Hi Louise. I'm another who's never heard of Buisson. Do you know how old the instrument is?

I was quite intrigued, so I went on an internet hunt - which I imagine you have already done.

I was a bit worried that you might have some awful Chinese oboe imitation, rather like those Chinese factory-made violins with Italian-sounding names. It's hard to find a decent resin oboe but for student models a decent resin can be better than a bad wooden one.

There's not much out there but I found this discussion over on the Oboe BBoard. This is a US-run discussion forum which quite often has some helpful discussions.

I also found this site (a clarinet site, you will note! ), which I thought had some useful insights. They list Buisson as a "fake" French brand name. I was particularly worried by references to Buisson that came up in a Google search with references to Dallas, London. Another comes up with "La Couture" mentioned as the place of origin for Buisson instruments. That would tie in with what the site says about instruments made by makers who were moonlighting from established manufactures in the "La Couture" district around WWII. There don't seem to be any new Buissons about, so this could be a viable explanation. In that case, who knows how good or bad it is. Maybe you got an excellent moonlighting oboe maker? Like other woodwind instruments, the oboe doesn't tend to improve with age but there are people who play on perfectly OK old instruments. Maybe that's what you've got.

By the way, older oboes often had more open holes. What does yours look like? Maybe you could post a photo...

It will be interesting to hear what your teacher makes of it. Have fun tomorrow.

It was great to meet you at Egham Hardying and I thought your playing was lovely. Sorry to hear about your Mother.
[/quote]


Thanks it was good to meet you too & I enjoyed your playing
Hope we'll meet up again one day.

Thanks for the info katica I haven't got the oboe yet, will get it tomorrow at lesson. It belongs, I think, to the music school so I'm assuming it's ok to get started on! Will let you know

Peter Hurd has an interesting website and gives some information of makes.

http://oboes.us/resources/stencil.html

He lists Buisson as a "stencil" name - i.e. one that is used by a supplier who doesn't make their own and suggested two makers in of Buissons, LeBret and Kohlert. It doesn't necessarily make them cheap and nasty (for example the Howarth B was made for them in Italy) but I think it's an old make (I've seen a few knocking around secondhand, mainly on Ebay). It will probably be an open hole instrument which is not the generally favoured type today but I play with a couple of oboists who use open hole instruments and make a nice sound. Providing it has been well maintained it could be decent enough.

That chimes with the site I cited.

Someone was wanting to sell their old Buisson clarinet and I found this knowledgeable-sounding comment on 8notes.com: "Your clarinet is what is known as a "stencil", that is, it was made to be sold only by the Dallas Company of London, and F. Buisson is the invented name of the manufacturer. It was actually made either by La Couture Company or by Kholert and Sohne, sometime in the early 1950's. It is likely to be a well made wooden instrument."

I have an idea that someone like Blackbird77 considered buying a Buisson a while back (when I was lurking on here and myself looking for a second-hand instrument) - but in the end found a Howarth. I think it might have been plastic, though.

The kids I know who have learned on an old open-holed instrument seem not to have developed the bad finger positions that I did because it was so much easier on a closed-hole Patricola. I've wondered whether you can make other kind of sounds with an open-holed oboe such as slides between notes, as you can on the recorder...

Good luck for today. We await the feedback with interest.

Thanks, I'll keep you posted. I'm really looking forward to it

I believe glissandi are easier on an open holed oboe. Not that I'll be needing them for a while.

First lesson went well, learnt C,B,A and G, played a couple of tunes and finished with a duet Only had twenty minutes as I had my clari lesson to get to immediately after so I'm very happy with what we covered. The oboe is a plastic Buisson student oboe, open-holed, looks to be quite old. Reeds, well, started on a soft one but have been given a medium one to practice on.

You can get many tunes from those four notes

Glad you enjoyed it
20 minutes is probably long enough for a first lesson anyway as it takes time to develop the muscles necessary for the embouchure (which are not the same as those used for a clarinet).

Good to hear.

What did the oboe feel/sound like to play on? What did your teacher say?

I agree with Roseau - twenty minutes is good going for a first lesson on the oboe!

Also good going to move onto a medium reed. If you can manage one without getting too tired or into bad habits (such as biting down on the reed) you'll probably end up get a nicer sound out of a medium reed than a soft one. But it's hard to generalise as everyone's different...

My teacher obviously doesn't know what to do with himself on Saturdays when he's not teaching down south... usually doesn't send or answer e-mails but got a message today to check mine as he has sent me some technical studies to work on. Prestini and Salviani. Anyone know these?

