Greetings Professor Scheffelman,
In regards to your misgivings, I hope to address a few of them in a
satisfactory manner.
I am (and will forever be) a student of brass embouchure and have been a
believer in the Balanced Embouchure method by Jeff Smiley for many
years. Before that I was a student of the various Callet methods which
were expounded by Jerome Callet who teaches out of New York.
Let us address your first concern.
>> The biggest problem that I had with the Smiley trumpet book is the
accusation that he uses over and over " most great players can't teach".
Since you are, by title, a professor and are thus an academic, I can
only assume that as an informed academic that you have read the text in
question and are thus making a statement based on observation and fact.
Thus it should stand to reason that this statement should stand up to a
simply verification process.
I have in front of me the Balanced Embouchure method book, which in its
entirely is composed of approximately 150 pages. The pages on which Jeff
explores the idea of "Those who do, can't teach" are pages 24 to 25; 2
pages out of 150 which constitutes about 1.3% of the book. This casts
doubt on your above statement, implying that your statement may not be
based on fact at all. However, since you are no doubt a man familiar
with academic discourse, there must be a valid reason for which you have
made the above statement so any clarification that can be made on your
part would be greatly appreciated to clearing this matter up.
>> He then goes on to systematically show how his system is far
superior to most of the great trumpet teachers that he obviously stole
from for his book.
>> Practicing the extremes is nothing new. Is there something new
there? Not at all. Maybe band directors teaching all the instruments in
their Little town,
>> having all practice scales might the be pedagogy fault? Going to see
a qualified teacher on your particular instrument seems just as good.
This is the basis for
>> the Smiliy book.
The above paragraph seems full of valuable ideas and interesting points
of discussion so I hope I will do justice to them by listing them to
better address them in a serial fashion.
1) Jeff Smiley systematically shows how his system is superior to those
of great trumpet teachers, though he has stolen the ideas from them.
2) The idea of practising extremes is not new.
>> Maybe band directors teaching all the instruments in their Little town,
>> having all practice scales might the be pedagogy fault? Going to see
a qualified teacher on your particular instrument seems just as good.
This is the basis for
>> the Smiliy book.
I'm afraid that this bit is beyond my understanding so please clarify in
a later posting.
1) It is true that Jeff systematically displays the strength of his
method in comparison to others which I believe is what all teachers have
always done. It seems unlikely that any teacher would considering
teaching material that they consider to be inferior or outdated and thus
often set out to do their best in proving that their approach is most
beneficial. Did Jeff "steal" his material? I'm afraid I do not have
expertise to judge him on this matter. Although I've studied the
material of many of the authors that Jeff credits in his
acknowledgements section separately, I am by no means an expert.
On the other hand, I can pose the question of whether Aristotle stole
his ideas from Plato who was his teacher. Or whether Plato stole his
ideas from Socrates. These 3 names represent a few of the greatest
thinkers to have ever existed and none would ever question their prowess
as philosophers and scientists. The style of rhetoric we see in Jeff's
book mirrors that of Aristotle and of almost all modern day academics.
It is common (and often required) practise to properly represent the
current ideas on a topic before one explores and affirms one's own ideas
on the subject. Aristotle would frequently examine the ideas of Plato,
Pythagoras, Democritus and others, highlighting the strength and
weakness of each before putting forth his own idea which was often a
synthesis of the strengths of all the previous ideas. Such is the way of
scholarly debate, as I'm sure, you a professor will know better than I.
2) I most wholeheartedly agree with your evaluation of the idea of
extremes. Before the Jeff Smileys and Jerome Callets of the brass world,
in the days of the natural horn, there existed musicians who specialized
in a certain range of the brass instrument and thus had embouchure
settings tailored toward these demands. As I am no expert on music
history, I will move on to what I believe to be more important point
that needs to be addressed.
Though some of the material may not be novel, the approach itself is and
(if you forgive the presumptuous nature of my upcoming statement) that
is what I believe Jeff takes credit for. On the cover of his book he
writes that the Balanced Embouchure is "A dynamic development system
that's easy to learn and works for every trumpet player." The key word
here is SYSTEM. The manner in which the exercises are presented and the
concepts themselves are uniquely Jeff's. Many have prescribed playing in
the extremes, but none have instructed their students to attempt to
integrate the two extremes into the regular playing range in order to
attain a level of playing proficiency that a student may not be able to
otherwise obtain.
>> ANYONE can write a quasi Book/manual/plagiarist spiral-bound
journal, call themselves gods gift to pedagogue and bash all naysayers.
Again you make a great point, Professor. There are many methods in
existence that are no more than a "Get Rich Quick" scheme invented to
attract the frustrated brass player who is unable to break that range
barrier that have struggled so valiantly and fruitlessly against. As
Jeff quotes Claude Gordon as saying "Brass players are the most gullible
people in the world. They will buy anything if you tack a high note on
it." (26)
Though I will not make the logical error of assuming that your
observations of those who con brass players into buying their methods
and call themselves "gods gift to pedagogue" as being a direct insult to
Jeff, I will say that Jeff is amongst the most humblest teachers I have
ever spoken to even though his method, in my opinion, has brought more
success to more people than any other method I have heard of.
>> There are many great teachers who don't play any more. But their
humble contributions and musical legacy seem to be more important than
the book they >> wrote. You know the sayings about trumpet players
heads.........
Yes, I have to agree that we trumpet players tend to be an egotistic
bunch. Hopefully those reading this will overlook this misgiving and
love us for our charm.
>> I would be embarrassed to defend this charlatan trumpet teacher.
I am neither embarrassed, nor am I defending Jeff. I believe that all
things of value and worth should be able to withstand a certain level of
discussion and it is one my passions to discuss brass pedagogue with
anyone interested in the matter. I do believe in the Balanced Embouchure
method, but that is an aside. This debate is over ideas and not beliefs.
I have been on the other side of this argument and have questioned the
validity of Jeff's methodology with as much ferocity as Professor
Scheffelman has and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to explore
the idea with someone of such high academic pedigree.
>> I think I would actually like what he has done if not for the
extreme nature of the insults to
>> both the horn playing/teaching world and the past trumpet teachers
he blatantly insults.
A valid conclusion, if the premises hold. Since Valerie and I are both
in direct contact with Jeff, and I'm sure that Jeff does not mean to be
insulting we'd be glad to point out the offencive passages to him if you
would care to cite them with page numbers.
Phil Mach
Forever a student of brass pedagogue.
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