Hello, I don't know much about the oboe, since I play the flute

But my younger sister (she's 11) is going to start lessons in September.

Is it a good instrument? Hard? Expensive (compared to flute...)? Rewarding?

She used to play the flute, but only for a year, so wasn't even close to grade 1. She liked it, and wanted to restart, but myself and her school music teacher managed to persuade her to think about learning something less popular, so that she'd get more playing opportunities in orchestras, and so that her school orchestra had an oboist.

So yeah, any advice? Tips? Just general information?

tips?
1. The player need to love it and stick with it because it has a horrible sound at the start
2. You and rest of family need to be supportive
3. the teacher needs to be good
4. It's very expensive so borrow at the start
5. It's a lovely instrument once the player becomes good at it
6. Reeds can be very irritating

An oboe is a lot more expensive than a flute. You also have to take into account the cost of reeds.

Starting is a lot harder than on a flute but an oboe starts becoming easier when a flute starts getting harder.

I think it is a very rewarding instrument but I do think you have to be in love with the instrument. I have read in a couple of places that if a child wants to learn the oboe you should encourage them and they usually do well but that children who take it up just because it's rare tend to give up fairly rapidly.

I'm reminded of some blurb I came across on the internet a while ago:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~schuring/Oboe/begreeds.html
"It will likely take about a thousand reeds (!) before you feel like you know what you're doing".

Somewhat related, I have been taking a look at some reed making videos I discovered:
http://maddy.aldis-evans.info/Reeds1.htm
She has a really interesting method of tying on which I think I'll have a go at.

Seems a very complicated way of doing it to me.
This is also the first person who says you should stop the binding a few mm below the end of the staple.
I'm also not sure about wiring before you have even scraped the reed (although maybe it's because if you haven't tied on up to the end of the staple the reed will leak without the wire).

Oh well, my reed making is getting a (tiny) bit better but I'm too scared of chipping the reed to make the tip as thin as it should be. I end up leaving it when I feel it's as thin as I can get it which is quite thick compared other people's reeds. Maybe cor anglais reeds are easier lol. It makes a sound though which is good

I ordered a whole load of 'standard repertoire' pieces for when I go to chets
Mozart cocerto
Telemann a minor sontata (standard repertoire) and Eb ('casue it's a nice piece)
C.P.E bach Gminor sonata
Strauss concerto (maybe i'll need it sometime in the future?)

Well I thought it seemed a fairly sensible way of getting the reed nicely aligned and making sure the sides close evenly. I must admit though that I haven't really had any difficulty doing it the "normal" way.
I described the technique to my teacher and she didn't seem too keen either. She also said some people do stupid things like heating the mandrel

The wire is taken off after binding. It's only there to secure the reed during tying on.

Bored of all the reed talk so diverting to another angle

What pieces do people like form the Grade 8 list or around that standard but not on the list?

I've ordered some for Emsoboe but only one has arrived.

My favourites are:
Saint - Saens sonata
Grovlez sarabande et allegro
Telemann sonatas (any)
Mozart, Haydn and Krommer concertos

There's lots of others that are worth looking at though. Which pieces have you ordered?



I looked at the gauging and shaping of reeds part of the link earlier and wondered if it is really worth all the expensive equipment and time or is it better buying cane that's already gauged and shaped. I suppose when you get to a very high level you are looking for VERY good cane... about a million years away for me

Did you mean the E minor sonata or the Eb major sonata by Telemann? He didn't write anything in Eb minor for oboe

oops. yes it is eb major

We've got the Saint-Saens, she has sight read both pieces one of them sounds good the other needs a little work. Is this one of the easier pieces?

Have ordered the Telemann, Vivaldi, Handel can't remember what else.

The 1st mvt is quite easy in terms of notes but it needs to be very expressive and free (don't know how else to describe it). 3rd movement isn't as easy and could take a bit of time getting the fingers sorted compared to the 1st mvt but not more than a lot of other grade 8 pieces

Telemann 1st mvt needs a bit of time on making up your own ornaments and for that you need to listen to other people's recordings to get an idea and get the teacher to look at it as well. 4th mvt is very nice as long as the oboe/reed/diaphragm support lets you get the top notes in tune. Haven't looked at Vivaldi or Handel.

Thanks! She has coped really well with teh first movement given that she's only played it twice. I expect the fact she's still playing the Schumann helps. She was praised on SUnday for playing her Orchestral part musically so all the nagging by Recorder and Piano Teachers partiularly must be paying off Second Movement didn't seem like she was having too many problems considering, it was more tuning (from what i remember) but then it was the first time she'd looked at it. Can't expect everything at once.

I think she might look at the Vivaldi as she's been playing his stuff on Oboe and Recorder recently. They should all be arriving in the next few days.