About to set up YouTube for a bit of salsa practice.

Thanks for the support Roseau and katica The oboe sounded surprisingly ok, managed to keep the notes more or less in tune and teacher seemed pleased with what we'd done It's a bog-standard student oboe, very light compared to my clari! Covering some of the holes is proving a problem, the third finger of my left hand was starting to go into cramp towards the end of the session but I suppose this will improve as I get used to the different hand position.

Started off on the soft reed today to get used to the embouchure again then moved onto the medium reed, again managed about twenty minutes before lips started to go, frustrating but I put it away. Went over the stuff we did yesterday (Learn as you play units 1-3) and did some long notes (tuning).

Really enjoying it

I have a copy of the Salviani which someone sent me. I've never played them to my teacher (he doesn't even know I own them) and it's a while since I played them but I seem to remember they were quite nice. They are "tuneful" studies but are often harder than they initially seem and some have some quite tricky rhthyms.

It's currently half-term here, so two weeks with no lesson I am dutifully practising the "hard bits" in Morceau de Salon but feel I need a bit of teacher input and have been casting about for something else to play. I did think of learning a study with lots of detached notes to try and put into practice the advice in the BDRS article on tonguing but so far it is not very convincing and not musically satisfying so I have let myself be distracted by Britten's Arethusa. I am telling myself that it will enable me to work on long, flowing phrases but a niggling voice at the back of my head keeps telling me that if I take it into my teacher after the holidays he will say that I have chosen something I know I can already do reasonably well and that a study full of detached notes would have been more useful

My teacher gave me several volumes of studies over Christmas to take a look at. I dismissed most as impossible but I have started on Salviani volume 2. These are scale studies and I'm using them at the moment to
1. speed up my scales
2. improve the even-ness of the scales
3. improve my tonguing
4. synchronise tonguing and fingering

There are actually 4 volumes of Salviani and I discovered they are all on IMSLP.

Hi *waves*

I'm new to the forum, having recently restarted playing the oboe so thought I'd join in with this thread

I played many years ago and got to grade 5 but couldn't afford my own oboe so had to stop playing when I left school

I've never lost the longing to play though so a couple of weeks ago I took the plunge and bought myself a second hand student instrument and have spent the last 2 weeks re-teaching myself the notes and how to read music.

Despite the often less than beautiful sound I have been making I have been really enjoying playing again and look forward to getting home from work each day to practice.

I'm having my first lesson next week at which I will hopefully get some tips and exercises to get me playing in tune and iron out the bad habits I know I am developing. My aim is to get back up to a grade 2 standard so that I can join my local adult beginners' windband.

As my husband isn't musical it'll be nice to have people to chat with

Hello hope you enjoy your time here

I've just taken up oboe, (play clari mainly), am borrowing an open-holed student instrument for three months to see how I get on. So far so good..... What make is your oboe? (not that I know a great deal about them) Let us know how your lesson goes

Hello MrsB. Welcome back to the oboe. It's good to see you have already found a playing opportunity, I think that's so important in maintaining enthusiasm.

Thanks

I've got a Bundy as I was on a budget and only needed something I could have some fun with. I got to my Grade 3 on a Bundy previously so it'll do the job for now. If I really get into it I may look to save for a Howarth one day.

I hope you enjoy it
Learning to play the oboe (which I started as an adult) is one of the best things I've ever done

I made two reeds yesterday and another one today and they all work The one I scraped this afternoon was I just hope it is still the same tomorrow (newly scraped reeds take a couple of days to settle down). I tend to be a coward and get my teacher to put the finishing touches to them but I haven't got a lesson for another for almost another two weeks so I carried on cautiously scraping them once they were playing and I'm glad I did

I am particularly pleased because the last few reeds I had attempted to make were all failures and I was beginning to think that I had forgotten the little I knew. I am on holiday at the moment and feeling more relaxed and not stressed by lack of time so I think the previous failures were probably down to trying to do things too fast and under pressure.

Yep, I'm still having problems with that one after 3 1/2 years!

Actually, learning on an open-holed oboe is good for sorting that kind of problem out early on.


Mrs B!

We're a pretty friendly bunch around here and there's always someone who's glad to help. Good luck with getting into the band soon.



Well done!

I hope your expectations of it sounding as good tomorrow aren't too high. I wish you a happy hour or two readjusting!

Lovely reeds never seem to last any time at all with me, unfortunately.

