Roseau. Being able to play through the Strauss at all will be a considerable achievement!

Do you have any practice tips to speed up breathing? That's yet another thing which is requiring some pretty urgent practice attention for me.

It's only the second movement (I hope he doesn't change his mind!)


Unfortunately not
My teacher was trying to convince me that it is really just a question of illusion - he played part of it putting in far more breaths than were necessary (although he refused to compromise on the first two lines, which he wants in one breath ) and with him playing them they weren't that quick and they did sound musical. He said the trick is to incorporate a mini-rit just before your breath, to project the last note and to play the first note with slightly more intensity than if you hadn't breathed. What makes it hard (and he did at least admit that it is hard) is that there is a contradiction between the musical slowing down and the rapid breath made worse by the fact that the whole thing stresses me whereas in fact you need to be calm and relaxed.

Good tip!

My problem is that when I feel pressured my breathing goes out of the window. I've never been very good at quick out-in breaths. I tend to resort to something more like alternating out and in breaths and even that goes wrong when getting towards the end of a page or an exercise. My teacher says he thinks it's mainly psychological and I know he's right...

So does mine And my teacher doesn't even say he thinks its psychological, he states categorically that it IS psychological.

At the end of my last lesson before the holidays when I was putting my oboe away, he said that it was hard for him to know how to help me with breathing as when he draws attention to it, I become self-conscious and it promptly gets worse instead of better

To be accurate, so does mine!
Nothing like a bit of brutal honesty...

How long can you sustain a long note when you don't have to think about anything else? When you start waggling your fingers and tongue about that takes oxygen and reduces the length of time you can play for in one breath. But, I'm pretty sure most of the reduction is due to the tension introduced by having to now play the right notes at the right time as well, not the physical effort of moving fingers and tongue.

I have "The Essential Oboist" by John Williams http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Essential-Oboi...s/dp/B005O96VDC which contains oodles of good stuff. One is a stamina exercise. The idea is to play through as far as you can in one breath, firstly in one slur (no articulation) then with the indicated articulation. It's interesting to see the difference.

It depends on the reed and the note. But actually my problem is not so much playing long phrases as breathing and my problems with breathing are not related to the length of the phrases or even to the difficutly of the music at all. As my teacher has pointed out, if someone else comes into the room, then that it is sufficient to wreck my breathing, which is one of the reasons why he is convinced its psychological.

One of the things my teacher is currently working on with me is the size of the breath. He claims that oboists in the early stages always take too big a breath and that as you become more advanced you learn to play with smaller breaths. He said that teachers initally encourage "big" breaths as a way of getting students to feel where the abdominal muscles are which you need to support the sound; students think that "big" breaths give them more oxygen and that they can play for longer which is theoretically true but big breaths on the oboe also means that they have more carbon dioxide that they need to get rid of before they can take another breath and that the real problem with the oboe is not getting oxygen in, but getting the carbon dioxide out. He said that now that I have (finally) grasped how to properly support the sound, I should try to keep the same sensations using smaller breaths.



I have this too and yes it does have some interesting exercises in it.

Good point.

My teacher is always trying to get me to focus on getting all the breath out before I play rather than 'taking a big breath in' which I suppose is what you are saying about getting rid of the carbon dioxide. Experienced oboists probably do this automatically but I still need alot of reminding

Reporting back from orchestra. It went much better than last week and I'm feeling a lot better about it; still nervous, but no longer in a panic! A flute turned up so I wasn't sat all by myself. We played the easier movements and we got through them ok. And apparently the other oboist will be coming later in the term.

Well done

I worked on the Kalliwoda in my lesson today. After much work with a tuner, I finally got my top notes into some sort of in tune state. I didn't even realise quite how sharp some of them were getting!
Still need to work on that top G!!

Good news, MrsB!

