Ooh no. But for starters you could take a look at the poll on this forum "What's You Favourite Make Of Oboe"?

Thanks!!




Thank you! I'll go check that out now... Ideally I would love one of the Howarth's cocobolo oboes but that MIGHT be a little expensive...

Well done for the grade 8!

Getting a new Oboe is something you should take your time on.

well done Stephie!

Have you thought about going to Howarths? I finally managed to get there last week for the first time. Very nice, but unfortunately I didn't have too much money to spend.
Last year I bought a "new" oboe from Peter Davis in Huddersfield, he also has a good choice of new or second hand instruments.

Have fun, I was very lucky and found "my" oboe really quickly, but I did enjoy the search. I ended up with an instrument I would never have expected to like, so don't have too many fixed ideas about what you want, you may end up surprising yourself.

Thanks, Itchy

I live in Northern Ireland so I don't know if I'll be able to get to Howarths any time soon! However, I took part in a double reed day over here a few years ago, where Howarths had sent some staff and stock to set up a mini shop in the building and I managed to try out a few of the oboes and I think that, ultimately, they would be the ones I would prefer. When I'm next in England visitng my mum, I'll check it out

My younger daughter has always said that she thought the oboe was a horrible instrument so imagine my surprise this morning when she came out of her solfège lesson and said "I want to learn the oboe."

The solfège teacher had asked them to bring their instruments in and one of the boys plays the oboe. She said he had a completely different sound to mine and that she really, really liked it. This would be fair enough, were he a good player but he has only been playing for two years and is one of my teacher's less able pupils who is progressing very slowly and still has a rather "quacky" sound.

Fickle child

How anyone can not like the oboe is beyond me.

Hey

I am new to this forum and was kindly told about this section

I have a Howarth S20 model...brand new got it a month ago!

My favourite piece is Cimarosa movement I but I also like Albinoni D Minor.

Oboe4136

You must have been playing a while to manage Cimarosa My daughter has played 3 of the movements and has sort of looked at the 4th.

I like the cimarosa
I'm doing a piece by poulenc and another by handel

notmusimum,

I have been playing for...6 years this October

My advice for number 4 would be to do it slowly then build up the speed...for my exam i did it half the tempo because i wasn't very confident with going as fast as my teacher wanted me to go...i only have small hands! XD

Oboe4136

I think it's no3 she hasn't played if I remember rightly, no4 is on the G7 list and I can't remember if it was that one she did in the exam or No2. The study was faster

Slight change of topic.

Has anyone else played with a cellist playing the basso continuo? It was my teacher's idea to try this and I love it It's a completely different experience to playing with a piano.

(And for Notmusimum, it's the piece I played at Leeds with Emsoboe and Oldnotes that I'm working on with my teacher and a cellist. I'm sure Emsoboe would enjoy the experience if you know a tame cellist).

We know a cellist a friend of my older daughter but not sure what standard she is. It may not be a problem in the sameway in the future.

I think she'd probably need to be above grade 5 and the first movement (which we didn't play at Leeds) is apparently considerably harder for the cellist than the other two. My daughter is probably around grade 4 and it is all too hard for her.

The Poulenc's great I played it for my grade 8, it was my best piece

It's got the worst beggining ever

I'm so lazy about scraping... It's amazing how a bit of careful scraping can make a only-just-playable reed into a really nice one but I only scrape when it gets annoying.

Emsoboe has been accepted as an Oboist in the Halle Harmony Orchestra. It's a new Halle project that starts on 31st May. She's very pleased and looking forward to it.

well done! is it a course with the halle people?

No, she came to it by a slightly unusual route so don't really know much about it. Hopefully we'll find out more once we've had the "letter". It's not a course but an Orchestra that is being put together by the Halle in connection with Channel 4 (need to know more about this aspect).

