We ascertained a few days ago that oboists are nerdy geeks. I enjoy scales (in a masochistic sort of way). I'm quite sure they (in their multitudinous forms) are the only way to embed the mental map of the instrument. Plus they are excellent for tuning, tone and timing.

Well I've just started myself and the only advice I can offer is don't expect to make good reeds until you've made a few hundred. Which reminds me, I have about a dozen tied on ready to scrape. I must get cracking.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only nerdy geek out there!

I've just had another really good lesson
But I won't have one for the next two weeks because the music school is shut for half term

I still can't get over what a difference it makes now that I have the oboe resting correctly on my thumb. It hasn't become automatic yet and concentrating on my thumb led to a few more wrong notes than usual but my teacher said not to worry about them and that they will sort themselves out once the thumb position has become instinctive which he thinks will be the case after the holidays.

It's always the way when sorting something out that another aspect of playing wants some attention too.

On another note has anyone heard from Andrew? I'm starting to worry about him too

Keri, can I ask how you were holding it previously and what the difference is now?

I *think* I use the rest properly, but my right wrist does get quite tense and starts to ache after 15 mins or so. I'm not sure if that's just because I'm a relatively new starter or if it has something to do with hand/finger position. I will bring it up with my teacher tonight, but would be interested to hear exactly what your experience is....

I'm currently struggling a lot with LH Eb - my fingers just don't bend naturally! LH F is OK, but as soon as the little finger slides to the other banana key the rest of my fingers straighten out and slide right off the keys

Sounds to me that you are saying you slide from LH F to LH Eb. What's wrong with forked F to LH Eb?

Sorry, I'm not making myself clear! The problem is that I can't play left-hand Eb at all - no matter which note I come from! My little finger and ring finger just don't want to bend at the correct angle to allow me to reach all keys and cover the holes.

What I meant was, I can manage to play left-hand F, but not Eb. I have a similar problem with the fingers of my right hand when playing the flute - they want to be poker straight insteaf of lovely and curved

I was holding it like a descant recorder so my thumb was just underneath the thumb rest but wasn't actually touching it. The thumb is now pushing up against the thumb rest (this is how I have to think about it to stop myself from moving my thumb further down but I suppose a more accurate description would be that the oboe is now resting on my thumb due to the weight of gravity). It really has got rid of all pain and tension in my wrist (and has even made things like breathing easier).

As for your left little finger not being bent enough, you should try changing the angle of your left wrist by lifting your elbow up and out slightly more (this is fairly easy to demonstrate, but not easy to put into words) - your teacher ought to be able to help you with this.

For the right hand fingers, the height of the thumbrest plays a role. I have currently got my thumbrest a bit too low which means my fingers are not as curved as they should be. This is, however temporary - my teacher did it to make it harder for me to move my thumb further down the oboe - and I am going to gradually move it back up to where it was over the next couple of weeks. If yours is not adjustable and you want to try it higher you can take it off and put it back on upside down. If you want to try it lower (depending on your hand size you might find lower more comfortable) buy a plastic clarinet thumb cushion - put it on the right way round to make it a little lower and the wrong way round to make it quite a bit lower.

So if you play just a LH Eb (without moving to it from another note), can you get your hand into the right position?

Hello everyone,

my apologies for my absence..I am sorry to say that there has been a lot going on with aging relations and a very seriously ill member of my immediate family.

I got a very nice email from Susan to check I was still in the land of the living which I am happy to report I am but life has overtaken time online..I am thankfully still able to play the Oboe and to be honest it has been something of a relief and an escape..

I will try to be here more regularly and add my thoughts and opinions (whether you want them or not.. )

Thanks for the messages and Susan for her e-mail..

Andrew

Just glad you are well Andrew! Sounds like you are not having an easy time of things. Look after yourself!

Thanks Keri. I think then that my thumb is using the thumb rest properly - maybe there is a height issue though. I was actually going to buy a thumb rest cushion the other day so I shall do that first and see if it helps, and get my teacher's view on it next week.

I have been playing around with my wrist angle to help out LH Eb but so far not much joy. It's my ring and middle finger that seem to be the issue though. My little finger can get to the banana key but the other two imediately straighten out and stop covering the hole. A bit tricky to explain properly!

