I'm feeling quite ashamed that, as an oboist, I don't think I have ever posted here After all, the oboe is the best instrument (not biased of course...) and really does deserve to be talked about

--all the time

How long have you been playing for?

1 year and 5 days - but who's counting?

Very precise And isn't the oboe just great!! Have you played a cor anglais yet? It's very beautiful too, and very impressive to look at Can be a bit of a strain on the ol' fingers though if you have small hands like me I've been playing for 10 years now and I love it!

I haven't tried a cor yet, though I have dropped hints to my teacher who has one!! As for loving it, I'm besotted. It's just a shame I've left it so late (I'm 55). But better late than never.

Definitely ! What grade are you working towards now? I love it on the forums because there are so many oboists! Over in N.I. we really are a dying breed... What with people always going for flute, clarinet, violin etc... Actually that would be an interesting survey; the ratio of oboes to violins...

Well I took G3 in December so I'm currently working on G4 pieces and scales, plus some "random" stuff. I intend to slot in an exam this year, but which one depends on progress.

Yes oboists have been talked of as a dying breed - oboes are on the governments "endangered instruments" list. So I was surprised when I started to find about half a dozen teachers (oboe specialists) close by to choose from. I went to the ABRSM Forum Eccles playday last year and there were 3 of us. I go to a windband on a Saturday which has 3 or 4 oboes.

A bit like cars, you don't notice them until you've got one!!

I've just started Phaeton and Niobe from Britten's 6 Metamorphoses. In the first there are too many accidentals, and in the second there are too many flats in general. Who writes a piece with G flat in it anyway. It's just showing off. Fortunately I can hear what they should sound like by listening to Nick Daniel's youtube version. Sounds nothing like my version yet .

Wait till you get pieces with C flats and F flats

I was asked if I wanted to come and play in a departmental wind-band which meets for a weekend about once every two months. I was told at very short notice and so missed the first Saturday and turned up on the Sunday. There was another oboist there who couldn't get over the fact that I turned up on the second day and just sight-read the piece in 7 flats, which they had spent a couple of hours working on the day before and in which she still couldn't remember all the flats!

I am currently working on the Howells sonata...lovely work but double flats and sharps come as standard..he just flips them in ..."oh yes of course its for the overall composistion" (personally I think he does if for the sheer H£ll of it) but it has to be said that its a remarkable sonata..You just have to place them in your mind and remember they are coming up..

Andrew

Apart from the double flats and double sharps what's it like? My teacher suggested I might like to work on that as my next major piece but I don't own a copy of the music (although I do have a recording) and am a bit wary of his suggestions as I feel he always overestimates my ability.

It's huge Keri a long blow and a sonanta of four movements..the 3rd movement is fairly fiendish as well..it is however well worth a look and see what you think..It is breathtaking in more ways than one..

Andrew

That was the impression I got from listening to the CD. When I voiced my doubts in my lesson my teacher did say I could start with the slow movement but experience has taught me that when he says "start with the slow movement" he always gets me to work on the fast movements as well. Following Claire's suggestion I took the Mathias concerto to my lesson with the intention of playing only the slow 2nd movement but am currently working on the fast 1st movement, and ignoring hints that I could perhaps start looking at the 3rd.

The Vivaldi trio sonata I mentioned in an earlier post was a sort of side-step to have some chamber music experience but a two-week holiday is coming up and my teacher seems to think I need something "challenging" to occupy my time.

Ohhh my thread! 90-something pages it's grown to! How amazing!

Sorry, just haven't been on the forum for so so long and wondered whether it was in the thread graveyard or very much alive and I think we should celebrate it's alive-ness!

So how are all you oboists and your oboes?

Pianoboe

Have you tried concert band arrangements...we're working on some bits from Les Mis at the moment, I starting to quite like G flat and C flat. I'm getting quite good at playing in keys with lots of flats as most of the arrangements are made for the benefit of clarinets etc and not for instruments at concert pitch. The flutes and me (the oboe) always relax if we're only playing in F or Bb major or even in C major (then we enjoy listening to the clarinets winge about their part... sympathy, there is none!!!!!)

I've been wondering about Britten's 6 Metamorphoses. I'm starting to really prepare some G8 pieces, so I mentioned it to my teacher, but he didn't seem very keen...I've heard Nicholas Daniel play them live and they were stunning, but I'm not sure I can really do them justice yet.
In the meantime, I'd better go and practise the Les Mis music

No, I've never played in a wind band. I can see that it would be good for me though.