Yesterday's one wasn't quite so nice today but one from the day before had nicely "matured" so I used that instead

have been practising C, B, A and G this week and have added D, Bb, F#, F, E and D. Reasonably happy with progress but am struggling with reaching the keys (easily) with the right little finger Any suggestions? or possible alternative fingerings? I do have small hands and am curious as to whether a closed-hole oboe would make it easier on my poor little fingers

Different oboes do have the keys in slightly different places (and professionals sometimes have the keys moved slightly to suit their hand shape). So a closed hole might make things easier but it would depend on the make.

That said, I have small hands and my daughter is a small 12 year old and both of us can reach the little finger keys without a problem so I think it is partly a question of practice. I haven't seen you play but I wonder if your thumb is too far under the thumbrest? (I have a callus about half way up my thumb nail). If your thumb is too far underneath, you will have trouble reaching the keys.

Having typed all this, I am now wondering which keys you mean exactly as from the description of notes you have given you are not using any little finger keys yet.

Edit: I've just seen your other post saying you're looking for alternative fingerings. You shouldn't need any at this stage (and in fact there are very few for the notes that you say you have already learnt). You can "colour" the C by putting other fingers down but I wouldn't be doing this at your stage - you need to be able to produce a "reliable" note first.

Yes, sorry, Eb (both octaves) are the ones really, been looking at our band repertoire (for much later on in my oboe journey..) and most of it is in either 2, 3 or 4 flats.

The thumbrest is really too high for my liking, if I do go down the purchasing road I'll be looking for one with an adjustable thumbrest (claris have them and I hope oboes do too). For the notes needing right hand down the nail of my thumb is under the rest but if I need little finger then the rest is useless....

You can buy just the adjustable thumbrest - usually only the more expensive models of oboe come with an adjustable one incorporated. Indeed, the Kooiman Etude model is for both clarinet and oboe.

You should also check your hand/wrist position generally with your teacher and check yourself in a mirror, as if it's not right it can affect the reach and agility of the little fingers . Your hand/wrist should be in a natural curled position and straight. This sounds easy but isn't - I still have some issues more than 3 years on. The thumb position is just part of the picture.

Thanks will have to check all this with teacher but I won't see her for another couple of weeks. For the time being I'll keep on with the notes I've learnt and try not to get too frustrated

If you put a thumb cushion on the thumb rest, this will lower it a little. Otherwise, you can put an ordinary clarinet adjustable thumbrest on; this was what I did with my previous oboe. You can buy them fairly cheaply (although I can't now remember where I got mine from) and the holes are in the same place. You can then just unscrew it again and put the original one back on before you give it back.



I only realised last year that the thumb rest was supposed to be resting on my thumb (But that's another story). If your hand and wrist are at the right angle then you will be able to reach the keys and this is something you can do much more easily with your teacher than by yourself. When I was trying to sort out my thumb problems last year my teacher ended up holding my thumb in the right place so I could feel where it was supposed to be.

I am currently frustrated by the inability of my ring finger to move the way I want it to when playing rapidly D-E-D-C#-D-E-D. I'm sure it is to do with my wrist position but despite peering in the mirror and trying slightly different positions nothing is producing a satisfactory result. It's our two-week half term at the moment so I still have to wait over a week until my next lesson, when I'm sure my teacher will prod my wrist a bit and the problem will be solved.

I just realised that "our hand/wrist should be in a natural curled position and straight" is completely unclear. What I mean is that your fingers need to be curled as they do naturally if you just let your hand hang at your side. More curled than on the clarinet. And by straight I meant your wrist and hand should be properly aligned. But then you probably already know this as I imagine it's similar on the clarinet.

I find it extremely difficult to put my own advice into practice. I think I shift my hand position much too much when playing low Eb or C#. And the same with the left hand when playing notes such as LH Eb or F. Very inefficient. I don't even have the excuse of small hands, although my little finger is particularly short. Today the problem was really noticeable in the Prestini and Salviani exercises I started today, especially when playing some of the awkward jumps (eg F2 to F3). All made worse as I started to become really tense and then it just became impossible. And the exercises aren't really at all hard, supposedly.

Got bit of a lecture today about relaxing and enjoying the music. Which didn't help me do either.

Fortunately salsa cheered me up. We're motoring through the pieces at a surprising rate, especially given how slow it's been to get new repertoire together in the past. And that despite a lot of the rhythms are not being terribly easy and the usual plethora of flats And being such a small ensemble (just 12 at the moment) means every mistake is so so obvious...

