What lovely encouragement, Hardying!

Have you worked with Sarah Francis before? I've met her (she's a friend of a family friend) and she was very supportive and gracious but I'm not sure how she'd react if she actually heard me play!

Nice to hear that you are both continue to battle bravely on, Louise1712 and Mrs B! I hope your respective reed and oboe problems sort themselves out soon.

I'm having very peculiar reed issues. Like Roseau, I suspect they're weather/season-related. I expect they'll have another shock when the rainy season starts, which could happen any time in the next few weeks.

I got a telling off from my teacher on Tuesday. He berated me for not practising as I'd "slow down again" (so it wasn't just my imagination...)... I'm not sure on what basis he decided I hadn't practised, though, since I didn't even make my lesson. I had a slight prang in the morning and had to have a quick repair done to the car before I could get it back on the road again.

The result was that I missed my lesson and solfeo class. I did make it in time for the salsa rehearsal, which was great as a few invited "pros" turned up to fill us out a bit: a decent pianist, a couple of extra percussionsts, a pair of better singers (who will do the choruses when the main star turns up, which will no doubt not be until the dress rehearsal) and a trumpet. Made everything soooo much easier! Just need to make sure I find enough time this weekend to make sure I'm really confident with all the entries, amidst finishing writing papers and end-of-year reports.

Concert is a week on Sunday.

My teacher also stuck around after the rehearsal to observe me teaching. I suggested he took the lesson, since he was around, and I could watch and learn but he wasn't having it. Except that after about 3 mins he couldn't resist stepping in. I do hope I wasn't transmitting too much anxiety as teaching in front of him was just as nerve-wracking as being on the receiving end. Worse, in fact.

I am at bit of a loss as to how to help the student articulate properly. He starts every note with his breath, which means that there is no flow between notes. I did lots of explaining (as did my teacher before finally leaving me in peace to get on with the lesson) and some work just on the reed - easier for him to concentrate on tonguing without other things on the oboe to think about - and did for a brief stretch get some tongued crotchets. But never on the first note. And it was very difficult for him to replicate on the oboe.

Any tips with which I can encourage him would be very welcome!

[quote name='katica' date='Mar 23 2012, 03:39 AM' post='1137345']
[What lovely encouragement, Hardying!

Have you worked with Sarah Francis before? I've met her (she's a friend of a family friend) and she was very supportive and gracious but I'm not sure how she'd react if she actually heard me play!

Thanks Katica - yes I was on Sarah's Jackdaws weekend last year, & as you say she's lovely & so encouraging & went to a lot of trouble to put me at my ease as I was the only person new to her course last year. I'm sure she'd be impressed by your playing as I was.

I had a slight prang in the morning and had to have a quick repair done to the car before I could get it back on the road again.

Sorry to hear about the prang - hope you're OK. Must have been a nasty shock.

short practice today, went over exercises and one of the pieces, didn't sound too bad hope to get a fair bit more practice done this weekend

Have you tried getting him to tongue without anything? Get him to hold his hand up in front of his mouth, purse his lips and breath out slowly while saying "-t -t -t" you ought to be able to feel a continous air-flow, which is barely interrupted by the "t".

I have been practising saying "l" instead of "t" (following the advice in last month's BDRS magazine) and it is making a difference - my teacher noticed yesterday and said my tonguing was much clearer . I just need it to become totally automatic as I still have a tendency to slip back to the old way.

Not really, thank goodness. It was really silly - I wasn't going very fast and I could see what was going to happen (you know how you go into slow motion camera mode...) but too late to stop my mirror being ripped off.

I look forward to hearing about what you decide to work on with Sarah Francis, Hardying. Maybe one year I should give Jackdaws a go too.

And maybe we could find something to work on to play together? If you are around in August, maybe we can plan to cross paths again... you're en route between my parents.

That is, if my hyperactive sister doesn't have two weeks of all-day-every-day activities planned for me.


Yes, something like that but using something more like "thoo" (it's sort of between "t" and "l"), on the advice of my teacher. Then we moved on to the reed and that worked (but still not really getting first attack) and then the oboe. I think he just got too tired and over-anxious after while so I gave him a break. I hope that he'll have got enough of the idea of the exercise to work on it this week.

I had a funny exchange with a non-musician today (taxi driver in Honduras). I was explaining what an oboe was (as you do...) and how after only 3-4 years I was still learning ... and he says "You're still learning? After FOUR years?"

Nicholas Daniel is no longer going to be running the Advanced Oboe class at Dartington this year.