I also have a terrible time preventing those top notes from going sharp, floboe. I never have to play it but oddly enough I find third octave G easier than some of the notes below it (F#, F, E). I wonder why that is? Playing it in Kalliwoda would be a whole new kettle of fish, though. One day. Maybe. In my next life...

Excellent, well done MrsB do stick with it

Thanks Louise, katica &Roseau , and thanks all for supporting me through my panics

The top G is not the worst bit for me.

I particularly dislike the triplet run on the first page which finishes on a top F (and am not over keen on the one a few bars later that starts C - Eb - G -Bb, which only goes up to Bb) and I also dislike the one on the 3rd page - the semi-quaver run that finishes on a top E .


If you look back through past posts, you will see that almost all of us have have had major panic moments and one of the nice things about this forum is the support other people give

Can I ask a daft question please...?

I have a basic studenty type oboe, but I don't know what all the keys are. i've tried looking at some trill guides, but I can't get my oboe to make the right notes with them so not sure if that's me or if my oboe being thumbplate and the trill guide being conservatoire is making a difference.

I've got one on the right side (while playing) and one on the left side between 2nd &3rd fingers. Can anyone tell me what these are and how to use them properly?

Do you mean the big one that sticks out on the side of the oboe on the right? (That you would action with the base of your index finger). If you do then that is different on conservatoire and thumbplate oboes and also has a different shape). On a thumbplate oboe it will enable you to do a B/C trill (or a B/Bb trill) on a conservatoire oboe you can do an A/ G# trill with it.

The other one you mention I'm not too sure about (mainly because of the confusion as to what a 2nd finger is on the oboe - is it your index finger or your middle finger?) but it will probably be either a C-C# trill or a C-D trill. (You should have two, one above the other).

Thanks, yes the big one on the right. On the left it's between my middle finger and ring finger. I don't have one between the top two fingers.

Oboe lesson went well tonight, at the end teacher was mumbling something about trying a piece that is on the grade 4 syllabus

Good going, louise 1712! Which one?

I have no idea I was merrily packing oboe away and only half-listening, think it is an arrangement of something by Cimarosa...............

I've just got hold of that one: Cimarosa Concerto arranged for oboe and piano by Arthur Benjamin. The third movement (Siciliana) is a grade 5 piece on List A, whilst the first movement paired with either the second or the fourth are on List A for grade 7. At my last lesson, my teacher seized on this with glee and worked me through the first movement noting which fingerings to use where (lots of flats, as usual!). Bits of it aren't too bad, but the semiquaver seqence at bar 11 is "intersting"!

I think Roseau is right and you are referring to trill keys. On most oboes (thumbplate or conservatoire), trilling C to C# or C to D using "normal" keys is nasty, as the interval is across the octave break. There should be a pair of vent keys (i.e. ones that are normally closed) on the top joint of the instrument, just above the key for your left hand index finger. Pressing the key on the lower joint that falls to your right hand longest finger (i.e. the one that normally closes to play a low E) should open the higher of the two top joint vents, which gives access to the C-D trill (obviously, you need to finger a C to get this effect). On the top joint, the small, set-back key for your ring finger should open the lower of the two vents, and this gives you the C-C# trill. Most oboes also have a key on the top joint that can be operated by the long finger of the left hand that also operates the C-D trill, but I find the right hand version easier to use, as it is less contorting to reach.

Hope all this is clear!

OK.............. that seems a tad ambitious for lesson 4, maybe it wasn't that one then, we were talking about pieces to listen to before the next lesson and, as I said, I was only half-listening Unless she's getting confused about which grade it is on of course, quite sure that the arranger was Benjamin..... Well we'll see in a few weeks time. Might nip into the music shop and have a look at the copy though

Could be the Corelli (arr. Barbirolli) Concerto. That's Grade 4. The Sarabanda is lovely.

