Good luck, liz. Really hope it goes well for you

Sara

Good luck, Liz.

Hope you do really well! Good Luck!!

Good luck Liz, I listened to your recordings and you are doing very well...take your time, don't rush and enjoy it...if you do the examiner will...a cheery smile goes a long way

Good luck!

Good luck!

Good luck with your exam lizbun.

Thanks everyone

Hi,
A friend of mine and I are going to be starting oboe as of next September. I was wondering what types of oboe would be suitable for beginners? I've looked around the internet and have found some information about different types - only i don't know what any of it means!

What are the difference between open holed and closed holed oboes? And what type is better to have, a manual or automatic 3rd octave (might be 2nd)??

Any answers would be great . I can't wait to start!

P.S - Good luck with your exam lizbun

Thanks


This is all the advice I can give

1.You won't need a 3rd octave key 'till you're advanced at the instrument, and if you are on a tight budget, it's not worth it.(if you have lots of money, it might be good)

2.I don't know about manual and automatic, but if you're in the UK, buy a 'thumb plate' oboe

3.Get a teacher if you were thinking of self-teaching. The technique used for Oboe can be complicated, and takes time to master even with a good teacher.

4. The Oboe is one of those instruments that you can only get very good at if you do 'perfect practice'.(i.e. checking that the embouchure is correct all the time etc.)If you practice the wrong way(bad embouchure ect.), you won't come out of the 'duck' stage for a long time...(i sometimes think i'm still in the duck stage...)


Good luck on starting!!!

Thanks, I have found a teacher who has said that she will teach me next year . She gave me a trial lesson to see and i found that it was quite hard to get a sound out of the reed!

Looks like it will take a lot of practice to get a good sound on the oboe, i don't want to sound too ducky . But it sounds like a fantastic instrument, so i'm sure it'll all be fun.

Reeds are quite easy to get used to (if there are the right streangth for you. Hard reeds are a nightmare if you're a begginer...), and will be easy to get a sound out of once you're used to it.

As Lizbun says the UK uses a thumbplate system, the rest of Europe and the US usually use a conservatoire/gillet system. The gillet system usually has closed holes, the thumbplate can have either. Open holes are often cheaper bu are also arguably a bit harder to start on than closed holes as you have to be more precise about the way you cover the keys.

All oboes should have a first and second octave key. The first octave key is used from the E (two octaves above middle C) to G#, the second octave key from A (two octaves above midde C) to C. A semi-automatic system means that when you press the second octave key the first octave key automatically closes. A manual oboe means that you have to release the first octave key when you press the second octave key. I think a semi-automatic system is the best. A fully automatic system means you only have one octave key but a lot of people don't like it because it doesn't allow alternative fingerings for the highter notes and also because the mechanism is rather fragile.

A third octave key makes it easier to finger notes from E (three octaves above middle C) upwards. As Lizbun says I don't think you actually need these notes until you are about grade 6 (possibly more) and there are in any case alternative fingerings if you don't have the key.

What you do need to check is that it has a Bb key (some student oboes don't) and you might also want to consider the number of trill keys it has, particularly if you already play an instrument and expect to make relatively fast progress.

As for the reeds, your teacher ought to be able to adjust them for you once you actually start lessons.

I'm sorry this is a little diversion, but I'd love some advice.
I've managed to pull one of my reeds off it's staple, it was a fairly promising reed, so I was wondering about trying to retie it and see if I could get it to work again.
I've never done this before, so do you think it's worth the effort, or would I be wasting my time???



Back to oboes...are third octaves worth having?(- both players I know with third octave keys on their oboes have them screwed right down) The other thing I was advised with regard to student oboes was to ensure that there was a F vent so that you have an alternative to the forked F fingering.
I play an open holed oboe, so that's what I'm used to...you can't be lazy about covering the keys properly!

I assume you mean you have two pieces of reed. As I expect you know you usually tie the reed on in one piece (folded over) and then only separate the two parts. You can theoretically tie two pieces back on but, according to my teacher, it is very hard to get them properly aligned and not usually worth the effort.

I don't know where your reed came from but they shouldn't come off the staple. If you made it yourself perhaps you should try my oboe teacher's test which is to try and pull it off before you start scraping it. If it moves at all (even very slightly) you should cut the binding and start again.


I have always had a third octave key and I do use it for the higher notes. They are supposed to be screwed right down - like you when I first started I thought it was supposed to open like other keys.


An F vent doesn't do away with the forked F fingering (ie index and ring finger) but it does mean that you don't have to correct tuning problems by adding the E flat key with your little finger as well. It is definitely worth having unless you are an experienced recorder player, in which case it's just like playing an F on the descant.

What does provide an alternative to the forked F fingering is a left-hand F key. On my first plastic oboe I had one but never used it. My Marigaux doesn't have one and I can't say I've missed it. It is in any case possible to have a left F added if I wanted to.

Thanks for the advice...I rather thought that trying to retie two pieces of reed would be a waste of time simply because of the difficulty of getting them realigned properly, but just thought I'd ask.

Thanks for the posts everyone. I think i'm quite a bit better informed now.

Hi there Singing Fiddle
Have fun with your oboe, it's a lovely instrument once you stop sounding like birdlife!

I think I'm getting better at this oboe thing now!! Although, I think I'm finding Bassoon easier.