I really like them, but I'm just bashing through at the moment. It helps that my preferred music style is 20th century, so I at least like what they are supposed to sound like, even if I don't quite like the sound that I'm making on them yet.

I've found concert band playing to be quite good for me, but I can live without fast arpeggios in six flats!

Has anyoone got any tips on how to tie the pieces of cane together wit hthread without breaking it?

I'm practicing tying on reeds with cane from old reeds but I always touch the cane with my hand while putting the thread on and I think it would break the cane when I make ones I want to play with.

If you were using a new gouged/shaped piece you would have one piece which you would fold over the staple (the end not having been cut off yet). If you're using cane from old reeds, presumably you've got two pieces of cane? That's going to make the job harder than it should be.

I don't see how you can actually avoid touching the cane when tying on, but you shouldn't damage it by doing so. Bear in mind it should be soaked first and that a re-used old reeds will have been scraped, so will be much more fragile than new gouged/shaped cane which hasn't yet been scraped.

I don't think there's much point in practising tying on old reeds. As pushpull says, you normally tie on a reed folded in half (and one of the problems when you first start is tying it on straight). If you have a gouged and shaped reed you can tie it on as many times as you like (you just cut the thread and start again) and if you have soaked them properly they won't break if you touch them.

When I first started making reeds I bought some cheap reeds from a French supplier. He doesn't guarantee the quality and sells them specifically for would-be reed makers so that you don't worry that you're wasting too much money if you wreck them. I don't know if any of the English suppliers offer something similar.

Finally, tying on is not that hard but it is one of those things that is very hard to describe in words and very easy to show to someone, so do try and get your teacher to show you how to do it.

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure my tying on was secure but I got it now. My teacher said I should've used the shaped and gouged cane that I had but didn't bring in to the lesson.

It's easier than I thought really. Proffetional reed makers' reeds look neater though obviously.

It shouldn't take very long until yours are neat too

Hi everyone

I keep meaning to post, I've been trying for a few weeks now and then never seem to get round to doing it. I got my new oboe for Christmas, I am the proud owner of a Howarth S5. It's so lovely that it makes me remember why I wanted to play the oboe in the first place every time I play it. It even makes me sound good!

It means me having to go back over some of my older pieces whilst I get used to the new positions and the added weight of the instrument. It's been worth it though, I played it in wind band last week and the difference in sound is amazing.

I love it..... so hopefully that's me sorted for a long time to come! Now I just have to learn all the technique involved in just making it sound even more wonderful.

Wow, fantastic. I was really pleased when I upgraded from a Buffet to my HowarthS40 - it made a huge difference. I'm jealous

Likewise when I upgraded from a W&W to a Loree C+3. The sound is lovely, so much better than my old oboe.
Even my family have noticed!!

Has anyone on this thread experience on the Howarth S6 which is supposed to be a lightweight S5 ?

I tryed the S6 that the principle of the orchestra i'm in has and it is VERY lightweight compaired to my fossati. nice to play.

Good luck with the howarth S5 Sophuola!

No but I have an S40 which is a thin wall version of the S45. I believe the only difference is that the S45 has a fuller, darker sound. My teacher, who plays a Loree Royal, commented favourably on the tone of the S40 saying only that the upper register was a bit thin compared to her Loree.

So I would guess that apply to the S6/S5 too. The S5 will sound a bit fuller. The Howarth website says:
"The current S5 is a thick-walled oboe offering you fine tuning and a large, powerful sound".

Thank you Lizbun and Pushpull. Son about to embark on Grade 5 but he is quite small. He is playing on a rented oboe which is fine but I am considering whether now is the time to upgrade. I know he is dreaming of an S5 !!

Proffetional/graduate model oboes are quite heavy compaired to student ones unless it's S6 or other lightweight ones which might not have the dark tone some people like.
With proffetional models like S5, you want to try out loads of different oboes like marigaux, howarth XL, Lorree, Fossati, Rigoutat, Buffet etc...to see which one is best for you and that's not really possibe at grade 5 or untill the tone is VERY developed (that's why I don't plan to get a new oboe 'till I feel I'm ready for it). A proffetional model can be double the price of a good graduate model which is good enough for music college.

It IS nice to play on a proffetional model though...