He has been replaced by Aisling Casey and I am embarrassed to say I know incredibly little about her. Does anyone else know of her / heard her play / have any recordings? There's not a lot of info online beyond her website with some video clips of her playing the Bach Double with Nigel Kennedy.

decision to make soon, if I'm still enjoying playing oboe in a few weeks time do I - continue on the open-holed oboe, rent a secondhand oboe from a different place or hire a new oboe for a year with the option to buy at the end of the rental period. Really don't know what to do

What's making you think about a different oboe?

You could try out the new and second-hand options and see how they sound/feel to you. I think I'd only change if the difference is really noticeable.

If you aren't flush with cash and the Buisson sounds and feels OK for now, I think I'd stick with it for a bit. Those open holes will be good for you in the long run.

What does your teacher think?

There's a big chance that the Buisson will be going to someone else anyway, but I'm not particularly keen on it as an instrument, open-holes yes but it's that instrument that's not, oh I can't explain it. The more I listen to other oboes, not just the professional recordings but clips on other sites, and having heard my teacher play it too, I don't think it's a great instrument. Will ask teacher on Friday for her thoughts, bearing in mind who the Buisson belongs to....

I don't think at this point in time that you would know which oboe you really want. I have had three different oboes since I started: a new, unbranded plastic one, a second-hand Marigaux and my current Howarth XL.

I had the plastic one for two or three years (can no longer quite remember), my teacher could make it sound much nicer than I ever could but after a couple of years I wanted a slightly warmer sound and could recognise that even my teacher didn't have the warmness I wanted on my oboe. I was initially pleased with the Marigaux - it had a nicer tone (more obvious when my teacher played it than when I did) but after a couple of years an increasing number of notes were not quite in tune. My teacher maintained that it had always been like that and it was my own perception of tuning which had improved and he was probably right but I was finding it increasingly frustrating and decided it was time to upgrade.

My teacher has always had a fair number of oboes passing through his hands (ones that have been bought for the music school and also ones that he has helped one pupil sell to another) and whenever he had one he let me try it. They were (mostly) more in tune than the Marigaux but none of them could match it tonewise. Then I tried a Howarth's oboe on a whim and fell in love with it However, they didn't have any conservatoire oboes in stock so I couldn't buy one there and then.

In fact I thought about it for another four months, my teacher offered to sell me his old Buffet Greenline when he bought a new one but I didn't like the tone as much as the Howarth's and in the end made a special trip to the UK to buy my XL. I did wonder if I was doing the right thing - I would have liked my teacher's opinion before parting with my money - but when I came back with it, he said he could see why I liked it and that it suited my playing style better than his oboe did.

I am still very happy with it but I don't think I could have bought it that much earlier than I did (even assuming I'd had the money for it). It requires more air than my first oboe did and, although its tuning is almost perfect, it is also far less forgiving of faulty technique than my previous oboes were (ie I would have found it very hard to play when I first started). It is also a heavy oboe - too heavy, I think, for a beginner's instrument.

On a completely different note, I have had a nice oboe day This morning we had a rehearsal for next week's double reed day - we were 15 oboes and 3 cor anglais. This afternoon I played duets with a very good oboist (the one who has managed to drown out the accordion?.

Thanks for the advice, I can't do anything for a while anyway as the music shop needs to get their secondhand stock sent over from another shop if I want to try some.

Quote Katica


"And maybe we could find something to work on to play together? If you are around in August, maybe we can plan to cross paths again... you're en route between my parents".


Would love to - will try & sort somethign out nearer the time.

I posted a reply to Roseau's last and it hasn't appeared.
I'm sure I didn't write anything deserving deletion. Hmmm...

No time now to re-write. Better go and do some oboe practice and then get down to some scribbling.

Just listening to the Howells Sonata and deciding I do like it after all.

If I ever get around to taking G8 it's going to be hard deciding on which pieces to choose. G7 has quite a nice selection too.

I'm at the point of trying to decide which of the nice selection to concentrate on. Not so easy a choice as it has been at lower grades.

progress nine times out of ten I can play D straight off and middle C is improving too

Arrived too late for lesson today because on an interview panel. I think it might have been jettisoned anyway for early rehearsal for salsa concert on Sunday. Went pretty well, though we're going to be a bit thin with only 8 pieces.