My teacher has said we can out it on the back-burner for now and that by playing left-hand F more frequently (I tend to use forked most of the time at the moment) my fingers might get used to the positioning and get better at Eb.

Pushpul: No, I can't get a noise out at all, even if I try and play it on its own..!

Anyway, despite this, which is mildly annoying, I am loving my oboe-ing and wish I had made the plunge years ago! I played my first piece with the piano last night which was great, although it definitely highlights all the issues with tone and intonation!

AUK: Glad to see you back and sorry to hear things have been difficult for you. I do hope they improve soon. I have been employing your 'yawn' technique that you advised me on a while back and it's made a huge difference so thank you very much. I just need to remember to keep doing it all the time and not just when I start a piece!

What are you referring to as the "banana key" Isi? It's actually the curved key around the RH 3rd finger C key which doesn't have anything to do with Eb. I'm guessing you are taking about the LH Eb or F key.

I think kerioboe has got something in referring to you elbows. If you drop your elbows in towards your body (a common mistake) your fingers are pulled away from the centre line of the oboe which will make accurate finger placement on the keys difficult.

Another thing. Do you have an open hole or covered hole oboe?

As for the shape of your fingers when playing, have a look at this bloke who knows a thing or two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh96omI0bYE

The videos of the Metamorphoses give a good indication of finger shape. 3 and 4 on the left hand tend to remain pretty straight even with 1 and 2 curved.

I had a very pleasant couple of hours this afternoon playing chamber music with a violinist and a cellist

We met for the first time last week and were all a bit afraid of making mistakes. This week it was much more relaxed and time just flew by. We intend to meet every week and since it's not linked to the music school, it won't stop during the holidays

It's nice to see that the happy band of "windswept and interesting" oboists has swelled again. Welcome back itchy1, and Isi who seems to have been busy off the Forum for a little while. And especially to Andrew - it's a relief to know you're OK, if not in happy circumstances ( ), especially after the awfully sad news about clavicembalo.

I've been off the Forum, too, for a few days. Apologies for not answering questions and comments from folks, especially kerioboe. I'm afraid I'm only going to be a bit sporadically here over the next couple of months because I have a lot of trips coming up (work and family) and probably won't be able to connect that much...


I am going to try this experiment too... there is definitely something not quite right/comfortable about my thumb position and I need to try out different solutions. In an oboe text I recently read, the author suggests that thumbrests are almost invariably uncomfortably placed and that the natural position for the thumb is higher up behind the first finger. When I first concluded this for myself, my teacher said quite the contrary, that he had found moving the thumbrest further down improved finger positions. When I got the XL I tried this and I think he maybe right but I do find the weight rather uncomfortable, even though it's lighter than my old Patricola.

I looked at an adjustable thumbrest in Howarths but I wasn't quite convinced and didn't get it in the end. What do you do about the oboe case with an adjustable thumbrest? I presume you'd need to have it adapted so the oboe would still fit in the case properly.

At my lesson this week (which was, like last week's, very productive and more satisfying than the last couple of months...) we discovered a new problem which must be related to the wrist/thumb positions and tension issues we have been discussing. It turns out that I have been twisting the oboe. At first we thought it was because I had the reed twisted but it seems quite likely that it is the other way round. A bad wrist position and/or tension in the hand is causing me to twist the oboe and in turn the reed, which is being more or less held in position by the embouchure (whoops, that must mean I'm still biting ). As soon as I managed to sustain the right position better I did notice that the sound seemed to improve and the LH E flat was a bit less of a problem. Not quite as stunning results as kerioboe's thumb miracle but at least a step in the right direction.

However, I am still having some LH issues and they sound very like yours, Isi. Except that I have more of a problem with the LH F than the LH E flat. The difficulty with the LH F is in part simply because the key is smaller and further away on the XL than it was on the Patricola and I just have to get used to it and discipline myself not always to resort to the forked F. The rest of the problem seems to be finger shape. The Patricola had covered holes so it was really easy to get away with not having an exactly placed fingers. The guilty fingers are the same as yours, Isi, the middle and ring fingers of the left hand, with the latter being too flat. To check if it's the same try this: play third octave E using the position that requires you use LH E flat and G sharp at the same time. Go up to F (i.e. lift the LH ring finger). Now go back down to E. If you have the same problem of me it will hard getting that ring finger back on the G key.