Oh no, back to the drawing board then!! I know that an S20 is probably going to be the right choice at this stage.

He has just started playing "Fox on the Trot" by Wilfred Josephs and Marcello's "Allegretto" from the Grade 5 list. Both are great pieces. Have you played either of these?

I bought 'Fox on the Trot' last Saturday because I liked the piece and I happened to find it in a local music shop. I also like the Apres-Ski Waltz on the list C. I love the Richard Kershaw pieces on list B. It's much more fun when you like the piece.

I know that when I bought my S5 Howarth told me that I wouldn't like the sound of the S6. I believe this was worked out from the models I played and said I did like. I like the fuller sound that comes from the thicker walled models which means that I have to put up with the extra weight, and it is a lot of extra weight. I understand the S6 has the same keywork, but that the lesser weight comes from the wood not being so thick.

I tried lots of different models as Lizbun suggested, you have to in order to weed out what you don't want. I didn't go in thinking I wanted an S5 at all, it is just what I ended up liking the most. I'd say if you were serious about wanting to get a new instrument it's the best way to do it. It takes time though as well, I was a good few months thinking about it, and then it was probably two days of trying them out myself, and hearing someone else playing them to me too before the decision was made.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

I hope that you don't mind an interruption I would like a little bit of reed advice. I've got a reed that now sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't work at all...just nothing, not even a squeek. It's had quite a bit of use and from a reedmaker I haven't used before, so I really have no idea how long I can expect the reed to last. This hasn't happened to me before and I guess it's a sign that it's died or dying???

Yes, probably. It could be not working because it's closing up too much - try squeezing the sides open a bit and see if it helps. But it sounds like it's on its way out.

I know it's a more expensive instrument but I think the S40 is better value for money than the S20 - things like left hand F, fancy linkages making it easier to play the notes between bottom Bb and D, dual system fingering.

I would have thought it would be the lower register that would suffer with a lighter instrument - I recently upgraded from an s20 to an incredibly heavy Puchner, the upper register was actually slightly better on the s20, especially the very top G#-Bb.
The heavier (new) instrument has a beautiful bottom register which is what really convinced me. There is no problem with the top register, but notes around A or B (the ones nearly 2 octaves above middle C) can be a little weak, also the octave above that is trickier to get. On an s20 I can get a top B on a good day but on the larger bore one there's no chance.

Sometimes when I've had reeds like this, my teacher has cut a slither off the top and very lightly re-scraped the whole thing. This prolongs its life for another couple of weeks but he only bothers doing this when it is a reed I really like.

Thanks for the tip Keri, I do like this reed, so I might just try it!

I got the Ferling etudes at last! They're very nice. I didn't notice the small print. I'm trying to work through them as sight-reading practice and study and a more in-depth study after going through them once. The end bit would be good for practicing playing in evil key signatures in case it comes up in chets audition or grade 8

Just started working on the Grovlez Sarabande et Allegro

That's because you're still young
I am not (yet) long-sighted but have found as I have got older that I far more sensitive to poor quality printing (particularly in music). I find that ledger lines blur together, for example, so I can no longer tell what is part of the stave and what is a ledger line.



If you're feeling masochistic and want some really evil sight-reading practice in evil keys, you could try the end of the third volume of Singer's "Metodo Teorico-Parico per l'oboe." This is a book of arpeggio and scale exercices so they're not even tuneful and have awkward combinations of notes which, after a while, make you unable to identify your fingers.

[quote name='lizbun' date='Feb 20 2009, 08:54 AM' post='794854']


I got the Ferling etudes at last! They're very nice.


Hmmmm...I keep saying to my teacher that if I ever get to heaven I'm going to have words with M. Ferling

Actually once I can play them they are quite nice, but I can never play them quite well enough.

You should try Gillet!! Now *he* is definitely in the other place...

Are these the ones that Howarth lists as costing £52.99?

Ferling has just been ordered here as well - though one shop was twice the price of the other

Yes! I got mine 20 years ago, and it was expensive then - but not *that* expensive!

All the French editions are always horribly expensive (and often not great quality either). I spent over £20 last month treating myself to M. Bleuzet's book of mind-numbing ways to practice scales.

I just got a copy for £35 but it came from paris and took over a month to arrive.

£45.00 when I bought my copy of Gillet...I was nowhere near ready to work on them but I knew the price would keep going up and up so I bit the bullet and paid up...Dreadful price in my opinion..