She is doing a course with the Halle seperate from this in June as part of the existing Music Partnership. We are very lucky at the moment as there's lots of stuff happening. She is also playing Oboe at the Proms in another Orchestra organised by members of the BBC Phil, this one wasn't audition and is aimed at local people.

Woo, excellent. Well done. Next thing you know she'll be getting all hoity toity and won't play with us lesser mortals



Worst as in hard or not nice?

Since hearing how Poulenc wrote the oboe sonata in memory of Prokofiev (who died after falling down the stairs), there is a passage in the first movement which now forever sounds like someone tumbling down the stairs and thumping to a halt against the front door. For those who know it's the bit that goes "tee diddely dee, thump, thump".

I've been wondering about trying the Poulenc sonata, but I'll ask my teacher first. I've got a lot of other bits and pieces to get through.

I've been trying my hand at reed making and at the second attempt I've managed to get something that makes a noise more or less in tune, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, but perhaps it was beginners luck!!

The opening of the Poulenc Sonata is notoriously difficult. One of the top oboists in the world told me for his recording of the work, he had to record the opening 20 times to get it right. The ending is difficult as well ... does anyone here use alternative fingerings for that?

What, the high D to B to D to high E? I don't have a third octave key (I really want one ) so I just have to stick with the A fingering with a half hole. Crappy oboe.

I find the beginning much harder than the end - The tuning on the Bb and F# has to be spot on becuase you're so exposed. I use a 3rd 8ve for the E at the end now but I didn't when I learnt it. My old Howarth S20 seemed to have quite an in-tune upper register.

EDIT: I don't use a long E fingering at the end because it's harder to get the dynamic inflection, though it probably would be easier.

My teacher helped me make a reed from scrach but I keep braking them when doing it at home...

How do you break them?

I just can't find a nice one to break in at the moment...I'm starting to think that the problem might actually be me not the reeds!!

It's mostly when scraping the tip. I am doing it carefully

I managed to make a reed which makes a sound! i should be revising for food tech exam but oh well

Oh my, I just sang that in my head and you're so right!! It sounds exactly like that? The bit with all the really awful hemidemisemiquavers? Or are they demisemiquavers?! My head's so full of 20th century composers for my written exam tomorrow that I'm not seeing my music in my head anymore...



I know what you mean for the F# - my pianist actually tuned me to the F# for my exam, and then we tuned to an A for the Bach

Are you sure your knife's sharp enough?

Yep. It's partly me being clumsy but it's getting better

I might be sounding really thick... but I don't have a third octave key so what is it used for?

It makes the E and above (in the third octave) easier.

The 2nd working reed I made is now reasonably good.

Reeds again - when making reeds, do you do it in one go or is it better for the cane to do a bit over about 3 days? Like tying on and scraping off the bark 1st day, other scraping 2nd day and little adjustments the 3rd day? My teacher says it lets the cane settle but I wondered if anyone else thought so?

My teacher likes to tie the reeds on and then leave them for at least two weeks but preferably three (or more) so that they dry out throughly. He then scrapes everything in one go and then makes a few final adjustments as and when he needs them.

Does anyone know the fingering for the top e (3 ledger lines above the staff)

Thanks
EmsOboe

Left hand: half hole + 2nd and 3rd fingers* + third octave key + thumb plate
Right hand: 2nd + 3rd fingers
+ either with the left hand little finger (or the right hand first and little finger) the G# and Eb keys.

*by 2nd and 3rd fingers I mean middle and ring fingers.

Thank you!!

Or if it's a more fiddly passage there's a shorter fingering: 1st + 3rd Octaves, LH first finger half hole, second finger. RH second and third fingers (optional)

On the subject of reeds, I've found recently that when I buy new ones (fortay) they sound beautiful for a couple of weeks but then seem to close up and become very unresponsive. Sometimes they come back but I'm not sure what is causing it. Does anyone have any suggestions? I suppose it could be overplaying, I usually have two reeds and use them fairly equally, probably about one or two hours a day (between them) on average.