Teacher is starting me on Marcello. He took a look at the G8 syllabus, pronounced some of the List A pieces doable (Marcello is on it, Handel started last year but interrupted by op). List B declared too tough for now but he had misunderstood that I wanted to do this in August. Should be more than ready by 2014, should I decide I really do want to give it a go. Scales, aural and sight-reading (on which I'm NEVER tested except when reading duets for fun...) are approached differently here but teacher seems quite prepared to understand the requirements and help me through. Got another lecture about working on technique...

Question for you walking repertoire encyclopedias, on behalf of my flatmate: can you think of a piece for two oboes, or for oboe and cor anglais, and orchestra that ISN'T baroque? He and the principal oboe of the national youth orchestra (another ex-student of my teacher and who actually sold me my first oboe) may have the opportunity to play as soloists with the orchestra and are looking for something a bit different. It's the youth orchestra's 40th anniversary this year, so this could be a great opening for them...

This is one of my very favourite pieces for oboe, which I have so far refused to learn as I don't want to massacre it.


Have you looked on the IDRS website? They have a list of oboe solos with windbands and (I think) orchestra but I don't have time to go and check this morning. Otherwise, you probably ought to ask the same question on the oboe bboard as they really are walking encyclopedias.

Just as well you're a long way from me then! You may be very sure that I am about to commit the vilest assassination you can imagine...


That's a good idea. Which reminds me, I haven't paid this year's subs for the IDRS. And it's been such a long time since I've been on the oboe bboard I think I've forgotten my password.

I would have thought you would be able to give much of the Saint-Saens at least a looking at.

I prefer the 2nd movement, which is no longer on the syllabus. Despite my aversion to Poulenc, the 1st movement is probably fairly similar in difficulty level to Saint Saens. The Howells is, apparently, very difficult to fit together with the piano (and needs a very good pianist) so, probably not a very good idea if you are just hoping to play it with an accompanist on the day.

I had a nice lesson tonight My teacher is organising a double-reed day with a couple of other teachers on Saturday. There are apparently going to be 22 oboes, 4 cor anglais and 8 bassoons all playing together at one point! At the end of my lesson his other adult pupil came and so did the recently arrived very good oboist from my wind band and we spent almost an hour playing together .

For the first half hour or so, the two other oboists were nervous because they didn't know each other and I was nervous because I always am if there's anyone other than my teacher in the room. The other two kept making jokes all the time to try and hide their nerves. Then one said that I was the only calm person in the room to which my teacher promptly replied that I was the worst of the lot because I was internalising everything

Yes, I would have hoped so too. And possibly the Poulenc, as Roseau suggests. And I really like the Rubbra... I think my teacher was also thinking that I've got a way to go to work my stamina back up (he's thinking of the whole pieces) as well as technique - and very like he was being provocative to see how I'd react. He does that sometimes.

He wants me to work on the C minor version of the Marcello rather than D minor. Has anyone played the C minor one (the harpsichord version, I call it...)? Have any thoughts about it?

Good advice about the Howells. Better have a look at what the piano part of the Rubbra is like too.


Wow, that's quite a lot of double reeds at once. Looks like you could almost end up with the original ensemble for the Fireworks music (24 oboes, 12 bassoons I believe). What are you playing?

Have fun on Saturday!

Did your teacher know the Rubbra? Mine didn't. I picked it up second-hand somewhere and took it in once when he asked me to bring music in so he could choose something for me to work on. He was very taken with it but in the end I decided that at that point in time that I wanted something that was less intellectually challenging. The Rubbra looks as though it is the sort of piece where it takes sometime to work all the rhythms out precisely and it didn't seem to have a particularly fixed tonality either.


We're not playing anything terribly exciting - some baroque music by Pez, Lully and Charpentier (mostly simplified versions) because most of the oboists and all the bassonists have only been playing for a couple of years but they are hoping to make it an annual event so the music ought to gradually get more complex as the pupils improve.

We are also playing a canon for two oboes and two cor anglais by Wagenaar (a late 19th - early 20th century Dutch composer) and I am possibly playing a bit of Morceau de Salon in a masterclass.

No, I don't think so... I think he'll like it and I told him I was going to get it to see.

The piano accompaniment could be a big problem, though.

I am getting on so much better with a medium soft reed than the medium one. Loving playing again

There is a recording on youtube (but I presume you already know that).


Long may it continue

Yes and I have Sarah Francis' CD and I thought I'd given it to my teacher too but maybe not. Anyway it's on my shopping list (pay day today - hope to be able to order over Easter ).


