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More Air ITG
More Air ITG
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laying a brass instrument involves the engagement of intra-oral air pressure they could generate. They found that
several physiological systems while striving to increasing intra-oral air pressure while playing a single pitch
respond to multiple layers of musical goals. Perhaps increased loudness (dB), thus altering the extent to which the
this is why discussions on brass pedagogy have failed to pro- instrument’s bell radiated energy. This increase in energy radi-
duce a consensus. Perspectives on how best to reach these ating from the bell was accompanied by more brightness in the
musical goals or to teach someone else to achieve them most sound measurable by the increased amplitude in higher har-
likely reflect differences in personal experience, individual dif- monics found in the sound spectrum. Further, they found that
ferences in awareness of airflow or muscular tension, or the each given pitch required a minimum level of intra-oral air
extent to which their instructors have focused attention on var- pressure to initiate the note (minimum onset pressure) and had
ious aspects of their individual performance goals. Students a maximum air pressure level beyond which the pitch could
who achieve success do so frequently via perseverance, rather not be maintained.
then efficient teaching strategies. The strategies brass players Of all of the studies that have been done on brass perform-
employ to control the physiological systems that are required to ance, none has been more significant for brass players than the
enable or improve performance have yet to be satisfactorily observations made by Arnold Jacobs, the former principal
identified and their effects have not been measured during tubist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Due to his rep-
musical performances and across the utation as an excellent performer,
brass family. So, the questions that “The strategies brass players employ fellow brass players took Jacobs’s
need to be entertained are whether statements more seriously than
or not there are indeed multiple to control the physiological sys- those that were delivered by the sci-
strategies to success, how that suc- entific community. Jacobs was able
cess is ultimately measured, and
tems that are required to enable or to utilize his findings to help gener-
what, if any, are the common de- improve performance have yet to ate and support a methodology that
nominators and/or significant differ- later became known as “Song &
ences among the successful strategies. be satisfactorily identified…” Wind” (Fredericksen, 1996). A
These questions cannot be answered summary of this method asks brass
until the physical constraints of each brass instrument have players to focus their cognitive energies on the steady and rela-
been measured. Before one can discuss whether managing tively unforced release of the air coupled with due attention on
embouchure pressure or the sensation of airflow, etc. alters per- the music being made. If this summary appears to be an over-
formance, we must understand what the requirements for air simplification, it is certainly not meant to be. Nothing about
support and embouchure tension are as a function of instru- brass playing can truly be explained in single sentence, much
ment, pitch, loudness, and timbre. less the brilliant lifetime observations of an incredible musician
Resistance to airflow in the embouchure resonated by a brass such as Arnold Jacobs. It does, however, enable us to place
instrument produces the sound we recognize as the brass Arnold Jacobs’s methodology into a camp of brass pedagogy
sound. Defining the role of air during brass performance that, for lack of a better description, is more air-centered rather
requires describing how changes in air support (measured as air than embouchure oriented. Jacobs believed that focusing on
pressure in the mouth, behind the embouchure, hereafter Song and Wind would more naturally pull the other systems,
referred to as intra-oral pressure) and airflow through the such as embouchure, support, etc., into balance without focus-
instrument vary as a function of pitch and loudness. Measures ing on them specifically with the aid of the conscious mind.
of intra-oral pressure and airflow can be used to draw infer- What actually were the results of Jacobs’s experiments? Jacobs
ences about the resistance of the embouchure to air and the rel- conducted research in 1959 and 1960 with the assistance of
ative size of area of the embouchure that allows air to flow. Benjamin Burrows who was then at the University of Chicago’s
Several studies have measured airflow and intra-oral pressure Billings Hospital (Fredericksen, 1996, p. 120). The results of
during trumpet performance. Bouhuys measured airflow and this research were never published. Only anecdotal comments
changes in lung volume during performance on the bugle, made by Jacobs in subsequent interviews and masterclasses
trombone, flute, clarinet, oboe, and recorder. Bouhuys reports remain. In short, Jacobs claimed that intra-oral air pressure
that airflow is stable at a given pitch and loudness, that intra- increases as players ascend in pitch and that airflow in the horn
oral air pressure requirements increase with pitch while airflow consequently decreases. Jacobs went further to claim that intra-
decreases with ascending pitch. He also notes differences in the oral pressure and airflow were consistent at a given enharmon-
required intra-oral air pressure needed to produce tones as a ic pitch and dB level, regardless of the instrument being played.
function of the instrument. Fletcher and Tarnopolsky (1999) According to Jacobs, a tuba player and a trumpet player create
studied the intra-oral air pressure generated by three experi- the same amounts of intra-oral pressure and airflow in their
enced trumpet players, one who played professionally. They respective instruments when performing the same enharmonic
observed that individual performers varied in the amount of pitch. Jacobs’s equipment recorded maximum levels of intra-