Yes, that Apres-Ski Waltz is a fun piece! Sounds like you have the same taste in oboe music!

Can't believe the prices of the Ferling and the Gillet. When I bought my Ferling a few years ago it was less than a tenner, but the print is very small...going to the optician next week!

I haven't got to Gillet yet, but perhaps I should get a copy.

I thought I might be able to save you advanced oboists a few quid, but maybe not.

I joined IDRS elate lastyear (the $50 membership fee will save £50 on the cost of the IDRS conference in Birmingham this year - which was quite a good deal before the pound nose dived). Looking at the membership area apart from lots of other goodies, you can download the Brod, Barrett and Garnier methods and the Ferling 48. No use at all to me yet, but there you go. They have been produced in PDF and Finale format, the Finale files then being used to create recordings via a Kurzweil synth. They have presumably been done this way so you can be sure they are absolutley accurate with no "artistic impression" at all.

Loads of other goodies too.

I've just been practising some Ferling, so I looked at the back - £5.65- I think I bought it in 1992. Have prices sky-rocketed since then or was I lucky?? ( I haven't been playing them since 1992, I had about 13 years where I hardly touched my oboe).

I have ANOTHER new piece that i'm practicing...
Fantaisie Pastorale by Bozza. It's hard but then what's the point in doing ALL easy pieces.

so what is everyone else playing?(exept for ferling lol)

Lizbun, don't take this the wrong way, but that's a REALLY hard piece. Are you running before you can walk? I agree you should stretch yourself a bit, but there's stretching and stretching... I'd say you should be learning the standard grade 7/ grade 8 repertoire first. The Bozza is beyond grade 8. And there's more to playing the oboe than just being able to twiddle your fingers fast / in the right order.

Yes I am learning the standard grade 7/8 repertoire as well but adding 1 difficult piece can't be bad? It is difficult but not impossible. I agree that being technically good isn't the most important aspect of playing but it is a part of it. The reason I'm practicing it at the moment is because it's nice music and would be a nice add to my repertoire even if I wouldn't be albe to play it like a diploma level player for quite a while. If it was so hard that I couldn't make sense of as music I wouldn't bother.

I love the Bozza "Fantasie Pastorale" but as a compromise bought his "Conte Pastorale" which is a similar style but considerably easier.

While on the topic of Bozza. Does anyone know if there is a transcription of his Aria for Cor anglais? I have a recording of Lajos Lencses playing this on cor anglais and I love it but I can only find it for Flute/violin or saxophone. I bought a flute/violin copy intending to transpose it but only have the free version of Finale which I can't seem to write the grace notes with so I started re-writing it by hand but it's taking for ever.

I thought you were near to your Chets audition,how are the pieces going for this? I also thought you had Grade 7.

the pieces for the Chets/Wells audition are going to be used for grade 8 and they are all going well.

High C#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who even knew that this was possible on the oboe?!?!?! I was looking up a fingering chart to get the proper (I think I made up my own... ) fingering for top F# and it turns out that the oboe can play up to a top C#, as in the top register of the flute - check this out:

High C#

It's near the bottom of the page.

I did
When I first started learning I took in a violin piece which had two options one an octave higher than the other. The higher option went up to a high D (ie just above your C#) and I said to my teacher of course on the oboe it'll have to be the lower option. His reply was it doesn't *have to*, it just doesn't sound particularly nice up there and promptly played it for me!

wow who is your teacher? the highest I've ever known anyone to play was a B - and with time to prepare too!

He is not an internationally (or even nationally known) oboist but he does play in a professional orchestra.

I am somewhat ashamed to admit that at the time I wasn't that impressed. I had only been learning for about three months, I didn't know how high people "normally" go and the sound is not particularly nice up there - far too piercing for my liking.

Only as I have got better myself have I started to fully appreciate how good my teacher is - I was distinctly impressed by his sight-reading of the 3rd movement of the Mathias concerto which he didn't even know existed until I took it into my lesson.

does he do a lot of contemporary music? I can't imagine any other reason for learning to do that!

Contemporary music was, apparently, a compulsory part of his conservatoire studies. He said he is not particularly keen on it so he can do it "technically" but doesn't "feel" it musically. Two years ago he organised a regional master-class with another oboist who does like contemporary music and quite honestly I couldn't tell any difference between the two of them but both were considerably better than the other two oboe teachers who were also present with their pupils.

Wow, that's crazy! You could do it with a musette... I really want a musette And every other sort of oboe. Musettes are the best though! And the bass oboe looks pretty awesome too

We saw Jane Evans demonstrate the bass oboe at the Howarths on tour workshops this year. Emsoboe was so obsessed with it that we ended up missing the concert.

They are pretty amazing!

Arg!

