Retired St. Louis Symphony principal trumpeter, Susan Slaughter shares her insight and memories of her studies with Arnold Jacobs. In 1971, Slaughter developed some problems with her playing that she was not able to solve and was referred to Jacobs by her principal horn colleague, Roland Pandolfi. She did not hesitate and made an appointment with Jacobs. After listening to Slaughter describe her problem, Jacobs immediately worked with her breathing. He measured her lung capacity. He then used an incentive spirometer-like device to have her working on her inhalations and exhalations to make them more full and gentle. She didn’t have a spirometer available to her at home so he suggested she use a tube and a breathing bag (6 liter) for work on normalizing her breathing motions. He told her that it’s not how much air one has but how the air is used. In working with Jacobs, Slaughter noticed that she had developed the habit of working too hard, playing too loudly, especially when encouraged by the full orchestra stage volume. Jacobs suggested that because of her gender she might be equating work efforts associated with childbirth with the work effort/support she was applying to the trumpet. Slaughter said she found that enlightening. Jacobs was encouraging and kind. He encouraged her to NOT think in terms of fortissimo, but rather in terms of mezzo-forte, whether it be a true mezzo-forte, or a “fuller mezzo-forte” or an “even fuller mezzo-forte.” Jacobs used the psychology of moderate/medium work efforts in order to help Slaughter start a new path/approach to playing loudly with less effort/tension. Another item they covered in her initial lesson was making her tone more unified. She was having problems with a couple of notes that (F, G) were not as high quality as the ones surrounding them. He instructed her to use the good sounding notes as the model for the few notes that were less good. Let the good teach the bad. In later lessons, Jacobs wanted Slaughter to work on getting her attacks to have a more pure sound right from the beginning. He also asked her to buzz melodies on the mouthpiece (not exercises) and use lots of vibrato. He was doing this to help find the sweet spot of tone in her playing. Playing melodies on the mouthpiece was helpful to her also to encouraging her musical thinking. She would often put words to the melodies and found that the “song helps the wind work properly.” “We can get caught in the story when we put words to the notes.” Make a statement, don’t ask a question was something Jacobs advised Slaughter when she was on stage. This helped her to develop more confidence and comfort over a period of time. Jacobs would ask her to think of the great sound she would generate in middle of a longer note and then use that sound as the example for her initial articulated sounds. Slaughter didn’t hesitate to seek out Jacobs because he was a tuba player and she a trumpeter. He came so highly recommended from other high brass players. Slaughter always felt welcome and respected by Jacobs. She felt that he always gave her 100% of his attention while she was in the lesson. Slaughter described her overall experience with Jacobs as career saving. He also communicated that she had a lot of talent and he was always reassuring and calming. Slaughter’s experiences as a female brass player during the late 1960s and 1970s was discussed, including many of the demeaning situations she had to deal with, most notably a memorable Zarathustra story involving the conductor Edo de Waart. A brief discussion of Slaughter’s musical influences and trumpet teachers is included in this interview, beginning in high school moving through college, and then as a professional. Slaughter strongly recommends that one should always be open to getting help if/when a problem arises and to be open to trying the ideas of others.

• published: 29 Jul 2015
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