Where Are All The Oboists These Days? Options

[MrsB]

Yay, another oboe player (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I hope you enjoy learning as much as I do.

What oboe did you buy?

[dumdidum]

Thanks for all your well wishes - I am overjoyed to be starting the oboe and have been inspired by reading about all your journeys (particularly the adults starters!).
I bought a wooden Selmer sterling or something like that - it is a thumbplate (wasn't sure before I got it!) and is open-holed. It cost less than ?200 so I was thoroughly prepared to have to pay for an expensive overhaul to make it playable but my teacher thinks is is playable as is .... I wonder how long it will be before I want an upgrade!
I bought a reed from an online shop - but am so naive i thought i had paid for a pack of 5 but when it arrived i realised it was only 1 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) yowser they aint cheap are they! it was too hard so I got some medium soft reeds from David cowdy online for a reasonable price which seem good....

Time for some long note practice now (oh and need to upgrade my signature!)

[MrsB]

No, the oboe certainly isn't cheap!

Well done on your bargain buy. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[flobiano]

Good luck with your oboe journey dumdidum. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clarinet.gif)


I went to the BDRS convention on Sunday. It was an enjoyable day.

The Dutch oboist Pauline Oostenrijk gave a recital (and also did the masterclass). She played 3 pieces I didn't know all by Dutch composers. She was astonishing. I've never heard such expressive playing. Completely spell binding performance. Her masterclass was pretty good too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[violoboist]

I got to almost grade eight on a Stirling.... Loved it!

[dumdidum]

I got to almost grade eight on a Stirling.... Loved it!

The way I am sounding at the moment I will be glad to be able to play 'Go and Tell Aunt Nancy'!

Still, diaphragm exercises here we come!

[katica]

I missed another lesson on Tuesday. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Band practice was great, though, and our conductor (my teacher) actually congratulated us on "the most intelligent rehearsal" in the past year. Rare praise indeed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) We've got a private concert in two week's time. Along with a couple of other groups we'll be playing at a dinner for a national association of business people. The hope is that they will sponsor us in the future and that we might even be able to acquire more instruments. The cultural centre doesn't have, for instance, a bassoon or a French horn.

Though our program is fun and has it's technical challenges, I must say that I wish I had more opportunity for more serious and interesting classical music. Unfortunately we just don't have the critical mass of instruments for it yet.

My teacher was also pretty impressed with my reedmaking attempts, though he only took a quick look and didn't actually try any, so I don't hold out much hope that the congratulations will last long...

And a specific query to anyone who has played the Telemann Fantasia No.2. There is no articulation (e.g. slurs) marked in the second movement (Vivace). What, if any, do you play? And how fast do you play it?

[Roseau]

We've got a private concert in two week's time. Along with a couple of other groups we'll be playing at a dinner for a national association of business people.

Do they feed you as well (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Though our program is fun and has it's technical challenges, I must say that I wish I had more opportunity for more serious and interesting classical music.

I feel much the same way and the brief glimpse that I had of "proper" orchestral music in the winter term has made me realise even more keenly what I want to play. I am hoping that the symphony orchestra will be set up again in September and that this time it will run for the whole academic year.

My teacher was also pretty impressed with my reedmaking attempts, though he only took a quick look and didn't actually try any, so I don't hold out much hope that the congratulations will last long...

You never know. And just to make you feel less hopeless, in the reeds my teacher gave me to finish off, I discovered that the blades of one move when you play it. I asked my oboist-friend what I could do about it, thinking that since my teacher had tied it on and scraped it that there must be something obvious to do that I didn't know about it. She looked at it and said there was nothing you could do about it, it was just poorly tied on. She thought I had tied it on and said reassuringly that with practice, I would stop making that sort of mistake when tying them on. When I said it was my teacher she said I should go and say "What sort of rubbish tying on is this" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

And a specific query to anyone who has played the Telemann Fantasia No.2. There is no articulation (e.g. slurs) marked in the second movement (Vivace). What, if any, do you play? And how fast do you play it?

My teacher marked in a lot for me. Do you want me to scan it and send it to you? (Although I won't have time to do it before tomorrow afternoon). It is quite varied and he has also given alternatives in a couple of places. This is one of those pieces that I found incredibly hard the first time he gave it to me and considerably easier when I revisited it a couple of years later.

I am going to play the first two movements of the Poulenc Sonata in a pupils' concert next Friday. I had a rehearsal with the accompanist on Wednesday without my teacher and then my lesson today. Before rehearsing with the accompanist I wasn't at all sure that I wanted to play the second movement in public (although my teacher was adament that it would be "good for me") but he convinced me that you couldn't tell I don't like it when I'm playing and that it sounded convincing. In my lesson my teacher was complaining that it was too obvious which bits I really don't like (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) I tried saying that it was easier with the piano but he thought that was a feeble excuse and said that the pianist is supposed to be accompanying me, not the other way around (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

[katica]

Good luck with the Poulenc, Roseau.

