The jug used as a musical instrument is an empty

jug A jug is a type of container commonly used to hold liquids. It has an opening, sometimes narrow, from which to pour or drink, and has a handle, and often a pouring lip. Jugs throughout history have been made of metal, and ceramic, or glass, and ...

(usually made of glass or

stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. Whether vi ...

) 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

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 of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is o ...

like that used for a brass instrument, 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 style, and even

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

. 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, 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. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...

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 band employing a 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, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepi ...

s, such as

Cannon's Jug Stompers Gustavus "Gus" Cannon (September 12, 1883 or 1884 – October 15, 1979) was an American blues musician who helped to popularize jug bands (such as his own Cannon's Jug Stompers) in the 1920s and 1930s. There is uncertainty about his birth year; ...

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, porcelain ...

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 band 13th Floor Elevators. 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 c ...

. 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.

Performance

History

See also