Musicality is key - if you play musically then you can get a decent mark even with slips (of course it's the reeds fault ) in a festival/exam as long as they're minor errors and not too major. If you play all the right notes but like a robot then you get about 20 out of 30 in an exam. I got 28 in all my grade 8 pieces and the marks taken off were mainly for intonation and now I'm working on it and it seems to be improving.

I havn't looked at any Vivaldi on the Oboe because I like Telemann and Bach better. Listening to some pieces by Bach makes my brain hurt 'cause it's complicated but playing it is alright I suppose lol

I think it depends on the examiner and their understanding of how instruments work or the lack of at the end of the day. Emsoboe is lucky in the fact her intonation is reasonable and in exams she plays musically (her piano teacher insists on it). She was unlucky at the last exam being ill with a virus. She couldn't sing for the aural and coughed through the Cimarosa.

She played the Bach G6 study along with Gallop at audition for the Halle Harmony as it had to be something unaccompanied. I like the Bach study.

Hopefully over the weekend she will get a chance to explore the new music although she is busy with lessons and Orchestral rehersals at the moment.

I have 2 concerts (one tomorrow and another on saturday) and my reeds are only just ok.
I need to save them by practicing on ones which have a bad tone but are playable.

Emsoboe was doing the same the other week. She's had some good news she wasn't going to play in a local Young Musician Competition because her school music teacher was judging. We found out tonight that despite being asked she declined "far too busy". I have one very happy daughter

Well as a listener not a player (as you know I'm not up there yet):

Saint-Saens sonata
Poulenc sonata (definitely)
Britten Six Metamorphoses (you can find Youtube videos of Nicholas Daniel playing these)

Not on the syllabus but a couple of things I have heard and really enjoy
Schumann 5 pieces in folk style (originally for cello, but is available in transcription for violin. Only 3 are suitable for oboe but they are good).
Edward Gregson sonata (I shall keep banging on about this one, I love it. Forsyths have a copy in stock).

I agree with Lizbun, the notes are relatively easy in the 1st movement of the Saint Saens but playing it expressively is less so. I think Howell (in the B list) may be difficult to put together with the piano (my teacher said this about the sonata as a whole, I don't know if it applies to the slow movement). I don't like the Poulenc but this is partly because my teacher gave it to me when I had been playing for less than a year and at that stage it was far too difficult.

On list A, the CPE Bach is a bit more tricky rhythmically than the Telemann but I quite like it. The first movement of the Handel is relatively easy, the 2nd movement is pretty much on a par with the fast movement of the Telemann. I love the Marcello oboe concerto but think it sounds better with an orchestra than a piano and think the same thing about the Vivaldi (which is also a concerto). Mozart is, well, Mozart and I think hard to pull off musically.

On list C I suppose it boils down to the style you want to play as it ranges from baroque (Bach) to very contemporary (Bingham).

I assume that by this level you play to your strengths and that you are more likely to play something musically if you like it In which case, difficulty is going to vary from one person to another.

The Marcello and Poulec are two of the others I've ordered. I think she will look at the Bach in list 3 although she likes modern too as well as the Berkley. fingers crossed they will be here tomorrow or Friday. I've not ordered any extra list C pieces yet.

Has her teacher got any suggestions about what might suit her?

Different topic:
I played the trio sonata that we did at Leeds in a concert earlier this evening with a cellist instead of a pianist. It went really well I managed to keep my nerves under control. My teacher said it was the best he'd ever heard me play in public And even my daughters (who were dragged along as unwilling audience and are usually very disparaging about my playing) spontaneously said it was the best piece in the concert

That is wonderful to hear - so pleased for you. What do you think made the difference?

Her Teacher never suggests music. I've given up asking. He tends to inp0ut on studies but it's largely whatever she turns up to the lesson with.

Congratulations! Glad the concert went well and that you are overcoming nerves.

Lets hope you can perform like that in other concerts

Well, performance tonight wasn't too bad. the tone was good but I felt it wasn't projecting well to the back. Oh well...

The telemann A minor 3rd mvt is a bit like Vivaldi I think. All of the movements are lovely Does anyone know why the first 2 mvts have been standard college audition pieces for a long time?

New oboe vids The recordings are good enough. deleted all the old ones so these are the only 2 in my channel. The recorder didn't pick up much dynamics but it did pick up a bit of vibrato for a change. Maybe I'm standing too close? Decide about the tone for yourself I seem to be moving around a lot in the 1st mvt without noticing lol and some of the tonguing in the 2nd mvt isn't what it's meant to be but it wasn't bad enough to delete I'm afraid.

Telemann a minor sonata - 1st mvt
Telemann a minor sonata - 2nd mvt

Finally finished all my exam marking and found the time to listen to these. I thought they were really nice - you have improved so much since you posted the previous ones

I enjoyed listening to your videos, Lizbun

I particularly liked your 2nd movement. I played this particular concerto in my first year at music college and remember it very well!

All the best for September!

Thanks. It is honestly to do with adjusting my own reeds and having a better recording devise. The playing itself isn't the best.