I played the Saint- Saens 1st mvt at a festival and even with a really good reed about 3 or 4 of the notes took ages to come out properly at the start. The rest was OK (got 89 marks) but it must have made such a bad impression. how can I avoid this? It didn't happen when practicing with the same reed and in the Wells audition. I did have to take the reed out a bit to make the F# in tune...

89 out of 100? Thats a fantastic mark! well done

Ah, the perennial curse of the oboist. I don't think there's a way you can ever be 100% sure that the reed is going to speak when you want it to. They're just cussed like that. But you can try and maximise your chances by a) making sure you have loads of diaphragm support going, and b) doing a really firm tongue as you start the note. Don't try and be too quiet as that's asking for trouble.

Why are you pulling your reed out to just make one note in tune? You should only pull out if your whole oboe is out. If it's just one note, lip it in.

Thanks. Yep, it's out of 100. 89 out of 100 for messing up the start seem quite a lot to me.



thanks. It's cause I try and make the firt note as quiet as I can get it. I needed to pull the reed out for the F# becasue it was such an important note in the piece and lipping it in didn't really work. It's probably the Oboe's F# that's sharp and not the reed 'cause all the other notes are it tune.

Do you mean you think you were docked 11 marks solely for messing up one note at the start?


I have seen one of my teachers (a very fine player in my view) suffer exactly the same fate in a recital in the same piece (different place though). As Claire says, that's the way it goes. You have to put it behind you and press on. The same teacher has made the comment to me "just a technical problem" when I have had a note not sound (meaning an "equipment issue" - though personally at my level of playing I reckon it probably IS down to me ).

No! I mean that 89 marks is a lot for such a poor performance.

Hey Liz...you got 89...dont worry about the fluffed note it happens to the best...Nick Daniels had the very same thing happen three times in the Mozart at the opening night of the Proms last summer...The second movement was a near disaster because of it but being the consumate performer he is he pulled it off and worked wonders..the crowd loved it and applauded at the end of each movement and yes I know its not supposed to be done but what the heck...he was fabulous...not faultless but fabulous..only recordings are ever really faultless and why is that because they edit and go over and over it till its put together to reveal a so called faultless performance..

Honey it happens...89 is a good mark, don't run your performance down I am sure you deserved every point they awarded you..and they always have to leave a little spare room just in case...

Regards

Andrew

Right, gotcha. I sounds like you think that because you made a couple of slips early on the rest of the performance must have been rubbish too. It clearly wasn't. Claire and Andrew are quite right that this happens to the best. I guess the clever bit is knowing how to recover swiftly and it sounds as though you did just that.

Speaking as a concert goer rather than a player, I would much rather hear a musical and exciting performance with the odd blemish than a totally secure but bland one.

A question for the more advanced oboists:
How much use do you make of alternative fingerings to vary the tone?

Quite a lot, especially in orchestral music - I use a lot of harmonics in the middle and upper register (Bb-C especially) to get a sound that blends better with a particular chord or ensemble.

I use them quite a lot too. Also (actually, probably mostly) to alter the tuning.

I'm not at a standard to be using this very much, but already my teacher has introduced adjusting fingering on top C# and D (adding or removing RH fingers) for small intonation changes and adding RH fingers to improve the tone of lower notes (notably B and C at the top of the 1st octave).

If I remember rightly (having seen the score all of once on my teacher's stand) the Berio Sequenza VII calls for 5 different timbres of B by using different fingerings.

So how do you decide when to use a particular fingering? And do you practise scales (or something similar) with alternative fingerings so you get used to them?

I am used to adding fingers for tuning purposes but the idea of changing fingering to give a different tonal colour was new to me (and I must admit at the moment rather confusing).

My teacher showed me the harmonic fingerings a couple of months ago and gave me a warm-up exercice which uses them (which I have been doing regularly) but I don't find myself spontaneously using them in pieces. In my last lesson he showed me an alternative fingering for F# which made a tiny but audible difference in his own playing of the bars in question but which I wasn't convinced made much difference in my own playing perhaps because, unused to a different fingering, I found it awkward.

couple of examples - 2 bars before C in the first of Schumann's Romances I play the top A as a harmonic to get more of a subito pianissimo, the darker tone colour of the harmonic and more stable tone-production give a really nice effect.

The first chord of the second part of the rite of spring I use the same harmonic on the A, its a purer sound and more appropriate to the context. I've heard it done with heavy vibrato and it just sounds horrid.

Thanks for the examples.

Do you have to try the different fingerings to see which one sounds best or does it eventually become instinctive?

Well you get a feel for when it's appropriate, but like any interpretive descision it's worth trying it both ways.

Is anyone thinking of going to any of the IDRS in July in Birmingham?

It looks expensive, and of course, I'm at work most of the week, but I might be able to catch an evening concert, or schlepp over on the Saturday.

Grade 8 this time next week, gah!!