My problem was worse at first because of a doublejointed ring finger. I found some finger strengthening exercises to help with that but the flat finger issue still remains. My teacher's sometimes looks flatter than the curved shape he insists I use a (a bit like ND in the video pushpull recommended) but the difference is that his is more relaxed and naturally and easily moves back to a curved position and in no way obstructs the movement of the LH little finger. Or vice versa.

Your teacher may be right, Isi, about not having to solve the problem right away but I'd advise you to give it a go. My teacher warned me quite a while back that if I didn't deal with my bad wrist/finger positions I would have serious problems later on. He was right. Since the Patricola didn't force to me to correct them I never really did and I am suffering now with the Howarth XL with its small holes. It's much harder to change the bad habits of two years!

I am making progress with the ring finger but that in itself is causing problems with the LH E flat. The middle finger has got so used to the bad relationship with the tense little finger and flat ring finger that now I am correcting them, it just doesn't want to cover the middle hole properly. When the LH E flat doesn't sound properly, which is usually in the middle rather than low register, it is nearly always because the middle finger (A) hole is slightly uncovered.

But somehow behind all of this I think there is a deeper cause that is the wrist and tension problem, which has also resulted in this twisting thing. All and any tips for helping to cure this (elbow idea duly noted) very gratefully received!

I need to get those Gillet exercises (not very affordable right now, though ). Sounds as though they will be a very good test of progress towards a solution.


I've gone on so long today ( sorry!), I think I will have to hang off on the tips. I think quite a few may be similar to Schuring suggestions but applied rather specifically to the Vivaldi piece (C major - Op.8 No.12 /RV 449) . When I find the time I'd like to scan a bit of the first page so you will be able to see what I mean. For now, here's Paolo Grazzi playing it: Vivaldi RV449. In my edition the oboe doesn't play the intro and the solo starts at 0.51. I'm studying up to about 2.03 at the moment, rather slower. NOT memorised yet but the attempt has greatly helped!


Oboe and cello - heavenly!!!!

I ordered two reeds from Howarth on Wednesday night at 23:00, got an e-mail on Thursday morning to say they'd been despatched and then I received them this morning. Compare that to the entire MONTH that I waited on reeds from Fortay! I think I know where I'll be purchasing my reeds from now on...

The two that I ordered were a Wiggins professional reed and a Ke-Xun Ge professional reed to try. My new teacher recommended these, so I guess we'll see! She's also going to give me reed-making lessons, so I'll hopefully improve in that department.

I'll be interested to hear how they compare. I've been using Fortay for quite some time now and whilst I agree they take their time delivering, I will forgive them that for making such nice reeds.

Are you sure the thumbrest on your XL isn't adjustable? Mine came with an adjustable thumbrest so I don't see why yours wouldn't have. You do need a screwdriver to adjust it (and mine came with a screw-driver in the case) - you just loosen the screw at the back, slide the rest up or down and then tighten it.

As for the height, it does depend on hand size, I have fairly small hands and counter-intuitively (now that I am holding it properly) find it easier to curve my fingers and reach all the keys with the thumbrest in a slightly higher position than how it was when it came.

And for the case, since the XL came with the thumbrest it fits, with the Marigaux, I cut a tiny piece (about 2mm) out of the case so that the adjustable thumb-rest would fit.


My Marigaux had holes in the keys like the XL but it didn't have a left-hand F and the LH E flat is in a different position on the XL which took me some time to get used to. My teacher pointed out that on the XL the gap between the G# key and the Eb key is quite big - bigger than on his Buffet Greenline which does make it slightly harder. Apparently it is possible (but not particularly cheap) to have the key lengthened - I decided I would just get used to it.


I also made the same observation about my teacher and have found that consciously thinking about the ring finger position has helped. I did lots of alternating 3rd octave E/F concentrating on my ring finger position. And do experiment with your wrist position. Imagine you are lengthening your hand from the base and the wrist bones, rather than simply thinking of stretching your little finger.

If you have access to a piano play five consecutive notes (one for each finger) with a rounded hand and curved fingers and then while holding the other four fingers notes down, play the ring finger note repeatedly. I suppose you could just do this on a table but if you have a piano, the sound you hear helps you know if you are doing it properly.

