After his graduation from Curtis in 1936, he played two seasons in the Indianapolis Symphony under Fabien Sevitzky. From 1939 until 1944 he was the tubist of the Pittsburgh Symphony under Fritz Reiner. In 1941 Mr. Jacobs toured the country with Leopold Stokowski and the All-American Youth Orchestra. His was a member of the Chicago Symphony from 1944 until his retirement in 1988.

During his forty-four-year tenure with the Chicago Symphony, he took temporary leave in the spring of 1949 to tour England and Scotland with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was on the faculty of Western State College’s Music Camp at Gunnison, Colorado during the early 1960’s. In June 1962, he had the honor of being the first tuba player invited to play at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Mr. Jacobs, along with colleagues from the CSO were part of the famous 1968 recording of Gabrieli’s music with members of the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. He was also a founding member of the Chicago Symphony Brass Quintet, appeared as a soloist with the CSO on several occasions, and recorded the Vaughan Williams Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim conducting the Chicago Symphony.

The late Sir Georg Solti praised Jacobs, "Through his unstinting support and encouragement of generations of brass players the world over, he has justifiably become a legend in his own lifetime."

Mr. Jacobs had the reputation as both the master performer and master teacher. He taught tuba at the Northwestern University School of Music and all wind instruments in his private studio. He was one of the most sought teachers in the world, specializing in respiratory and motivational applications for brass and woodwind instruments and voice. His students include many in orchestras and university faculties around the world.

Mr. Jacobs had given lectures and clinics throughout the world. During the CSO's 1977 and 1985 Japanese tours, Mr. Jacobs presented clinics in Tokyo. In January 1978, he lectured at Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital about playing wind instruments for the therapeutic treatment of asthma in children. He presented masterclasses at Northwestern University a week each summer from 1980-1998. The Second International Brass Congress presented its highest award to him prior to his lecture to them in 1984. In 1991 he presented a clinic for the United States Marine Band in Washington D.C. Mr. Jacobs presented masterclasses as part of the Hearst Scholar program at the University of Northern Iowa and the Housewright Chair at Florida State University.

The Midwest Clinic presented Mr. Jacobs their highest award, the Medal of Honor in 1985. In 1994, The Chicago Federation of Musicians awarded him for Lifetime Achievement at the first Living Art of Music awards.

During his eightieth birthday celebration in 1995, he presented a lecture to the International Brassfest at Indiana University and the International Tuba-Euphonium Conference at Northwestern University. Northwestern’s School of Music presented him the first Legends of Teaching award. Mayor Richard M. Daley proclaimed June 25, 1995 as Arnold Jacobs Day in the City of Chicago.

Mr. Jacobs was given an honorary Doctor of Music degrees from the VanderCook School of Music in 1986 and DePaul University in June of 1995.

Two books written by students about Mr. Jacobs are available, Arnold Jacobs, The Legacy of a Master by M. Dee Stewart in 1987 and Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind*, released in 1996.

While Jacobs earned a reputation as a world-class performer, equally significant were his teachings. In more than sixty years of teaching, he had been called the "Brass teacher’s brass teacher" and a modern Aeolus, the Greek God of Wind. Dale Clevenger, principal horn of the CSO, writes, "Nearly every brass player in America has studied with Arnold Jacobs, whether they know it or not."

Listing all of the musicians that Jacobs has taught is impossible—there are far too many and are not confined to just tuba players. Other brass instruments, all woodwind instruments and even singers and string players come for lessons. One student was not even a musician! Jacobs’ students generally fall into one of the following groups:

Long term students, One or two timers, Referrals from others, Aging problems, and Therapeutic

When asked about his therapeutic specialty, Jacobs responded, "It’s just a form of therapy, as though I were a physical therapist, in the sense of normalizing respiratory muscles, establishing the psychological, general attitudes in the brain as far as what thoughts to think in the art form. I do the physiotherapy, normally away from the instrument, normalize respiratory function away from music, establish patterns of normalcy, and then transfer them back to the instrument, so the brain is free to concentrate on the musical message."

An important fact is that Jacobs knew that his role was only as a therapist. He held no medical degree and did not treat anyone or prescribe medications. If he discovered a medical problem, he would immediately advise a student to consult a physician. In turn, several physicians had referred their patients to him, but only as a therapist. Jacobs gave no medical advice except to see a physician.

The student absorbs information. The teacher imparts information and guides the student through his development. According to Jacobs, "The ability to learn is greater than the ability to teach."

An important consideration in Jacobs’ philosophy of teaching is that all students are different, as every person has his own way of thinking. One person may be highly developed in visual stimuli, such as shades of color that are valuable in art. Another person may have developed in the sense of hearing and pitch recall that is beneficial in music. There are those who think with logical thought and others who think emotionally—it all depends on the individual. Students also have different physical needs, strengths, weaknesses, experiences, desires, and other variables.