We've got a session with the some of the pros next Tuesday.

One of the folks we'll be playing with is the lead singer / trombonist from this little bunch...

EDIT: This video of them is more fun.

Thanks Roseau and katica

I was rather by the curled but straight bit...... I'll stick at it, a couple of days ago the stetch to cover the G hole was causing a problem so hopefully it's just going to be the case of practising and the fingers will get used it

This is actually a very good description and made perfect sense to me


If the G was causing problems then it is definitely your wrist at the wrong angle. Try rotating your wrists outwards (if that makes sense).

Some thing you can try (for the right hand), although you ideally need someone to help you:
- hold your arms relaxed at your sides and shake your hands to really relax your hands
- get someone to put the oboe in your right hand with your arms still relaxed at your sides (your thumb should be against the thumb rest, your first finger on the F# key as if you are were going to play the note and the other fingers naturally curved over the other keys
- slowly raise your arm (a bit like in ballet moving up to second position)
- when your arm is high enough, bend your elbow and bring your arm towards you to put the reed in your mouth
- put your left-hand on the oboe and play

If you don't have anyone to hand you the oboe then you'll have to pick it up yourself but try to do so without adding tension to your hands/wrist.

Thanks for all the advice so far Practice today was going over the first few units of the tutor book and blowing long notes into a tuner, the majority of these notes were sharp..... Next lesson is still a fortnight away but I've plenty to keep me occupied.

If the notes are sharp, you're probably pressing down too hard with your top lip (a common fault for beginners and also a risk when you've been playing for a long time and your embouchure starts to tire).

After much dithering, I have booked myself on the Benslow oboe course at the end of July. It is, supposedly, diploma level but I exchanged several e-mails with the course tutor, talked things over with a couple of forumites and my teacher and decided I would give it a try and keep my fingers crossed that I am not hopelessly out of my depth My teacher encouraged me to go, saying that he thought it would be very helpful for me to have some tutition in English, that you get more out of a course where everyone is better than you than one where you are better than everyone else and that given my tendency to over-intellectualise everything I would be able to store away lots of information in my head for future reference

Thanks again that's what my teacher said, and I had done about an hour on the clari before the oboe tonight.....

Hope you enjoy Benslow, I'm going next month bit apprehensive but really looking forward to it

[After much dithering, I have booked myself on the Benslow oboe course at the end of July. It is, supposedly, diploma level but I exchanged several e-mails with the course tutor, talked things over with a couple of forumites and my teacher and decided I would give it a try and keep my fingers crossed that I am not hopelessly out of my depth My teacher encouraged me to go, saying that he thought it would be very helpful for me to have some tutition in English, that you get more out of a course where everyone is better than you than one where you are better than everyone else and that given my tendency to over-intellectualise everything I would be able to store away lots of information in my head for future reference
[/quote]


Is this the Gareth Hulse one?
I went last year & learnt a lot.
Hope you have a great time.
The only Benslow one i'm doing this year is Andrew Knights one at the end of May - always really good


Louise 1712 - glad you're enjoying the oboe

Yes, it is.
Could you tell me a bit more about what you did on the course? I am slightly worried that everyone is going to be much better than me.


Andrew Knights is the tutor on the chamber music course I do in France and he is a lovely person. However, May is not a good time for me to get away.

Are you doing any other courses elsewhere?

Are you doing any other courses elsewhere?
[/quote]

Just the Sarah Francis one at Jackdaws.

Re Gareth Hulse, there were only 7 of us & only 3 were of diploma standard.
He tended to arrange it so that everyone had an individual lesson per day which others could sit in on, or disappear & do private practice elsewhgere. The evenings we spent in 2 small groups. There were also limited opportunities to play with those on the viola & harp courses which were running concurrently. I did leave feedback that it would have been good to have more playing opportunities & maybe some group sessions, so he might change it a bit. The harp totor also offered pilate sessions. We finished with a concert & the tutors also gave a concert one evening.

Hope you have a fab time.

That's what he told me (and also that a couple struggled a little).
He also said that he thought this year there would be a pianist available some of the time, which wasn't the case last year.

I dithered between this course and the Marches Oboe School (where I went two years ago) and in the end decided to try this one: it's closer to where I usually stay in the UK, (and so doesn't involve crossing London mid-Olympics), the dates suit me better and I decided I would like to work on the technical side of things rather than doing lots of group playing (which is what the Marches Oboe School is).