Ring fingers are lacking something vital (a ligament I think) to move by themselves, which means they need the middle fingers help to do anything (and not the little finger as we tend to assume. If you want to prove it to yourself, put your hand palm down on the table and tuck your middle finger under the palm of your hand. Now try and lift your other fingers individually. You will find you can move them all except the ring finger. If you do the same thing tucking your little finger under instead of your middle finger you will be able to move the ring finger a little (although not as much as the others).


Gillet is ridiculously expensive. And you really could write them out for yourself. For the left F play repeated groups of D,F,E,F, then Db,F,E,F and then Eb,F,E,F (do this in the 1st and 2nd octave).

I'll post left-hand Eb tomorrow because it's a bit more complicated and I need to check in the book.


I used to like Fortay but have "grown out of" them. I become fond of Ke-Xun Ge reeds last year and have just discovered Wiggins. Both offer more resistance than the Fortay reeds and (for me anyway) have a fuller tone and a greater dynamic chage.

The Ke-Xun Ge reeds are the first reeds I have had that have actually needed to be blown in - they change quite considerably as you play on them. The "easy" reed I use for long orchestra rehearsals is a Ke-Xun Ge which is a couple of months old. They don't go sharp as they get older (which is what I found with Fortay reeds).

I haven't had the Wiggins for long enough to really judge - it didn't need blowing in and hasn't changed noticeably since I've had it (I've been rotating it with a couple of other reeds for the past month).

I would be wary of just judging on one reed though. I came across Wiggins reeds when I had my cor serviced over the summer and the repairer suggested I try a Wiggins reed. The first one I tried I didn't like at all but he suggested I tried another which I did like. In the end I tried about 10 Wiggins cor reeds and picked the three I liked best. Unfortunately I didn't have my oboe with me so I just bought one oboe reed without trying it. Similarly, over the space of a year I have bought five Ke-Xun Ge reeds and one of them has never played satisfactorily. If this was the first one I had had, I would never have bought another.

I'll definitely post on here and let you know once I've played them enough to know! Fortay's reeds are quite nice and if that's what you want to use then you might want to try ordering the Fortay reeds directly from Howarth? They do sell them, I believe!


Yes, that's what my teacher was saying. She says a lot of people tend to use Fortay as a sort of transition reed, but that the Ke-Xun Ge and Wiggins are more appropriate when you get to a higher level.


How did you try them all? Was this at a playday stall or something?

Yes it does have an adjustable thumbrest. I obviously misunderstood and thought your clari attachment might have been something more along the lines of the even more flexible Kooiman thumbrest that Howarth sells: http://www.howarth.uk.com/pic.aspx?pic=./w...g&pid=34951 **
With that fixed to the oboe, it definitely wouldn't fit in the case.

Thank you so much for all the explanations and suggestions!!!! I will definitely be trying these out over the next week. I won't have a class because I'll be travelling but I fully intend to take the oboe with me... we'll see if I'm doing better by my next lesson.

I've also decided that's just better to get used to the new key positions and sizes. Actually, I think I already like the slightly bigger distance between the G# key and the Eb key better on the XL than on the Patricola.

Having said that, I am wondering about asking Howarth to lift/angle very slightly the half hole pad - not sure what it's called in English but that little extension below the B (1st LH) key. There's probably a good reason why it's flatter on the XL - maybe angled ones are really designed to help students - but I think I would prefer to feel my finger rolling on to it a bit more.

Absolutely zero progress on the reedmaking front. No time!

** PS I tried to include an image here, following the instructions that Car Expert gives in the FAQ thread but I can't get it to work. Does anyone know how to post images/photos?

Ah but they charge more for them. I make sure I order new reeds well before I need them so I don't have a problem with the lead time.

I shall take a look at the Howarth stand at the RNCM next weekend.

When I first got onto Fortay it was at a playday (Howarths sent me to see them). Lara picked out about half a dozen for me to try which I whittled down to 3 to take. The differences are quite small and reeds do change with playing of course, so the first impressions of a reed are not really indicative of what it's going to be like in the long run. In my latest batch from Fortay, I had the first ever which I thought wasn't going to be up to their usual standard. I played it a couple of times and left it in the reed box for a while. When I came to play it again after a couple of weeks it was no different to all the others.