We've got a private concert in two week's time. Along with a couple of other groups we'll be playing at a dinner for a national association of business people.

Do they feed you as well (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I expect so: the form here seems to be to feed the troops, especially if it's a free concert. However, I very much doubt we'll get the same fare as the business vips.

My teacher was also pretty impressed with my reedmaking attempts, though he only took a quick look and didn't actually try any, so I don't hold out much hope that the congratulations will last long...

You never know.

Well, you were quite right, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. My teacher tried the reed and declared it fit for duty, despite being rather too long. He didn't even adjust it.

I then started my lesson on it but I was obviously so unconvinced that I started to tense up and bite the reed which, being long and soft duly decided to clam up. In the end he fixed up my old reed but I really could do with a new one.

Making a teacher-certified playable reed turned out to be the highlight of my lesson. The rest was mainly hauling over the coals of one variety or another, the major culprits being - yet again - bad hand/finger position, worrying too much about the notes and diminishing air support / sound as I get frustrated.

The solfeo lesson was bit of an embarrassment too - we're doing some Hindemith studies combining singing a line while tapping a different rhythm and it's way more challenging than I would have anticipated. My teacher can't understand at all my getting the solfa names of the notes mixed up sometimes, even though I might be singing the right note. I got tongue-tied yesterday one semiquaver-quaver group and he declared it was because I was European. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

Your story about your teacher's imperfect tying on made me laugh. Mine has been threatening to make me tie on his reeds for him for quite a while now...

And a specific query to anyone who has played the Telemann Fantasia No.2. There is no articulation (e.g. slurs) marked in the second movement (Vivace). What, if any, do you play? And how fast do you play it?

My teacher marked in a lot for me. Do you want me to scan it and send it to you? (Although I won't have time to do it before tomorrow afternoon). It is quite varied and he has also given alternatives in a couple of places. This is one of those pieces that I found incredibly hard the first time he gave it to me and considerably easier when I revisited it a couple of years later.

It's only beginning to be playable for me now and I'm a looong way off being able to play it up to anything like its proper speed (whatever that is). I'd love to have a copy of your teacher's articulation but I'd feel bad about putting you to any trouble over it.

There's just a chance we may meet up at the Marches Oboe School. I've now got my UK dates sorted out and hope they accept my application. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Anyone else planning to go?

I'm still a bit nervous about it, though. I don't have much time to prepare stuff to play and it would be a waste, I think, not to take an individual lesson. I'll also have to hand over my oboe to Howarth's for the first part of my trip so I won't have much holiday time to work on anything before the course. It will be nice, though, just to be able to chat to other oboe-focused people. I'm missing my former flatmate for that.

[Roseau]

Making a teacher-certified playable reed turned out to be the highlight of my lesson. The rest was mainly hauling over the coals of one variety or another, the major culprits being - yet again - bad hand/finger position, worrying too much about the notes and diminishing air support / sound as I get frustrated.

I had a rehearsal with my good oboist friend and my teacher last night as we are going to play part of the Yvon trio at the beginning of June. I discovered last year that I get very nervous playing with both of them as I feel I am slowing them down. If I think about it rationally it is of course ridiculous as without me there wouldn't be a trio and neither has ever complained about having to play a passage several times just so that I can get it right. However, in the heat of the moment, I am incapable of being rational. Last night my teacher said to me that I had gone back into panic mode which was something I hadn't done for a long time and he thought I'd grown out of it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) He also pointed out that in the past panic mode was possibly justified by the fact that I didn't always know what I was doing and didn't have enough experience to know why things were going wrong. He said that my technique is now secure and that I no longer have any excuse for panicking (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

This is what it's supposed to sound like (although we're not playing it that fast):
Yvon trio

But I had also discovered this version and sent it to my teacher when I got home (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) :
Oboe and reed

My teacher can't understand at all my getting the solfa names of the notes mixed up sometimes, even though I might be singing the right note. I got tongue-tied yesterday one semiquaver-quaver group and he declared it was because I was European. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

Has he ever tried to sing the English note names in his exercises? One day when my teacher thought I was being more hopeless than usual with the French solfa names he decided he would use the English terms. He managed about half a bar correctly and then said he didn't know how I did it and it was, in fact, much harder than he had given me credit for.

It's only beginning to be playable for me now and I'm a looong way off being able to play it up to anything like its proper speed (whatever that is). I'd love to have a copy of your teacher's articulation but I'd feel bad about putting you to any trouble over it.

I'll do it this afternoon for you.

There's just a chance we may meet up at the Marches Oboe School. I've now got my UK dates sorted out and hope they accept my application. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Anyone else planning to go?

That would be great (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I'm still a bit nervous about it, though. I don't have much time to prepare stuff to play and it would be a waste, I think, not to take an individual lesson.

I have found individual lessons useful as a way of clarifying certain things in English rather than for working on a particular piece. This year I just want someone to talk to me about tonguing in English (and with no reference to French vowel and consonant sounds (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) ). I am just intending to take along a bit of a piece which has detached notes in it (I haven't yet decided what).