Where Are All The Oboists These Days? Options

[lizbun]

hi everyone (: havn't posted here in aaaagggges (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clarinet.gif)

My teacher assures me that fingers not working fast enough is really due to a lack of breath. I know it sounds ridiculous but there does seem to be a link (or at least there is for me). Because I'm apprehensive I hold back air creating tension which means my fingers can't move freely. It is, however, incredibly hard to just "let go."

That might be down to breath control (which we all know ratchets up the tension very quickly) or simply the mental block of thinking "I can't play that quickly".

I think with playing fast bits, you need to be relaxed and know exactly what's next.

[Roseau]

hi everyone (: havn't posted here in aaaagggges (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clarinet.gif)

I've often wondered what you were up to? Is Chet's living up to your expectations? And what are your plans for next year.
I'm sure your oboe playing must be miles ahead of everyone else's by now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[lizbun]

hi everyone (: havn't posted here in aaaagggges (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clarinet.gif)

I've often wondered what you were up to? Is Chet's living up to your expectations? And what are your plans for next year.
I'm sure your oboe playing must be miles ahead of everyone else's by now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Chets is going really well thanks. I'm going to RCM from september (IMG:style_emoticons/default/party1.gif)
I don't know about being miles ahead lol

[barry-clari]

hi everyone (: havn't posted here in aaaagggges (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clarinet.gif)

I've often wondered what you were up to? Is Chet's living up to your expectations? And what are your plans for next year.
I'm sure your oboe playing must be miles ahead of everyone else's by now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Chets is going really well thanks. I'm going to RCM from september (IMG:style_emoticons/default/party1.gif)
I don't know about being miles ahead lol

But you are doing really well, lizbun (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Good to see you posting again, and well done on getting to the RCM! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[sara smith]

Hi Liz good to hear from you again. I was wondering if you were doing the conservatoire auditions. My daughter got into RCM too and is going in September. Have you applied for a room at College hall Ravenscourt Park? It's my son you know more about though, because of his oboe exploits! He's playing in the Oxford Uni orchestra - I think they are doing Sibelius 5 this semester.

Sara

[Arundodonuts]

hi everyone (: havn't posted here in aaaagggges (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clarinet.gif)

I've often wondered what you were up to? Is Chet's living up to your expectations? And what are your plans for next year.
I'm sure your oboe playing must be miles ahead of everyone else's by now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Chets is going really well thanks. I'm going to RCM from september (IMG:style_emoticons/default/party1.gif)
I don't know about being miles ahead lol

Lizbun. Fancy seeing you around here. Nice to hear from you. You must be pretty far ahead if you're going to RCM. Well done.

[notmusimum]

hi everyone (: havn't posted here in aaaagggges (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clarinet.gif)

I've often wondered what you were up to? Is Chet's living up to your expectations? And what are your plans for next year.
I'm sure your oboe playing must be miles ahead of everyone else's by now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Chets is going really well thanks. I'm going to RCM from september (IMG:style_emoticons/default/party1.gif)
I don't know about being miles ahead lol

Lizbun. Fancy seeing you around here. Nice to hear from you. You must be pretty far ahead if you're going to RCM. Well done.

Many congratulations from me too!

[katica]

Isi, lizbun - great to see you back here! Huge congratulations on the RCM lizbun. Please don't abandon us lowlier oboe folks and let us know how you get on there.

As for other absent Forum oboists, anyone heard from Andrew?

My understanding is that the American scrape is much longer than "British". This diagram, for instance:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~schuring/Oboe/diagram.html
shows the scrape starts 50 mm from the back of the staple. On mine the scrape starts at 60mm.

I got out the ruler... the funny reed my sister sent is indeed 50mm to the scrape. An ancient British one a friend gave me is well over 60mm. My teachers' are 54mm so we do indeed seem to be using an intermediate sort of scrape, though the style (W, with windows and all) is nearer to the American ones.

I am umming and erring about taking reedmaking equipment on my upcoming trip. I just bought some sharpening rods as I was not doing well with the sharpening stone but so far have only been practicing with kitchen knives so I don't ruin my reed knife.

One of them is ULTRA soft now.

You could try leaving it in water overnight to harden it up a bit (as long as it's not ultra soft because it's gone mouldy, in which case it will rot completely).

Thanks ... will try that! Oddly, one of the reeds didn't sound so bad yesterday. Maybe the drier, cooler, breezier weather hardened it up a bit.

I'm also doing the 1st movement of the Saint Saens and the two demi semi quaver runs are causing me to tear my hair out. My fingers just don't work that quickly, it sounds horrible at speed. I am trying to speed them up very gradually but at the moment I lack faith that it is ever going to get there.