[
I dithered between this course and the Marches Oboe School (where I went two years ago) and in the end decided to try this one: it's closer to where I usually stay in the UK, (and so doesn't involve crossing London mid-Olympics), the dates suit me better and I decided I would like to work on the technical side of things rather than doing lots of group playing (which is what the Marches Oboe School is).
[/quote]

The addition of a pianist is a definite bonus & was something else a few of us suggested.

[quote name='Hardying' date='Mar 3 2012, 05:39 PM' post='1132946']
[
I dithered between this course and the Marches Oboe School (where I went two years ago) and in the end decided to try this one: it's closer to where I usually stay in the UK, (and so doesn't involve crossing London mid-Olympics), the dates suit me better and I decided I would like to work on the technical side of things rather than doing lots of group playing (which is what the Marches Oboe School is).
[/quote]

The addition of a pianist is a definite bonus & was something else a few of us suggested.
[/quote]


I went to Marches, 3 yrs ago - at least to the 2nd half of it - what a shame we didn't meet. I found the emphasis was very much on the concerts & on the younger peoiple there. I'd be happy to go again, as I really enjoy small ensemble playing, but prefer the Sarah Francis & Andrew Knights weekends. However, if money was no object

Hello All - just dipping in again.

I want some sympathy - I've had my oboe serviced and it's absolutely horrible now. I wish I hadn't bothered. I'll never be able to play it again.

Hoboe

Surely it has to go back?

See above. If any wind instrument is misbehaving like that after overhaul, take it back to be checked again.

Trouble is. I don't trust the repairer now and will have to pay again to take it somewhere else.

If you now have an instrument which is not fit for its purpose I would suggest you have cause for redress under Consumer Rights legislation. So he either puts it right or reimburses your costs. As I recall that is an expensive instrument you have (an XL right?). To be left with that in an unusable state is totally unacceptable.

Howarth's serviced my XL last summer and gave it back to me in a worse state than when I gave it to them They had changed the cork tenons and made the middle joint so tight that I couldn't dismantle it and one of the keys had become very noisy. I took it back and they were very apologetic and fixed it up while I waited. Although I would still have preferred them to have done it properly the first time as I'd left it with them for over a month.

Do you have an expert (teacher?) who could look at it and give an educated opinion on the state of the instrument? What did the repairer aim to do? If it was a general service, it certainly should be in better playing condition now than when they received it.

What you need to do is to get a written statement of the exact nature of the problems with the instrument to the original repair person as soon as possible. "It's absolutely horrible" is not precise enough, hence the need for an detailed expert opinion. The repairer who caused the problem has to be notified of the problems (preferably in writing) and given the opportunity to correct the faults, or they will be able to wash their hands of the situation. If they cannot fix the problem which it sounds like they have caused, then, and only then, can you take it to another repairer and have any chance of getting repairer 1 to pay for it.

Deepest commiserations, hoboe!

Apart from the oboe repair disaster, how are things going?


News on my front - can't BELIEVE what my teacher got me into today! There's only one other oboe student - a relatively recent adult beginner - at the community centre where I have lessons and for the next three months or so he and my teacher can't find a lesson time that suits both, so Yours Truly has been recruited to fill in. It's not uncommon here for instrumental teachers to have sort of teaching assistants - usually advanced students who help with beginners. Well, there's no way I could be called advanced yet...

I think said student is quite relieved to have some time with me as I have the impression that he feels a bit intimidated in lessons. Better not tell him that I quite often still feel that way too.

Still, I feel it's a big responsibility and I really hope I'm up to it.

If your teacher thinks you're up to it, then you must be

It will probably be an interesting experience and will make you think about your own playing too. I taught my daughter a little bit over the summer when she wanted to start the oboe - she had seen my teacher once and he had lent her an oboe and told me to teach her a bit. I was worried that she would start lessons with him and he would tell me I'd done it all wrong and she had loads of bad habits but he didn't and said I had done a good job of it, and I would have thought you would be the same.

I do find, however, that quite often now I can hear something is wrong but can't work out what she is doing that is wrong (because she does things wrong differently to the way I did them wrong) so I suggest all sorts of things she could try and none of them work and she then comes back from her lesson where our teacher knew immediately what she was doing wrong and fixed the problem in 5 seconds.

At least you will presumably have a normal "adult" relationship with your pupil and, unlike my daughter, he won't tell you you're "rubbish" and that you sound awful compared to your teacher

Gosh how impressive - well done - hope you enjoy the experience & I'm sure it will help your own playing too!