Amen.

tomorrow, Roseau.

had a good lesson yesterday played some duets that were a little on the ambitious side but got through them ok, also played my pieces to her and got some rather nice feedback Had a go on her posh oboe - oooo, very nice Teacher has noticed a wobble on a couple of notes when playing quietly so my homework is to eliminate that. Been told to listen to more oboe music too.

Good going, Louise!

Which pieces are you playing?

Serenade, Minuetto and Chorus from Learn as you Play

I remember playing a couple of those in the early days.
I think I even have the piano backing tracks I liked using to practice with.
But for my own pleasure - I don't think I ever played them with my teacher.

My double reed day was a bit of a mixture. It was very badly organised (by the bassoon teacher, not my oboe teacher), which meant we spent a lot of time hanging around. Because we didn't start straight away, I ended up being quite nervous by the time we actually got round to playing. I played with the pianist fairly early on when my nerves were most definitely not under control and my ability to understand French seemed to be diminishing rapidly so I introduced myself as being "English and feeling very nervous" However, she turned out to be a lovely person, as well as an excellent pianist. I didn't play particularly well but I found that playing with the piano suddenly made musical sense of a couple of passages that I had really been struggling with. And, more importantly, lthough she is not the music school's official accompanist, she very generously suggested that she could rehearse Morceau de Salon with me to play in my teacher's end of year concert in June.

That sounds like a very satisfactory outcome.

How did the mass doublereed ensemble sound?

Whoopee! I have a (working) cor anglais!!!!

I saw a classified ad a few weeks ago from someone fairly local to me who was trying to sell a cor anglais that had belonged to their father. It is a 1939 Uebel instrument that the father had owned since the 1940's, but it hadn't been played in over 25 years (the father had died five years ago at a great age). I had a look at it and the wood was in good condition and the quality of the keywork also looked good, although it was in serious need of a complete overhaul.

After buying it, I took it to my local wind instrument repair specialist who has resurrected it (her words) by cleaning and lubricating all the keywork, replaced a couple of damaged toneholes, re-padding and re-corking the whole instrument, regulating all the keys so it now all works and looks and sounds wonderful. I now just need to adjust to a cor embouchure and learn to play a thumb-plate system, as I play a conservatoire oboe!

Other peculiarities of the instrument are (i) automatic octave keys (maybe not surprising on a German instrument); (ii) the LH4 key that is a Db key, not an F natural key; (iii) what on an oboe would be the RH G# key isn't on this instrument, but acts like the RH1 key on a conservatoire system to produce B flat and C natural over A and B, so it is an alternative for the thumb-plate.

It also has a threaded plate on the upper curve of the lower body directly above the thumb rest that I could not fathom. My repairer told me that it is for a lyre music holder used in a marching band, which is understandable given the place and date of its manufacture. She recommends not using an oboe or cor in a marching band as it breaks too many reeds and too many teeth!

Congratulations on you purchase, BT.

I'm very envious. I'd love to have a cor but it's not going to happen any time soon. I see that these days Howarth doesn't even publicise cors on their second hand instrument list at all: you have to put your name down on a waiting list.

We had a really fabulous salsa concert yesterday. Bit of a slip when we missed the entry for a fl/ob/cl solo but we caught up and I don't think the audience noticed. We all had a great time - band, public and invited singers, who were extremely encouraging. I can't say I did a brilliant job myself but I think it's the concert I've most enjoyed so far. And my oboe had a great outing - handed over to conductor/teacher for improvised solo in one of the pieces. One of these days I think I'm not going to get it back.

This may be a stupid question...

I would like to play some Harry Potter tunes. I've found books for recorder, violin, cello, clarinet, saxaphone and flute but no oboe I think oboes can play flute music but I've had a look and it goes far too high for me. Would any of the others work on oboe?

You could try the violin part, but you would need to miss out any low Gs, G#s & As - but I doubt there would be too many of them.




Glad you had a good time. Sounds like You might need to atatch a long chain/piece of elastic to your oboe

Happy cor playing. Are there amy particular cor pieces you're itching to play?

Mine was the Swan of Tuenola & was the 1st piece I attempted - & there's no where to breath in some passages , so not the wisest choice!

Enjoy

Interesting how these weird combinations pop up. I'm surprised by fully automatic AND thumbplate (though I don't know why I should be). I have come across a "split" LH4 key for F and low C# (Howarth will put one on their oboes if you want it and I'm told it's very useful for low chromatic passages (better than the banana key). If I remember rightly the Italian Prestini system has LH4 for C# instead of Bb and a key for the left thumb for low Bb. I think my old Buffet student (thumbplate) oboe had an RH1 as you describe, but it never got used.