It was in Crowther's oboe shop in Canterbury - they just gave them all to me and let me try them. You can do the same in Howarths if you actually go to the shop in London.


My teacher has this systematically rasied on his oboes - probably more so than on the student oboes. I don't like it all - he asked me if I wanted to buy his previous oboe when he was selling it - and he did say he could have the process reversed if I did want to buy the oboe (but I had already set my heart on an XL). A rather long-winded way of saying that I don't think it has anything to do with your level and it is just a personal preference

Aaah do they? I see. I suppose that would make sense, since they have to split the price between Howarth and Fortay.


I've noticed that with reeds too actually. I don't know how it works, but sometimes I'll play a reed one day, dislike it, leave it in my reed box and then come to it a few weeks later and find that it sounds better


Well I'm going to London for the first time on 4th November, so I might try and find Howarth if I have time! And if I can find it too!

If you are going to the RNCM next weekend, Howarth should have a bucketload of reeds on their stand.

BTW - do you reckon Alonso will have a good day tomorrow?

Reeds are effected by the weather (humidity levels in particular) - I don't know where your French family live but if they live in the south and you take your oboe when you go and see them you'll probably find that none of your reeds work properly there.

I didn't read properly what Pushpull said earlier about first impressions not being indicative of what they are going to be like in the long-run but this is no longer my experience. I might want to "tweak" a few things but I do know right from the first blow whether the reed is going to be a good one or not. (Good as in neither too hard nor too easy, stable intontation, ease of tonguing and dynamic possibilities. Exceptional reeds are much harder to spot). This applies to both bought reeds and ones I make myself.


It's about a five minute walk from Baker Street Tube Station and well worth a visit. But beware the visit is likely to be expensive

I don't know how much time you have but there is a second-hand bookshop about 15 minutes walk in the other direction which has a basement full of sheet music. The music is just in cardboard boxes (but sorted according to instrument) so you have to rifle through them which takes quite some time but it is very cheap - I found a second hand book of Gillet studies for a couple of pounds in there (it's one of those books that is worth almost ?50 new). If you're interested I'll see if I can remember the exact name and address for you.

I'm still not sure if I'll be able to make next weekend! If I can, I'll be sure to stop by Howarth's stand.

Also, the Alonso in my signature isn't referring to Fernando It's a Doctor Who reference, because I'm dorky that way...


My family live in Vend?e. I bet that's annoying for oboists living in the south!


We're only there for two days, but I am going with two other musicians so I might see if I can convince them to go into the bookshop with me! And yes, I realise that I will probably spend too much money in Howarth But I won't get going there often so I may as well make the most of it!

Ah but you're more experienced than me.


Dorky in that way too?

Why of course

I live a bit further south than that
My teacher said that when he was a student in Paris he managed to get work at the same time depping in two orchestras, one in Lille and one in Marseille. He said he ended up making three different sets of reeds, one for each orchestra and one for his lessons in Paris.


The bookshop is:
Archive Bookstore
83 Bell Street

The nearest tube station is Marylebone Road but you can walk from Howarths to the bookshop. The basement really is crammed with music, with three of you in there, you will barely have room to move. You have to shift the cardboard boxes around as they are stacked one on top of each other.

well I am sorry to break the trend but I am not remotely Dorky... Not in the least..

Glad to see you back Andrew!

It's amazing how even a slight change in conditions can really affect your instrument. Having different sets of reeds actually isn't a bad idea, though it's probably easier to adjust them if you make them yourself. I take it that's what he did? Luckily, it isn't something that you would need to do much in the UK!


I'm sure we'll manage! I really hope we manage to get there during our visit. Thanks so much for telling me about it!


I'm sure you aren't, Andrew [pushpull already commented that ALL oboists are dorky ]

Ha. Says you!!


I have a friend in the States who says one of the big isues over there with the huge variations in climatic conditions is making reeds to suit different cities.

That's true. I guess we're lucky the UK's so small in comparison!