Because there are as many teaching problems as there are students, Jacobs treated each student individually. He was concerned only with the student sitting in the chair beside him. Often, he will tell one student one thing and change emphasis with the next student—what he was looking for were results.

There are those who have studied with Jacobs who have interpreted the way that he taught them as The Arnold Jacobs Method, and attempt to imitate Jacobs’ style with their own students. Jacobs taught them as individuals and the methodology would therefore change with the next student. There is no set Arnold Jacobs method of teaching all students. Jacobs individualized the methodology to the individual student. He was the master with his vast knowledge and decades of experience.

Jacobs separated performing from his teaching. He stated that he wore several hats. While performing, he wore a performer’s hat. When teaching, he wore a teacher’s hat. When investigating respiration, he wore an investigator’s hat. He knew when to put a hat on, and more important, when to take a hat off. When he performed he only wore the hat of the performer. It was not the time to investigate or analyze. Those hats are removed to avoid making simple procedures complex.

Unlike many teachers, Jacobs worked with the student’s strengths—what he is doing correctly being dominant over what he is doing wrong. For example, many students come to him with an unorthodox, but functional embouchure. While many teachers would work with a student to change it to perfection, Jacobs may leave it alone, as it is perfectly functional, and concentrate on other problems.

Jacobs relies on a multi-sensory approach to teaching. Students learn through their senses and Jacobs uses tactual, visual and aural clues. He rapidly imparts the strongest message for the particular student using the various senses.

With the aid of external devices he motivated students with different senses. Away from the instrument, he would have a student blow a ball to the top of a tube. During this time he was making the student aware of the feeling of the physical activity. Finally he would have the student play on their instrument and tell them to forget the external device and return to the art form of music.

To Jacobs, the art form must come first, last, and always. Making music should be approached as an artist rather than as a mechanic. The art form, creative thought, or song is 85 percent of music. The artist must prevail in musical thoughts.

Jacobs did not teach a player of a particular instrument, but, rather, taught an artist who plays a particular instrument. All students, from the beginner on up, are performers, although their levels vary from elementary to highly advanced. While technique is important, they should put the study of music first and the methodology [technique] second.

Song and Wind

Jacobs’ teachings are based on one of his most famous phrases, Song and Wind. During his lecture at the 1995 International Brassfest in Bloomington, Indiana, he explained:

"My approach to music is expressed as Song and Wind. This is very important to communicate a musical message to the audience.

With a ratio of 85 per cent to 15 per cent, song, or the mental element is the dominant element of the consciousness by nearly six times. Jacobs has always said that he plays two tubas simultaneously—one in the hand and the other in the mind. The tuba in his hand is the mirror image of his thought. It plays a pitch a split second after the proper signal is sent from the tuba in the mind—the brain. "It does not matter what octave you sing in the mind. What comes out of the instrument should be a mirror image of the conceptual thought of the brain. It is a conceived sound." Although conceptual thoughts such as these have been around for years, Jacobs formalized them for musicians.

Unfortunately, many musicians play without a concept of the end result—the sound coming from the instrument. Their concept is like building a house with no plans. They play with the instrument in their hand but no instrument in their mind and many mistakes occur. Instead they should conceptualize on the end product—the sound coming from the instrument.

"A constant effort must be made by the student to think musically. He should develop the ability to hear the sound in his mind that he wants to hear from his instrument. This tremendously important concept should be encouraged by renewing it daily.

Many considered Jacobs to be the world’s foremost expert on the study of respiration as applied to wind instruments. Before Jacobs, most of the principles in relation to wind instruments were essentially nonexistent. In the nineteenth century there were studies conducted, but the subjects, for the most part were, large males, primarily vocalists, whose air requirements are different from those who play wind instruments. Many problems encountered by smaller males and women resulted from the misapplication of the techniques of larger males to all others. The school of thought with brass teachers for years was the "tight-gut method." Generations of players were taught this style of respiration for playing believing, among other things, that the diaphragm is located below the navel.

Jacobs is the pioneer of modern-day knowledge of respiration in relation to wind instruments. His research was conducted through thousands of hours of independent research studying the normals and abnormals of respiration. Several doctors, most notable Dr. Bruce Douglass and Dr. Benjamin Burrows, worked with Jacobs. Many have said that Jacobs knew more about the mechanics of respiration than many physicians, although he was primarily self-taught. There is truth in this because physicians are more concerned with diseases and not as concerned with the physiology of respiration as is Jacobs. Jacobs realizes his limitations, and if he senses a medical problem with a student, he always recommends that a physician be consulted immediately.