Well I've not been in this thread for ages. Mostly because Emsoboe became a sax player, partly out of choice but also due to being pushed and lack of confidence. All her oboe playing opportunities disappeared around the same time so for two years she's been happily enjoying being a saxophonist.

a few months ago completely out of the blue she got a call from an adult orchestra to play oboe in a concert. She couldn't do it but went to rehearsals as they were short of an oboe. Someone we know asked her to play in another orchestra they are involved with. Things have been so busy it looked impossible, two rehearsals and the concert was all she could manage. It was so nice tonight to sit in the audience whilst she played in an orchestra.

This week the first orchestra have asked her to be principle oboe for the next concert and to play in something else they are doing. The second orchestra have asked her to go to rehearsals even though she can't do the next concert and some of the members have invited her to play chamber music with them.

Looks like Emsoboe may be about to become an oboist again Wouldn't have foreseen that a year ago.

Fantastic news, good for her! Just goes to show, you never know what's around the corner... Glad you had a good evening.

Not selling that XL just yet then?

Fantastic news. We're not jealous of her opportunities, no, not really: just really jealous!

How does Emsoboe feel about it all?

No! That's never been on the cards Her teacher made a brilliant suggestion for post 18 which is still under consideration.




Stunned, shocked but delighhted

She's never wanted to give up but post grade 8 practice has been sparse. Her only playing opportunity a quintet that wasn't challenging particularly. She loves playing in orchestras and oboe is the ideal way to do it.

The offers have been made directly to her and it's been entirely her decision to accept. She had another today, to play 1st flute in another group which she turned down, thankfully

The good thing about the group she was playing in last night is that they really prove music is for life and that's something I've always wanted her to see.

Delighted to hear that! All the best to her...

I've just got my spare part from Howarths ( ). I think I'll have to wait until next week to get it sorted out, though, has we have a concert on Saturday. My "McGyver" temporary repair has held up extraordinarily well.

Hope the concert goes well and the repair holds out

Congratulations to Emsoboe and I hope she enjoys it


How did you fix it up in the end? I arrived at my lesson tonight to find my teacher trying to repair a pupil's oboe. The whole top joint had split (but down the back) and he had filled the crack earlier in the afternoon and was trying to adjust it. She had somehow managed to let the adjusting screws go rusty had slightly damaged the 3rd octave key so that it wouldn't shut properly and meant the top joint was no longer air-tight . He said that usually he would have just told the parents to take it somewhere and get it repaired but she has got an exam in just over two weeks time and she needs it to practise.

He has suggested that for next week I start working on either the fast bit of the 2nd movement of the Strauss or the first movement When I protested that this was way beyond me he claimed that everyone makes a fuss about the Strauss but that it is not that hard, unless you are intending to play the whole concerto from beginning to end in one go I would like to think that he was preoccupied by the oboe he was trying to mend and not really thinking about what he was saying and that he will have changed his mind by next week but I think that is probably wishful thinking

I shall bear that in mind when I get there.

Bear it in mind with a large pinch of salt

I would just DIE if my oboe split like that. When the kind folk at Howarths serviced my oboe last year, after just a year the screws were rusty. I was told to be careful not to hold the oboe in my sweaty hands during long rests (and of course not forget to clean it). Actually I don't, I use a stand. But they also said they'd serviced an oboe from India in the same state, so I think it's probably a climate problem. Everything goes mouldy or rusty really, really quickly here. It shouldn't be such a problem in your patch, though, should it?

My "fix" was with a pin from a hairslide that had just fallen apart, which happen to have just about the right diameter and was slightly longer than the original rod. I had to file the end to get it to sit reasonably stably in the respective hole in the internal post and then I used thread (stuff I use in reedmaking) between the bit of the pin that stuck out of the outer post to tie it in position, anchoring it to the post just above. As the pin wasn't threaded it could have fallen out. And then I stuck some clear nail varnish on the thread just to be sure. My main concern about the arrangement is that the pin (which is aluminium) might cause wear and tear on the holes in the posts. So I also oiled it before inserting.