I did eventually manage to play them properly but I didn't do it by gradually notching up the metronome. My teacher got me to play them in lots of different ways: with a dotted rhythm and an inverted dotted rhythm, slurring two together, the first note really short and the second one long and the second note then becoming the first note of the next pair (so D-E, E-F#, F#-F etc.), then the same thing with three notes, with the first two fast (D-E-F#, E-F#-G etc.), starting at the end and adding one extra note each time (CD, BCD, ABCD etc.)

My teacher gave me a while back a set of rhythmic variations to apply to difficult fast runs and also playing around with different articulation but I don't think I've tried this combo... It sounds complicated. I'm tempted to write out the offending passages in these variations as a sort of techhnical study but I suppose having them written down would partly defeat the object of the exercise.

Good luck with the Saint Saens, flobiano. I look forward to hearing more about how you overcome the challenges - I'd so like to get my teeth into it myself but I fear that time may still be quite a way off.

He also tells me at the moment to bang my fingers down on the keys to create muscle memory (as I posted a while ago, he thinks my fingers are too close to the keys (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) ). He also quoted one of the well-known French oboists (although I've forgotten which one) who apparently used to practise fast passages on planes going from one concert to another by using a pencil as an oboe and banging his fingers up and down on that

Right! Just the job for three plane journeys on Monday - whoever sits next to me is going to think I'm mad!

Part of last night's lesson included an "exchange of views" regarding swinging the quavers in the Teleman Dresden Sonata. The jury is out.

And???
What were the arguments on either side? Who voted for which? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

It's very inspiring to hear about all these lovely pieces, and follow people's progress. Makes me think "I'd love to be able to play that one day, and discuss it like a proper oboist" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

What do you mean "not a proper oboist", Isi? I'm sure that's not true ...or neither am I! Doesn't stop me pontificating here about what I think I know or want to know about playing a piece... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Just join in!
You can start your own conversations on whatever you're struggling with. Maybe someone will have a copy of it and get it out to join in or help out...

[notmusimum]

I sat in on daughter's Oboe lesson today and after months of frustration she was playing really well. Can't tell you how pleased I am for her. She had a lot of technical issues to sort out, the transformation isn't complete but they are now working more on interpretation. I'm really excited by her progress (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I was beginning to think Sax had taken over for ever (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Roseau]

I got out the ruler... the funny reed my sister sent is indeed 50mm to the scrape. An ancient British one a friend gave me is well over 60mm. My teachers' are 54mm so we do indeed seem to be using an intermediate sort of scrape, though the style (W, with windows and all) is nearer to the American ones.

I'll measure mine tomorrow (I've had an all day orchestral rehearsal today and can't be bothered going back downstairs to get them out). At a rough guess I would have said that mine would also be around 60 mm. The thread comes up to 47mm (the overall length is 74mm when I tie them on) and I think there is well over 10mm from where the thread ends to where the scraping starts.

I am umming and erring about taking reedmaking equipment on my upcoming trip. I just bought some sharpening rods as I was not doing well with the sharpening stone but so far have only been practicing with kitchen knives so I don't ruin my reed knife.

You could just take equipment to tie them on with and come back with a whole stock ready to experiment on (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I always chicken out of sharpening my own knife and ask my teacher to do it for me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

My teacher gave me a while back a set of rhythmic variations to apply to difficult fast runs and also playing around with different articulation but I don't think I've tried this combo... It sounds complicated. I'm tempted to write out the offending passages in these variations as a sort of techhnical study but I suppose having them written down would partly defeat the object of the exercise.

I don't think it matters if you write them down - I think it's just the repetition of the movement which helps and stopping the correct fingers in a precise place so whether you do it from memory or from music shouldn't make much difference.

He also tells me at the moment to bang my fingers down on the keys to create muscle memory (as I posted a while ago, he thinks my fingers are too close to the keys (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) ). He also quoted one of the well-known French oboists (although I've forgotten which one) who apparently used to practise fast passages on planes going from one concert to another by using a pencil as an oboe and banging his fingers up and down on that

Right! Just the job for three plane journeys on Monday - whoever sits next to me is going to think I'm mad!

I have contemplated doing this on my train to work but have always been a bit worried about what others might think and so stick to using the pen for marking.

I sat in on daughter's Oboe lesson today and after months of frustration she was playing really well. Can't tell you how pleased I am for her. She had a lot of technical issues to sort out, the transformation isn't complete but they are now working more on interpretation. I'm really excited by her progress (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I was beginning to think Sax had taken over for ever (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Glad to hear oboe is making a come back (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Arundodonuts]

As for other absent Forum oboists, anyone heard from Andrew?

I have been wondering the same thing.

I am umming and erring about taking reedmaking equipment on my upcoming trip. I just bought some sharpening rods as I was not doing well with the sharpening stone but so far have only been practicing with kitchen knives so I don't ruin my reed knife.