Rewire it or get your teacher to do it.

Can't answer on the reeds but will say emsoboe is having similar problems with the blue M reeds. Ours aren't played quite as much.

Thanks for the fingering info. She's out at the Halle at the moment but I'll show her when she gets back. It's been quite difficult as she's not seen her teacher for over a month.

Can anyone suggest what might be going wrong technically as the top range notes are quite often sharp. The instrument is in tune, this was a comment on her grade 7 result sheet and since I've been listening, it's definately a problem.

Sometimes I wish her teacher was more active at sorting technical problems.

Difficult to advise on fingering without knowing make and model of oboe. Could probably find this out if I trawled back through posts but don't have the time! On my more basic Howarth, which doesn't have a third octave key, I simply use thumb and middle finger, sometimes adding the D and C key with the RH to manage the intonation. This method may generally help her upper notes, but it may also be a case that her embouchure is too tight as she approaches the upper octaves.

However, realistically, these things are close to impossible to advise on without actually watching what a student is doing, so I would try and get her another lesson ASAP and be very specific with her teacher as to what the problems are.

The teacher at Wells says that Fortay reeds do tend to close up.

The high notes just have to be adjusted with embouchure unless it is VERY sharp.

On the subject of reeds, I've found recently that when I buy new ones (fortay) they sound beautiful for a couple of weeks but then seem to close up and become very unresponsive. Sometimes they come back but I'm not sure what is causing it. Does anyone have any suggestions? I suppose it could be overplaying, I usually have two reeds and use them fairly equally, probably about one or two hours a day (between them) on average.
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Can't answer on the reeds but will say emsoboe is having similar problems with the blue M reeds. Ours aren't played quite as much.

Thanks for the fingering info. She's out at the Halle at the moment but I'll show her when she gets back. It's been quite difficult as she's not seen her teacher for over a month.
[/quote]

The teacher at Wells says that Fortay reeds do tend to close up.
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Just a suggestion, but do you leave your reeds out, or soak them regularly. If you do, they are likely to dry out so that the blades lose their curviture and therefore close up. Also, some shops, eg Howarths permanently leave reeds out in the air in their mail order department so that your new reeds are likely to arrive like this. There are 2 easy solutions: 1. Soak the tip of the reed in boiling water for a few seconds and you will find that the curviture returns. 2. Rewire. (If a reed has been soaked regularly and then dried out the cane shrinks and the wire will no longer hold it)

Also, to preserve the life of your reed, clean it out! You'll be amazed what comes out and what a difference it makes. However, as a professional player myself I would estimate the average life of a reed to be approx 15 hours!

Sorry I should have told her to say. It's a Howarth S40.

Her Teacher is specific but happens to have been away for three weeks before half term. Another Oboe teacher covered 3 lessons but she doesn't like to change things too much as they are not her pupils.




Interesting!!

Yes it is quite sharp and she does try to adjust embouchure.

I'm pretty sure that Emsoboe's S40 is like mine and doesn't have a 3rd octave key (unlike the current model) so just ignore that bit. Otherwise I would suggest trying any of the fingerings given, they all work on mine. To me, the best sounding one is 2nd & 3rd LF plus 4th LF on G# then add some RH ones for tuning and tone (C or Eb both seem OK). Experimenting a bit might tame the top note sharpness too - certainly my teacher and I have fiddled around with various alternatives when it gets to 3rd octave.




This is really interesting. I'm finding exactly the same with the Purple M reeds. They sound far nicer than anything I've used before but do close up quite quickly (though maybe I need to relax my embouchure a bit).

Usually I have found the Fortays need a couple of hours playing to really sound at their best and then have say 20 - 30 hours of life (if I was a higher standard I'm sure I would chuck them out well before though). I have one now though which is fabulous straight out of the box, as my teacher predicted by just looking at it

I have found if they are getting too closed, a good 20 minute soak gets them to open up a bit, or just a bit of a squeeze at the sides.