An interesting "masterclass" for the Youtube symphony orchestra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EIgJvYx4AE&sns=em

That was pretty good - thanks for sharing! Though did you notice how his head moved a lot when the camera viewed him from the side? It looked like it was part of his vibrato technique. I've never seen that before.

I hadn't initially spotted it but I read it in the comments to the video. It does look odd but I'm reluctant to think it is to do with vibrato.

It just looked like it seemed to coincide with the longer notes, where he used most of his vibrato I'm probably wrong though!

So how do you find the Ke-Xun Ge reeds Stephie? I bought a couple from Howarth at the RNCM weekend and I'm very impressed. There are two issues however.

1. I had to try quite a few to find 2. Now I know reeds vary but some of them were simply unplayable. That would make me cautious about ordering them mail order without playing them (something which has never been an issue with Fortay).

2. I haven't got a clue what I've got!! The chap behind the stand asked his colleague what these reeds were and he said "Chinese Brown". Makes sense - they have a brown binding. Looking on Howarth's website after getting home, I can see only Black and Silver and what's more Ke-Xun Ge's website is the same - with the added complication of being able to specify the strength, type of scrape, shape, etc.

Ah well, long email to Howarth for clarification I guess. But I am concerned about future mail order (unseen, unplayed). Anyone have any experience of Ke-Xun Ge by mail order?


The ones I have just bought play generally a bit flatter than the Fortays I'm used to. I have to push harder for the top notes now, but at least they don't fly away. Without measuring them I think they have a slightly broader tip and bigger opening than the Fortays so I think that makes sense. Nice to hear they don't go sharp with age. Do you know what type yours are kerioboe?

We had a couple of the Ke-Xun Ge reeds, the silver thread as far as I can remember, they didn't last long. At the moment the preferred option is Wiggins. Wishes we could return to Fortay but the M/H are too soft and H to hard.

All my Ke-Xun Ge have been mail order from Howarth and the ones I use are the black thread professional ones.

I'm trying to remember if I've had five or six. Of these one has been disappointing. It plays in tune and is no harder than the others but it is virtually impossible to get any sort of dynamics out of it. I've tried scraping it a bit but it hasn't made any difference and I can't visually see what is wrong with it. I suppose I could ask my teacher to have a look at it for me but since September I have been successfully adjusting my own reeds and have enjoyed having lessons entirely devoted to playing. I am a bit reluctant to spend lesson time fiddling with a reed which may never be much good. Maybe I'll take it along one week when I haven't had time for much practice

As I said in an earlier post, they do change as you play them and become more free-blowing. Unlike Notmusimum, I have found them to be very long lasting (more so than the Fortays)




I haven't measured them either to compare them but I think the Ke Gun Xe reeds have a more marked hump behind the tip and a more marked spine than the Fortay reeds.

Sorry for the confusion I meant Emsoboe didn't get on with them so chose not to play them after a short while. I can't comment on whether they have staying power or not. They were the silver rather than the black thread ones which we keep meaning ot try.

OK teacher has seen said reeds now and says the binding is black (this colour thing seems to be an issue with me!). So why did "the man from Howarth" he say brown?

No idea
Do you think they are more brown than black? My "black" ones are dark rather than a bright black (if that's not a contradiction in terms) and in poor light I suppose they could be any dark colour. Since I bought them as "black" reeds I hadn't really thought much about how black they are.

What did your teacher think of them? One of the tutors on a course I went over the summer (who plays full time in a professional orchestra) thought they were much too hard (when he tried my oboe with the reed in he could only get a note out with difficulty). My French teacher said he can see why I like them but thinks they don't have enough resistance and encourages me to alternate them with something harder.

Hmm. Dark black. I'll have to think about that one. Being "shrink wrapped" makes it a bit difficult to tell. But I guess they are black.

I didn't tell teacher until the end of the lesson but she seemed pleasantly surprised at the tone I had today and the way I attacked the top notes (with these I seem to be able to really push the upper notes without them going really sharp). She had earlier spotted a couple of times when slurring up to the 2nd octave there was a hint of the 1st octave note speaking before the correct one came out. Having been told about the new reed she reckoned that made sense and I just needed to be aware that more support was needed.