I also thought there was a huge improvement on previous videos. You must have worked really hard.

Well, I don't feel like i've improved since a performance I did for a festival in November last year. That went very well because I was lucky and I can't seem to perform as well since. I BLAME REEDS (not really). The other videos were rubbish 'cause I wanted to post something and was practically sight-reading pieces on a bad reed.

I only played this sonata for 3 days when I took the video but it was on a decent sounding reed and it isn't the most difficult piece around. Memorizing the 1st mvt was sooo much harder than the 2nd mvt.

Emsoboe always says she can't hear when she's improved. I think there are elements of your playing that have got better that are nothing to do with reed (not that I know much)

Well done!

I practiced with an accompanist for a performance on saturday(last one for a very very long time) and I tried to play on the best reed I had and it was too hard so I put it back and thought I would scrape it when I got back. It turned out to be alright when I played it afterwards. Lucky I didn't scrape without testing it properly lol Is it because of not warming up properly or something else?

What's the weather been like recently and what was the room you and the accompanist were in compared to your normal practice room? As I have posted before, slight changes in humidity levels wreak havoc with reeds.

Emsoboe is playing in a Young Musicians Competition tonight. She had a run through with Piano on Monday and it was painful. I offered the pianist the accompaniment about 5 weeks ago explaining that it was a difficult Piano part. He didn't want a copy to practice.........

It's only a local thing at a neighbouring High School so not serious. It's more about giving the best perfomance than winning in this situation.

They are having another quick run through before the competition tonight but not hopeful. We are working on plan B, play a Bach piece unaccompanied or Play the Schumann with the CD. Despite being at the same venue at the same time her Piano Teacher isn't allowed to accompany as it's considered an unfair advantage.

Any thoughts?

Yes. What's the point being annoyed or disappointed after the event because of an inadequately prepared accompanist? Play the Bach.


I've noticed mine changing day to day in the recent weather. One reed in particular I thought was a dud has just started playing OK. I guess the big advantage of scraping your own reeds (once you've nailed it) is that you can scrape a reed on the spot to suit conditions at that time, in the knowledge that if it never works again you can bin it and scrape another.

Hi
I need some advice to help my 9 year old son, he’s been given 3 new notes to practice over the holidays E,F and G. He’s finding them hard to play as they are higher than anything he has played before, all he seems to get is the same high note for all 3. His teacher is now away for 8 weeks so we can’t ask her unfortunately.

Any advice welcome.

Is the embouchure properly formed to make the notes sound properly? I found that the high notes came naturally when the embouchure was strong enough.

Do some long tone practice. Get him to play bottom E (for three or four beats) and then add the octave key while he is playing it (ie without tonguing the new note) and hold for another three or four beats. If his embouchure is correctly formed AND he he has enough air support the top E will come out. It will probably be easier initially to add a crescendo as he plays the top E. When he can do this reliably do the same thing with the F and then with the G.

What he needs to avoid is trying to force the notes out by biting down on the reed.

Another idea that helps is to get him to sing a note then go up the octave he will naturally use more air to support the higher register and then he can do the exact same thing on the Oboe..also tell him to hear it before he sings it or plays it, this will help him pitch it correctly..he will need more air for the upper registers and more diaphragm support..so tell him to push the air with his tummy muscles..

Agree with what the others have said. Also, I assume we are talking 2nd octave E, F, G? In that case is he using the octave key correctly? For C# and D he will have been half-holing 1st finger left hand. For E, F, G that hole is covered again and the 1st octave key depressed with the thumb.

Hi
Yes it is the 2nd octave, fingering has been checked, but will keep and eye on it.

Thank you Kerioboe and A.U.K for the advice, my son read your post this morning and was running off to try them before school. I will have to wait till this evening to see how he got on.

Played the Schumann Romances last week for a University Showcase concert - made up a bit in the second movement (I looked at my accompanist for a bit too long!) but aside from that I think it was the best solo concert I've done. Also the first in over a year!

That's good. I did the 3rd mvt for my grade 7 and I hated the jump to bottom C. I can manage better now but it wasn't so good in the exam even though the examiner was kind. I played the telemann sonata in a minor 1st and 2nd mvts yesterday and it went ok but it wasn't as good as it could have been.


I'm going to try and learn the haydn concerto as a main oboe thing this summer.

So only 1 week to the IDRS conference. Is it still just me and Wai Kit Leung or is anyone else going?

Have been trying to book the Junior Day on the Wednesday. Got accommodation for Tuesday night and coach fares but can't get any answer form the organisors. I believe there are plenty of spaces but they will not answer emails. I found the form so I'm going to post it in the morning without speaking to them.

That's a shame, I've found them helpful. Try Chris Calvert (if you haven't) christopher.calvert@bcu.ac.uk

Hope to see you there.

I did! I also tried the administrator and their boss to no avail. I gather my experience isn't uncommon and I was told that it would be a struggle