The most common use of the respiratory system’s musculature is to exchange gasses, a requirement to sustain life. This is only one of three phenomena of life supported by the musculature of the respiratory system.

The second use is for the contraction of the muscles in isometric opposition where muscles become rigid. This is useful for sports or combat, but not in playing a wind instrument.

About the final use of the respiratory system, Jacobs says, "I learned more about the lungs not by studying wind for playing my instrument, the tuba, singing, or trumpet playing, but by studying defecation and childbirth—the study of what happens with breath pressure."

The pelvic pressure syndrome uses the respiratory musculature for both childbirth and defecation. Abdominal muscles bear down, increasing internal air pressure. The throat closes to contain the pressure [the Valsalva maneuver]. Inside the body, air is under considerable pressure, far more than required to play a wind instrument.

Often during master classes, Jacobs has a man blow into a modified blood pressure gauge with as much air pressure as possible. Usually he can only blow three pounds of static breath pressure as sensors in the lungs protect the tissue and prevent larger pressures.

Next, he has this man lie flat on his back on the floor and tense up the muscles of his abdomen by isometric opposition. A small woman [usually Mrs. Jacobs!] then stands on his chest and abdomen.

"On the trumpet, which is the highest pressure instrument in the brass family, I have measured many people and they hardly go up to three pounds of pressure. The average will be between one-half and one and one-half pounds. When they are working really hard, they may get up to two to three pounds."

This demonstration shows that the muscles of the abdomen can only sustain a pressure around three pounds, but can also support 100 pounds or more. "Physically, we have reflexes in each lung that will not permit us to use any of this kind of strength. Anytime you exert a great power in these powerful muscles, this has to do with reduction. There would be an enervation of the muscles that make you large. That would cancel it out and this goes on all the time. It’s foolish to use enormous strength when you are dealing with one to two pounds."

Excess contraction of the abdomen’s musculature is unnecessary, as it limits the potential of the respiratory system. It is contrary to the old "tight-gut" method that decades of wind players have been taught.

Jacobs commented, "The most common problems I have seen over the last sixty-odd years I have been teaching are with respiration and the tongue. Surprisingly enough, I rarely find problems with the embouchure. That might sound strange because people come to see me because of problems with their embouchure, but frequently it is the embouchure reacting to a bad set of circumstances and failing--it is simply cause and effect. If we change the cause of the factor, it is easy to clear up the embouchure. The embouchure is not breaking down, it is trying to work under impossible conditions. When you are starving the embouchure for air volume, giving it all sorts of air pressure but not quantity, it cannot work. Very quickly you will be struggling to produce your tone. Just increase your volume of air not by blowing hard, but by blowing a much thicker quality of air. Very frequently the air column is just too thin."

When a student comes to Jacobs, he always asks them their age, height and weight. Through experience, he determines their vital capacity [the amount of lung tissue with the physical capability of holding a certain volume of air]. Total lung capacity cannot be increased beyond what nature grants to a particular body. Only the elasticity of the lung tissue or chest wall can be increased.

The following charts based on a formula from the American Thoracic Society can determine an estimate of a person's vital capacity [in liters] based on height, age and gender.

To use, place the tube between the teeth over the tongue so as not to obstruct the air passageway. Inhale with a fast breath, keeping the ball in the pressure chamber as close to the top as possible. Watch the main chamber for the amount of air inhaled indicated by the top of the disk. There is a marker to manually mark the amount of air previously inhaled.

In hospitals, after determining both the estimated vital capacity [from the formulas] and the actual vital capacity [from pulmonary function testing], the ratio is reported. It is determined by dividing the actual capacity by the estimated capacity. If, for example, a person has an actual capacity of two liters and an estimated capacity of four liters, this person would have a capacity of 50 percent of normal. If there was an actual capacity of five liters and an estimated capacity of four liters, this person would have a capacity of 125 percent of normal. It is important to realize that wind musicians seem to have a higher than normal vital capacity.

Most wind players use less than one-half of their vital capacity when playing their instrument. Jacobs stated, "One of the difficulties, with men as well as women, is that the player rarely, if ever, uses all the usable air in their lungs. They may have a vital capacity of four-and-a-half liters, but that is not what they use. They use only a fraction of that capacity. A trained person might use 75 or 80 percent of their vital capacity, others will use half or less."

For those who are well under 100 percent of their normal capacity, Jacobs would have the student put down their instrument. While teaching music, he divorces remedial function matters from the actual playing of the instrument, and using a variety of external devices away from the instrument, seeks to develop new habits of breathing and air usage with his students.

Most material is excerpted from: Frederiksen, Brian. Edited by John Taylor. ARNOLD JACOBS: SONG AND WIND*. 1996, WindSong Press, Gurnee, Illinois. ISBN 0-9652489-0-9