Not sure whether any of this is clear. I might have to upload a photo. (As you can probably tell, I am quite proud of my emergency oboe engineering skills! )



Well, that at least is optimistic. Not sure I will ever get there at the rate I'm going!

, Roseau. I bet your teacher was entirely aware of what he was proposing and has every confidence in you...

Definitely not a climate problem here. My teacher was inclined to think that either she doesn't swab it out before she puts it away or that she had done something silly like play it outside in the rain. Although he said that wooden oboes can just split, he wasn't convinced either that she hadn't done something she shouldn't have with the oboe like leave it in the car in the sun.


Sounds very ingenious I would love to see a photo!



He probably is aware of what he is suggesting, since the "not that hard" was in the same sentences as "you ought to have a bit more confidence in your own abilities" but he also said that it would be "good for me" and I am always wary of what he thinks is "good for me." The cadenza in the 2nd movement is objectively probably "not that hard" but as I said to him yesterday it is a combination of everything I find difficult: it is loud, forces you to occupy space and take the lead in the way you play it as the accompaniment is sparse, and the runs are not strictly in time but ones which accelerate as you play them and which I feel are what I imagine parachute jumping would be like - you have to launch yourself into them and trust that you are going to arrive safely His reply was that that was all perfectly true and that he had chosen it to make me confront my fears

Glad to hear that Emsoboe is playing the oboe again....no need to change her name quite yet.

Katica - I am very impressed with your repair, very ingenious. I'd like to see a picture too.

Roseau - have fun with the Strauss, it is good to face our fears from time to time i think.

I've just come back from a week's holiday in Scotland - which was fantastic but no oboeing. I managed about 30 minutes last night before my lip gave up completely. Orchestra tonight could be painful, and I've just realised that our concert is a week on Saturday...it feels like we have only just started rehearsing this programme!

Prior to week away we had a flying visit to London - I had a mooch around the shops while OH met up with his friends for a band practice. I spent over an hour in Howarth's - I bought a reed tip clipper, some new thread (so i can do different canes different colours), some chinese cane, Hindemith sonata, Harty Miniatures and The Island of Patmos by Judith Bingham. I haven't really had chance to look at any of them yet. They didn't have the Berkeley 3 Moods.

I then went to a second hand music shop off Charing Cross Road (recommended in an ancient thread somewhere on here) and had a good rummage there though didn't buy much - a couple of piano pieces and a different edition of Ferling for 1 pound! Worth buying just for the recommended speeds! I then took Roseau's advice and went to Foyle's for another hour or so. They didn't have any second hand oboe music but I bought a CD of Telemann's 12 Fantasias and a couple of books (non music) to read on holiday (plus a cup of tea and a piece of cake in the cafe). A very enjoyable afternoon.

Finally managed to get to my oboe repair expert to let her have a look at my instrument. It has been extremely difficult to get the low notes to speak easily for a couple of weeks and my teacher thought it was a leak somewhere and had advised me to get it looked at.

The expert confirmed that there was a problem (i.e. it's not my poor technique or grotty reeds ), but couldn't find any leak or any other problem that she could fix. She thinks it could be a problem with the bore in the upper joint getting out of true, so is sending it back to Howarth's for them to have a look at and fix, if that is the problem. The instrument is an S20 and is only just over a year old, so I am a bit miffed. I have been very careful to play it in carefully and swab out thoroughly after each use, so I shall be interested to find out what has gone wrong.

In the meantime, I am reduced to playing my old plastic Bundy that I have had for many years. What a difference, in oh so many ways. Hurry up please, Howarths!

Thank you!

Love the Harty it such a nice piece

Not long before the Easter holidays, I found a crack in my oboe, between the C trill-C# trill and B holes.

I then went away over easter- my mum was going to send it off but she could not find it (presumably because it hadn't been used for a few days.)


It is so small (it doesnt go through to the bore- yet ) I still dont know whether to send it off for repair.

You must tell me how you get on with it.

I think it should be looked at - if only to determine if anything needs doing.