Very likely. Yes it's expensive, but a great opportunity to hear lots of top class performers in one go. I don't know how many oboe recitals you get to normally, but in my neck of the woods, they're not exactly commonplace. It's also the first time the IDRS conference has come to England in 20 years, so it will probably be the only one I ever get to.



Best of luck.

Good luck!!

I took my grade 1 on Saturday. I'm starting again from scratch following a 15 year hiatus.
I'm a grown woman, I own a house and eat people for breakfast at work every day... yet I was shaking like a leaf in front of that examiner!!

The huge amount of practice in the run up led to an interesting discovery about my instrument from my teacher and I: it's a 40 yr old or more ORSI and the holes for the right hand are strangely high so my hand has to twist up from under the thumb rest to reach the f.

Any thoughts?
I though perhaps I could get the thumb rest moved??

Obviously I'm itching to get a new one, that'll be the simple answer but finding the right intrument at the right price is like searching for true love

Good luck! My grade 8 is on the 26th so a day after yours I think





Hope you get your results soon!

I am from the USA and I just booked my flight ticket to Birmingham for the IDRS Conference. In my opinion, if you are from the UK, it is certainly an opportunity you shouldn't pass up.

There will be daily recitals, masterclasses as well as lectures. Also, there will be exhibition of instruments and accessories. You will meet top oboists/bassoonists whom you would otherwise not meet, probably in your life time. A great player sounds greater live than on CD. You can hear how well the sound project.

I am taking one week off work, playing for a trans-continental flight as well as 1 week of accomodation to be there. I think you should be there too.

Although it does depend on our financial situations of course. We're not all rich Americans.

Personally I would love to go, especially as I have family near Birmingham so would get free accommodation, but as I am about to lose my job and am not sure yet what the future will bring, I can't justify the expense.

[quote name='Wai Kit Leung' date='Mar 20 2009, 05:08 AM' post='805650']
[quote name='plonkee' post='804993' date='Mar 18 2009, 01:42 PM']
Is anyone thinking of going to any of the IDRS in July in Birmingham?

It looks expensive, and of course, I'm at work most of the week, but I might be able to catch an evening concert, or schlepp over on the Saturday.
[/quote]

I am from the USA and I just booked my flight ticket to Birmingham for the IDRS Conference. In my opinion, if you are from the UK, it is certainly an opportunity you shouldn't pass up.

I am quite certain that many people will have to "Pass up" on the IDRS this year...sadly many simply cannot afford it..

There will be daily recitals, masterclasses as well as lectures. Also, there will be exhibition of instruments and accessories. You will meet top oboists/bassoonists whom you would otherwise not meet, probably in your life time. A great player sounds greater live than on CD. You can hear how well the sound project.

Yes it is a great oppertunity but many will simply not have the funds to attend, it is a very expensive week..hotels, entry to the conference etc not to mention the accessory shopping as you mention it.. Yes I am sure there will be many famous players there doing wonderful things but I fear they might be doing it to much smaller audiences than they are used to...England has been hit very hard by the banking crisis and the recession...

I am taking one week off work, playing for a trans-continental flight as well as 1 week of accomodation to be there. [i] I think you should be there too.[/i]

Believe me when I say people will be trying to be there but don't be surprised if you find yourself surrounded by your Fellow Amercians and not many Europeans especially Brits...times are hard..

Looking at it another way Andrew, it's a darn sight cheaper for us than when it's held in America! It's a bit unfair to play the recession card and say it's OK for the Americans - they are being hit as badly as anyone else, unemployment is rocketing over there.

I'm not really convinced that the recession has a significant impact. OK, if you've been thrown out of work, you are going to be short of cash for such luxuries, but if you are still in work, well, inflation and interest rates are down, fuel prices are down and I seem to be better off.

Given how much is on offer (a huge selection of concerts, recitals, masterclasses, etc.) I don't think the cost is terribly high and it probably is the only opportunity I will ever get too see many of the players who will be performing. It will be interesting to see/hear all those American performers and make up my own mind about the American/European tone debate.

Accomodation can be obtained pretty cheaply too - Etap hotel less than £30 a night for a room (for 2/3 people) or student halls.

I think the major issue is "do I want to take 4 days of my holiday entitlement to go listening to oboes?"

First of all, I am not rich, and I am not an American. I live and work there.

I just tried to point out that if situation allows, it's an opportunity a serious oboist/bassoonist shouldn't pass up. I am sorry to hear that you are about to lose you job. I may lose my job tomorrow too, no one knows, but I know if I don't go this year, I will regret it.

I agree. I'm already using up 5 days going to summer school on the oboe - I wouldn't want to turn into an oboe obsessive, would I?

No that would never do. See you there then?

That's why I had a . You just seemed to be playing into a European's stereotype of Americans, that's all. Apologies if I upset you.

Where are you going? (If you don't mind me asking).