The jug used as a musical instrument is an empty

jug A jug is a type of container commonly used to hold and serve liquids, but not normally to drink from directly. It has an opening, sometimes narrow, from which to pour or drink, and has a handle, and usually a pouring lip. Jugs throughout histor ...

(usually made of glass or

stoneware Stoneware is a broad class of pottery fired at a relatively high temperature, to be impervious to water. A modern definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire ...

) played with buzzed lips to produce a trombone-like tone. The characteristic sound of the jug is low and hoarse, below the higher pitch of the fiddle, harmonica, and the other instruments in the band.smithsonianfolkways: The Jug Bands
Compiled and edited by

Samuel Charters Samuel Barclay Charters IV (August 1, 1929 – March 18, 2015) was an American music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet. He was a widely published author on the subjects of blues and jazz. He also wrote fiction. Early life a ...

Performance

With an

embouchure Embouchure () or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece (woodwind), mouthpiece of a woodwind or brass instrument. The word is of French lan ...

like that used for a

brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by Sympathetic resonance, sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meani ...

, the musician holds the mouth of the jug about an inch from their mouth and emits a blast of sound, made by a buzzing of the lips, directly into it. The jug does not touch the musician's mouth, but serves as a resonating chamber to amplify and enrich the sound made by the musician's lips. Changes in pitch are controlled by loosening or tightening the lips. An accomplished jug player might have a two-octave

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

. Some players augment this sound with vocalizations,

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

style, and even

circular breathing Circular breathing is a breathing technique used by players of some wind instruments to produce a continuous tone without interruption. It is accomplished by inhaling through the nose while simultaneously pushing air out through the mouth usi ...

. In performance, the jug sound is enhanced if the player stands with his back to a wall, which will reflect the sound towards the audience. The stovepipe (usually a section of tin pipe, 3" or 4"/75 or 100 mm in diameter) is played in much the same manner, with the open-ended pipe being the resonating chamber. There is some similarity to the didgeridoo, but there is no contact between the stovepipe and the player's lips. As a bass instrument, the jug is part of the band's

rhythm section A rhythm section is a group of musicians within a music ensemble or band that provides the underlying rhythm, harmony and pulse of the accompaniment, providing a rhythmic and harmonic reference and "beat" for the rest of the band. The rhythm ...

, but jug solos are common. Most jug bands use a single jug player, but there are recordings of period bands that used jug sections of two or more players. Jugs will also produce sound at their main resonance

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...

when air is blown across the top opening. This method is not used in bands, since it is relatively quiet and produces only a single pitch. It is typically used for making glass bottles whistle. A larger bottle produces a lower musical pitch while smaller ones produce higher pitches. The pitch of a bottle played in this way may be controlled by changing its volume by adding or emptying contents. Loudness is a function of the speed of the air blown across the top.

History

The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when

jug band A jug band is a musical band, band employing a jug (instrument), jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washbo ...

s, such as Cannon's Jug Stompers flourished.Cannon's Jug Stompers
Jug Band Hall of Fame The jug was also popular because it was cheap and easy to carry around. In addition to the most common

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

jug, containers of many different materials have been used for musical jugs, e.g. glass jugs and bottles, plastic bleach bottles, tin kerosene cans, etc. Different materials produce different sounds, as do different sizes. The jug is primarily an acoustic instrument, although amplified and "electric jugs" appear from time to time, and have even been used in recordings, such as by Tommy Hall in the 1960s

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...

band

13th Floor Elevators The 13th Floor Elevators was an American rock band from Austin, Texas, United States, formed by guitarist and vocalist Roky Erickson, electric jug player Tommy Hall, and guitarist Stacy Sutherland. The band was together from 1965 to 1969, an ...

. A version of the jug known as the botija was played in early Cuban musical forms such as the

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current ...

. In recent times,

Fritz Richmond John B. "Fritz" Richmond (July 10, 1939 – November 20, 2005) was an American musician and recording engineer. Richmond was a washtub bassist and was also a professional jug player. Richmond, born in Newton, Massachusetts, on July 10, 1939, was ...

(1939–2005) was a well-known and successful jug player, and his work, found on numerous commercial recordings, provides many examples of jug playing. Josh Smith, (1979–present) of the Glade City Rounders, is one of the most famous jug players touring and playing live.

References

External links

How to Prepare and Play a Jug

{{Authority control Aerophones American musical instruments Improvised musical instruments

Performance

History

See also

References

External links