Violin as Hardying says or you could transpose the flute part down an octave (how flautists read all those telegraph wires I'll never know). We oboists were accidentally handed flute parts in orchestra on one ocassion. Oh how we laughed The recorder part should be fine too.

Thanks Hardying and Arundodonuts.

I don't much fancy changing a flute part. I can only play up to a C and it'd take me ages to work out what all the higher notes even are.

I think I've played a violin piece before (for my G5 exam) so that might work.

But I might start with the recorder one as a) it's cheaper, b) it looks easier to play, and c) I've got a recorder (somewhere) so if it doesn't work on oboe I can still use it!

Dvorak's New World Symphony second movement is the cor piece I want to master, but I'll settle for stumbling through it at the moment. The June Emerson site is great for making it easy to find music for a specific instrument / combination and also providing indications of difficulty. I have bought a Mozart Adagio (K580a) completed by Philip Wilby that looks close to being playable and have set that as my first target.

MrsB, I have some Harry Potter music that's not for oboe. I can't remember offhand whether it's for violin or flute (I'm not at home) but it's perfectly playable on the oboe.





Our flautists quite often have to transpose UP...


The cor solo from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is worth a look too, if you like that kind of thing.
I do, in small doses.

Opera isn't usually my thing, but I have Geoffrey Browne's book The Art of Cor Anglais which has all the great cor pieces, including that one, and the commentary on it sounds interesting with the distinction between a concert piece and a theatre piece.

There's a lovely rendering of it on Nicholas Daniel's CD "Oboe Alone".

Not much on YouTube: about the best I could find is this video.

I've not only got a screw loose...

(everyone already knows that)

... it's fallen out!



Lots of aaarghhhs just deposited on the Scream Thread.

oh no. What a nightmare. Hope you manage to get some through quickly.

Barry I am very jealous of your Cor! Hope you have fun playing it. I would love a cor, I've planned it will be my birthday present to myself next year!

Oh no

If it's a screw, rather than a rod, then you ought to be able to find a screw somewhere in Costa Rica, even if it is not marketed as an oboe screw. You need to know the exact size of the screw, first though. Is there another screw the same somewhere else on the oboe? If not, I suggest you e-mail Howarths and ask them for the dimensions of the screw.

Opticians might have a screw that would fit, as might people who repair computers.

An adjusting screw or one holding something on? Which key?

It's the curved RH trill key (A-Ab/Ab-Bb?), the one that curls over the RH G# key. It's the screw in the post nearest the joint. There are two posts quite close together and this one acts as the pivot to key so yes, it's sort of holding it on. Now it's loose and waggling about. It's not a really essential key and I've only used it a couple of times. I can play the oboe without it so I'm going to figure out a way of keeping it together in the meantime.

Has anyone else had this problem of screws working loose? I've had it a few times. Once my G# stopped working properly and another my C. And another time in a check I noticed one working loose although it hadn't produced any audible effect yet.

The weird thing is I checked the screws on Saturday before the concert and didn't see this. How on earth could it have worked loose so quickly?

I think you can remove this one completely. (I would need to go down and check). I know my teacher occasionally removes trill keys from some of his younger pupils' oboes when they have very small hands and puts them back on again when their hands have grown.


The long rod screws on my XL seem to work loose with quite alarming regularity (and don't have any audible effect). The adujstement screws on all the oboes I've had have all moved to some extent but the XL does so much less than the Marigaux and I've never had a screw fall out (yet).

It only seems to be certain screws that move on mine and this is the only one that's shown signs of actually falling out. Neil at Howarths (just spoke to them) says it's very unusual for these rods to fall out so goodness knows what was going on there... maybe a new one will be a better option.

Just spent a fortune on the phone to Howarths (Skype out failed as internet connection decided to go down at just the wrong time ). Of course, I couldn't resist the temptation to order a couple of things at the same time, including birthday present for my teacher. But I was reasonably restrained. Still have something to live off for the rest of the month this time.

I had a lovely chat with Mike Britton too. I hope one day he and his wife will come this direction and sell some oboes over here. Then folks can stop eyeing up mine.

If it's the one I think it is (and I think it is!) it's actually a short rod rather than a screw so I think you'll definitely need a "proper" replacement.

Like Roseau I have had rods work loose. The problem is if they are fully tightened the keys can bind, so there will always be a tendency for them to work loose. On my oboe it tends to be the long rod holding the RH keywork and if I don't spot it first, I do get some weird effects on low notes (I think things just get a bit wobbly).