Do you know if a steel is ever used to sharpen reed knives? I would have thought not. Reed knives are scrapers not cutters or slicers. They are sharpened flat on a stone to produce a burr. You won't get that with a steel and I'm inclined to think it would be a quick way to ruin your knife.

Part of last night's lesson included an "exchange of views" regarding swinging the quavers in the Teleman Dresden Sonata. The jury is out.

And???
What were the arguments on either side? Who voted for which? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Well, I mentioned to teacher what I had heard and then demonstrated. I think it's fair to say she winced. So I played the SF recording. She didn't appear any more impressed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

She is far too open minded to say "you must play it this way" and will let me do my own thing, but she is far from convinced that it has any merit played "inegale". Of course she knows far more than I do about the oboe and its music, plus she has studied baroque oboe and knows a thing or two.

Anyhow, I did some browsing online. To summarise what I found:
Inegale was a French style.
It would be wrong however to suggest it wasn't used by German composers. It was - especially if writing "in the French style".
This whole area has apparently been debated by musicologists for ages and no-one has reached a conclusion.

I have found manuscripts on line of the Dresden sonata and the 12 Fantasien. These were written fairly closely together. In the fantasies, 6/8 movements have crotchet/quaver patterns which suggests to me that Telemann would have written the Dresden sonata this way if that is what he wanted the performer to do. Of course that one piece of evidence is hardly definitive, but it tends to make me think twice about the SF approach. What I now want is to hear some other players interpretations.

Of course, it's up to me to decide how I want to do it, but I would like to be able to make an "informed" decision.
What do you mean "not a proper oboist", Isi? I'm sure that's not true ...or neither am I! Doesn't stop me pontificating here about what I think I know or want to know about playing a piece.

Me too. See above.

[katica]

You could just take equipment to tie them on with and come back with a whole stock ready to experiment on (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'd just come to this conclusion myself (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I was a bit worried anyway about losing my reedknife from my luggage (my luggage has either been raided or not arrived on a few trips recently).

I sat in on daughter's Oboe lesson today and after months of frustration she was playing really well. Can't tell you how pleased I am for her. She had a lot of technical issues to sort out, the transformation isn't complete but they are now working more on interpretation. I'm really excited by her progress (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I was beginning to think Sax had taken over for ever (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Glad to hear oboe is making a come back (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) congrats to emsoboe!

Do you know if a steel is ever used to sharpen reed knives? I would have thought not. Reed knives are scrapers not cutters or slicers. They are sharpened flat on a stone to produce a burr. You won't get that with a steel and I'm inclined to think it would be a quick way to ruin your knife.

Steel rods appear to be - precisely for the burr stage according to Edward Flower's contribution to this thread on the IDRS Forum
I have the DiamondVee rods and some ceramic rods but not the steel ones for stage three. My teacher just uses ceramic rods, I think.

That's an interesting debate about the Telemann. I tried it as written before I heard SF's interpretation and couldn't get it to flow properly. Then when I heard her it all made sense. So, no intellectual analysis at all, just pure subjective taste. More than two weeks for my first lesson to find out what my teacher thinks...

[Arundodonuts]

Steel rods appear to be - precisely for the burr stage according to Edward Flower's contribution to this thread on the IDRS Forum
I have the DiamondVee rods and some ceramic rods but not the steel ones for stage three. My teacher just uses ceramic rods, I think.

Well well. Very interesting. I would have thought that would have been precisely the wrong way to create a burr, but if it works.......
I have to say it sounds likely to be more difficult to create a good even burr than holding the knife flat on a stone, but I'm assuming a single bevel knife. Perhaps these people are talking about hollow ground knives.

STOP PRESS. Mrs. Pushpull tells me she used diamond rods to create the burr on scrapers for guitar making. So that's me told.

Oh I've been playing today on my best home made reed to date. I'd better make a copy of it quick, while it's still pristine. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

That's an interesting debate about the Telemann. I tried it as written before I heard SF's interpretation and couldn't get it to flow properly. Then when I heard her it all made sense. So, no intellectual analysis at all, just pure subjective taste. More than two weeks for my first lesson to find out what my teacher thinks...

I'll be interested to hear what he thinks. Don't give him any clues though - surprise him.

[katica]

I have to say it sounds likely to be more difficult to create a good even burr than holding the knife flat on a stone, but I'm assuming a single bevel knife. Perhaps these people are talking about hollow ground knives.

Mine's a double hollow ground.

[Arundodonuts]

I have to say it sounds likely to be more difficult to create a good even burr than holding the knife flat on a stone, but I'm assuming a single bevel knife. Perhaps these people are talking about hollow ground knives.

Mine's a double hollow ground.

That explains everything (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I use Gregson single bevel knives (so just holding them flat whilst dragging across a stone is fairly straightforward - well easier than playing oboe anyhow).