above larynx. The breathing tube puts the focus on this area. A compound flow gauge can be added to the set-up to provide a visual cue. Breathe through a soda straw. Notice the resistances and the flow of air. Cut the straw into two pieces and feel the change in flow. Cut into three or four pieces and notice the differences. JULY 1990 Notes -- Tuesday ARNOLD JACOBS' MASTER CLASS At all times during these exercises keep the abdominal area like jelly. Weakness is your friend. Tension on the frontal abdominal wall is a trained response (probably from mis-training). Very little strength can produce much motion of air. Learn about air as motion. Great power in torso is wrongly brought to performance. The biggest problem is to make students aware of the subtle. Pressure becomes downward, pelvic pressure as throat closes. This subtly shifts the function from one of respiration to one of pelvic push. "Blowing from diaphragm" is impossible. The diaphragm is the main muscle used to lengthen lungs and lower organs -- it descends and lower air pressure in the lungs results. It raises as it relaxes. The high position of the diaphragm is the most relaxed. The "low breath" with expansion in the abdominal area (but not in the chest) is usable -- especially by woodwinds needing only a low flow rate. We must follow through like a good athlete and use the entire torso for a full breath, not just a small part for a local breath. When sitting, don't collapse, allow inhale and exhale to occur with simplicity. The torso as a bellows moves air simply. Study air not muscles. Music is the big deal not physiology. All physical functions have control systems in the brain. The body is too complex to control by direct brain command. The untrained "natural" musician produces results by studying the product. Study breath not the body. Scales are not an end in themselves. Don't play drills, play scales as music -- part of a concerto for example. Performance is 99% knowledge of music and 1% other information. Question: Sometimes students expand the chest and contract the abdomen during inhalation. This is a reshaping process. It's expanding first breathing second. Work for full lung volume away from music. Make challenges away from the horn. Blow strips of paper as a visual cue. Learn to tell the truth about what the body does. For blowing problems, work on inhale, establish motion. Turn the attention from problem region to the simple act of air going through the mouth. Don't un-do or inflict remedial teaching. Start specialized work away from music. Protrude and contract mechanically but with no respiration. Notice the "piston