I have never tried a bassoon but I assume it would be slightly easier because the reed opening is larger so the air pressure doesn't have to be quite so high. Have you tried playing the oboe immediately after playing the bassoon? (ie getting both instruments out and ready to play and just putting the bassoon down and picking up the oboe). When I first started my oboe teacher used to bring in his cor anglais and get me to do this (play the cor anglais and then immediately the oboe). The effect on my tone was amazing He said it was to do with the cor anglais needing more air but less pressure and that it opened my throat (or something like that). A know a bassoon isn't a cor anglais but as it is a double reed instrument it might be worth a try.

Now that you mention it, I have heard an improvment with my oboe tone actually. I even heard a bit of vibrato coming through the other day!!

OMG!!! My grade 5's in 2 days

You'll be fine I'm sure!

Lizbun,
I'm playing in a concert tonight so won't be back on here and I just wanted to say:
GOOD LUCK
for the exam tomorrow.

Let us know how it goes.

Good luck, lizbun

Good Luck!!!

Good Luck Tomorrow Liz, remember the examiner wants you to do well so play for them and enjoy your performance...

Will be thinking of you, let us know how it goes.

Kindest regards

Andrew

Taff my labrador and Tiddly-pops the spaniel send their best wishes too.

Good luck Liz from all of us We'll be thinking of you.

Good luck

Good luck, Liz. I hope that you enjoy yourself and and I am sure that you will do well.

Good luck!!

Good luck!

I wonder how Liz is getting on today...does anyone know if her exam was this morning or afternoon...

We are thinking about you LIZ

Thanks for the support everyone!
The exam was midday


Pieces - OK. Could be worse. It wasn't perfect, but it was good.

Aural tests - I don't know if I said the right answers so I don't know....

Sight-reading - OK. The key-signature was A major, which made it a bit tough. I got most of the notes right(exept for G#s, which suddenly became Gs sometimes because of my playing...)

Scales - ARG!!! I had to play Eb chromatic 2-3 times to get it right, and the rest were pretty bad, but it still sounded like a 'scale'...


So.... If the examiner was nice, and didn't mind TOO much about bad scales, I'd get a decent mark...

I've been wondering all day how you got on... sounds like the scales were a bit
How long do you have to wait for the results??

Hi Liz

Well done! Sounds like it went basically ok... you're a confident performer so i'm sure you'll get some credit for that too.

Have a good rest

Sara

Well done Liz, glad you did well and survived another exam...

Andrew

Sounds like it went pretty well! Scales, I totally mucked up in my exam and still managed to pass that section, so you've probably done a lit better than you think!

It's usually about 2-3 weeks. Am assuming Liz did her exam at a centre but I don't know - not sure if it makes a difference.

Not that I'm condoning it, but I failed scales at grade 8 oboe several years ago, and it IS possible to do well without doing well in scales, if you get my meaning! I don't tend to tell my pupils that!

Good luck Lizbun!

Thanks! I made a real mess of my grade 6 Piano scales last term, and the examiner then didn't deduct too many marks...

Which pieces did you do?

For the Piano or Oboe?





For Oboe I did (I did it wiht Trinity)

Corelli concerto 4 and 5 mvts

Romance by Mcpherson

Hinke study 9 in Bb maj

Thanks. I played the Romance and know of the Hinke one but not the Corelli concerto. Did you do sightreading/musical knowledge/improvisation/aural?

Hi, yeah, I did sightreading and aural.



The Corelli concerto is good. All of the movements are about grade 4-5 standard technicaly, so it's a good piece to learn. I used the B&H edition

Okay! Thanks and I'm sure you'll have done really well!

I wonder what pieces my teacher will give me to do for the hols...?

I hope it isn't from the 'first repertoire pieces', 'cause I've played a lot of the pieces from it without my teacher knowing...





My teacher set this realy difficult (fingers, tonguing and breathing) piece, and I don't know how I'm going to build the stamina for it, even if I manage to get the notes and tongueing right...
It's got 4 (or 5) long phrases(well, it seems long because it has a lot of notes), and I can manage 3 if I'm lucky, but can't seem to do the last 1 or 2.
I can't seem to force my breath out after a certain amount of phrases...
Has anyone got any tips for it apart from long-tones
It's the Hinke study no.26 pg.16


My teacher sais that my grade 5 results should come next week if it's quick...

This is one of the few that I worked on with my teacher. The phrases are not actually that long once you can play it up to speed and in order to be able to play it fast you need to work on it very slowly.

My teacher told me to work on it one bar at a time and to slur the whole bar (ie ignore the printed slurs) and make sure that the same note within the bar (ie D in the first bar) is always exactly the same (both intonation and tone wise. Gradually increase the speed of this one bar making sure that tone and intonation don't suffer. When you can do this comfortably slurred, play it a few times all detached, then play it slurred as written.

Repeat with the next bar. Then play both bars together in one big slur, all detached and then slurred as written, add on a bar at a time until you have done the whole phrase. (Again, practise it all slurred, all detached and as written).

Crescendoing up to high notes and decrescendoing down to low notes also helps to focus the air.

Something which sounds stupid but which I have found helps in pieces where I feel I'm going to run out of breath is to put a horizontal arrow over the last few notes and which ends a little beyond where I will breathe (ie in this piece over the rests). For some reason this visual reminder means I can somehow find enough breath to finish.

^^ Which book is this from?

My summer work stuff is pretty relaxing...well mainly...I've got some very weird arrangements of Scot Joplin pieces and some nice pieces from the book Ornamental Oboes...I'm playing Syncopation...which is a G6 piece...but it's not that bad!

It's from 'Hinke - elementary method for oboe'



It basicaly works on the techniques like stamina. It's for begginers to about grade 6 or 7 standard.