Arnold Jacobs and the Pivot System

[ubq]

This is a very interesting thing, which is new to me. Until yesterday I believed-'cause I read it so in Arnold Jacobs books- that he never set rules for embochure-the main thing is that you play by sound, and that you communicate with your music.

Today I found out that he set rules for the embochure in a way that it must be stabile at the mouthcorners, and that you better dont move it to much when you play interval changes...
It is new to me...

Do you know more about Arnold Jacobs' pivot system related ideas?
Please let me know it, I'm very interested in his theroies!

Thanks a lot !!

[brianf]

Today I found out that he set rules for the embochure in a way that it must be stabile at the mouthcorners, and that you better dont move it to much when you play interval changes...

Interesting? Seems he switched mouthpiece placement for certain intervals. Read on from Arnold Jacobs Song and Wind:

There has been much controversy about shifting the placement of the mouthpiece for various ranges. When Jacobs first entered the Curtis Institute, he had difficulty with the high range. “When I got to classes and to my private studio with Philip Donatelli, I could hardly play the high notes. One day I asked Donatelli to play a passage from Berlioz’s Overture to Benvenuto Cellini. I was having problems getting the high G in that particular piece

“Because he had a short upper lip, Donatelli had a mouthpiece with the top of the rim cut off making a flat section so it could fit under his nose. He simply shifted the mouthpiece placement up where he would play into the small section of the mouthpiece near the bottom when he would go up to high G.
“Here I was, a former trumpet player and thought, ‘My God, he is changing his lip—his embouchure!’ I had read articles that advised never to change the embouchure. I had accepted this advice and never changed. When I saw him change, I took the horn back and tried the same thing. I played the G above high C, and the G above the G above the high C. I practically had all the high notes on the tuba that I did on the trumpet by using a trumpet embouchure. I never had any trouble with high notes after that.â€

[Alex C]

Wonderful videos, Brian! Thanks for posting these.

[iiipopes]

I have been known to do the same thing. I thought that I was "breaking all the rules," until I read this post. I believe it has something to do with both firming up the lower lip by getting more of the rim on it, while the resulting smaller secant intersection of the upper lip across the mouthpiece is a smaller area of vibrating upper lip. A related concept is used for the Asymmetric mouthpiece.

[Kevin Hendrick]

Does anyone else's stop buffering at 41%? It'll play about 1:30 worth then it stops to load and stops loading at 41%.

It may work better if you download the file first, then load your player and play the copy on your hard disk.

[brianf]

Does anyone else's stop buffering at 41%? It'll play about 1:30 worth then it stops to load and stops loading at 41%.

What are you using? I've tried this on a lot of machines using Windows Media Player and a high speed connection with no problem.