Very sorry to hear about your oboe troubles, floboe and Barry Toner.
I hope they can be sorted out without too much trouble.


Well, it's well after 1am so I think I won't go downstairs and get my oboe out again for a photo tonight, I'm afraid... It's been out three times already today, and geting on for nearly 6 hours playing, I calculate. I took a long lunch hour to practice, then had an extra long class and straight into rehearsal. Unfortunately, I'm definitely not up to it healthwise and I had bit of a "turn" again in rehearsal and couldn't manage some quite simple stuff.

Didn't stop me getting it out again when I got home, though. My flatmate wanted to look at possible pieces for his exam-recital, so I had a go myself at a few things that I thought he might like that I've just bought. By huge coincidence I also ordered the Harty pieces from Howarths when I asked them for my spare parts. I agree with notmusicmum - very pretty. From Forrests (in the US) I also got the Rubbra Sonata.

Notwithstanding an impressive spate of corrections from my teacher, a bit of rather slopping metronome work, and generally getting flustered, my attempts on the Marcello went surprisingly well today, considering. Especially as my long lunch-hour practice had been entirely on technical studies, which we didn't even touch, and I hadn't opened the Marcello for a couple of days. Maybe that was a good thing.

I was slightly taken aback by my teacher insisting on a greatly increased tempo, which threw me out a bit. Crotchet = 76 rather than the Allegro marked on my edition of quaver = 104 (very slow for an Allegro, but then the D minor version has 1st movement as Andante e spiccato). It's not that it's really more difficult faster, and it does indeed seem to "move" better, but my poor old brain finds it difficult to change gear after two weeks of practising differently. I do think the C minor version is a bit harder than the D minor (and I haven't even worked in the ornaments yet), not least because C itself (middle register) is quite the most horrid note on the oboe. On mine at least.

After giving me lots of flak (as usual ) my teacher actually acknowledged he was pushing me really hard... because I was playing really well. I wish I heard that more than about once a year!

Not just you.

I have my proper oboe back in full working order!!

I got a phone call today from the repair lady saying she had talked to Howarth's and they had said a bore problem was most unlikely as all the tuning would be out (and it isn't). She had tracked the problem down to a weak spring on the Eb vent key which was enough to cause the problem. She had changed the spring, and it was playing just fine. I have just picked it up and the low notes now speak clearly. I now have to explain to my teacher at my lesson tomorrow why I haven't done as much practice as I should have.

That's good news Barry Toner!

I have naughtily ordered some more music. I totally blame MrB though. He put my oboe concertos cd on in the car this morning and encouraged me to play more from it (although he did tease me that I don't sound quite so musical as the professional oboists on the cd ). So I've ordered one of the pieces to have some fun with. It's a grade 7 piece so I suspect I will struggle, but it's such gorgeous music I shall enjoy it nonetheless. Can't wait for it to arrive now!

This week is our next windband rehearsal, so I am looking at the bits of music we are likely to play in our next concert (indoors) in a few weeks time. The MD has said he wanted to do the Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite, so I am trying to get my fingers around the Dives and Lazarus theme at high speed in 4 flats.

At the last rehearsal, we had a run through a piece of music that has been in the pile since I joined, but we had never played. It is called The Blue and The Gray, and is a medley of American Civil War tunes. One slight problem is that the part is for first and second oboes, and I am the lone oboist! I discovered that the Aura Lee tune is set for an English Horn solo and is eminently playable, even with my few weeks of posessing an instrument. Guess who didn't have the cor with him, silly me! I think it is the only part for the cor in our repertoire (I can't find anything else in the pile), so I will probably take it for the next six months and not use it. The hardest part in the Blue and the Gray will be counting bars rest accurately, as Kingdom Coming has 37 bars rest; Marching through Georgia has 24 (split in two blocks); Yellow Rose of Texas has 16; The Bonnie Blue Flag has 7, then another 18 bars in which to change instruments, then another 21 bars to change back.