Opinions on how reeds should be vary hugely don't they? Last week in a workshop a (highly regarded, certainly in my book) professional suggested we should play on the lightest reed possible. But what does that mean? These new ones seem "more resistant" than my old ones but I'm not sure that equates to harder. It does mean I can really lean on those top notes (possibly for the first time) but if I don't rigorously maintain support the bottom notes can go very flat. It could be that in reality, this is my "lightest reed possible" in terms of achieving good intonation and dynamics. I reckon once I get better and have more subtlety in my control of the reed, I might actually be able to manage a lighter reed, but just now I need something to push against. I do, actually, quite like the physicality.

I think you raise several interesting issues here.

First there is the question of vocabulary. How do you describe something which is to do with both a physical sensation and an audible sound? As you say is "harder" the same thing as "more resistant"? I am perhaps particularly sensitive to this as I have to do it in two different languages

Then there is the question of the "ideal" reed. My favourite definition of an ideal reed is one that enables you to obtain the sound you want with the least effort. And, as you say, having something to push against is often less tiring than having to hold back air, particularly when the oboe uses up so little air anyway.

Since my daughter has taken up the oboe I have, on occasion, tried out her very easy reeds. Not only do they lack the dark overtones that I like in my own reeds (so I'm not overkeen on the sound) but they use up so little breath that if I'm not careful I can make myself light-headed because I can't get rid of all the stale air in a 'normal' quick breath.

On the other hand they have a very forgiving scrape and I have taken to adjusting for her the reeds that I have made that haven't quite turned out the way I intended The thing she cares about most is the colour of the binding!

I can't decide whether this is consoling (even professionals have difficulty producing notes sometimes) or concerning (it's never going to get easy)!

I find these reed discussions really fascinating but also frustrating. I wish we could just get together to see and try out each other's reeds to get more of a feel of what we're really talking about. It might help us resolve the semantics too. By the way, pushpull, what is a "light" reed? Is it the same as kerioboe's ideal reed that produces the right sound with the least effort?

I myself am not quite sure either that 'hard' and 'resistant' are quite the same thing.

I wonder how you folk would find my reeds? I have a delicious one at the moment, made with Roseau Chantant cane and one of those newfangled Winfield metal staples (this one is nickel but I think I like brass better). It produces a nice closed (focused?), darkish, resonant sound. Except when I'm biting (all too often unfortunately ). Knowing my luck it will die soon. I try not to think about what I would do for reeds if I returned to the UK or my teacher disappeared off the scene - it makes me hyper-anxious imagining such a horrible scenario. Sometimes I can hardly explain what I think might be wrong with a reed (and even unsure if it's more me than the reed that is the problem) but my teacher seems to understand whatever I mean / is needed and with a few knife strokes hey presto all is resolved. Whatever would I do without him? I know the best solution is to learn myself but I never seem to want to sacrifice precious lesson or practice time to reedmaking.

Off to Bolivia at the weekend. On Monday (my birthday!) I shall be travelling to one of the World Heritage villages out in the old Jesuit/Franciscan Mission region where they hold quite a famous baroque and renaissance festival every couple of years. I plan to do something absolutely corny - take my oboe with me and play Gabriel's Oboe in situ (more or less). For those who don't know it (unlikely, I imagine), this is a pseudo baroque oboe solo written by Ennio Morricone for the film The Mission.

I'm sure that's letting down you more serious, intellectual oboists but I just can't resist...

Emsoboes teacher often adjusts her reeds to take off the harsh edges. I'd guess this refers more to how the reed sounds rather than strength.

Yes I think that was the basis of my question "what IS the lightest reed possible?" Of course at a professional level that will depend on things other than ones ability. What repertoire (Bach or Berio? Handel or Holliger?). Where are you performing - recital room or concert hall? Are you playing chamber music or orchestral? At least I don't have to think about that stuff.

I have seen photos of a Facebook friend of a Facebook friend whose bindings match her concert dress (whatever that might be)

I find it consoling - it shows their "human"
What I find depressing is the rapidity with which professionals can adjust to the situation. For example, on occasions my teacher makes a mistake in a piece I have brought in that he doesn't know but he only makes the mistake once and then plays it perfectly whereas I can have spent weeks practising it and it's still not right


My teacher has always made a point of making me say precisely what I don't like about a reed before he will do anything to it. (On the days when my brain is not functionning in French he will reforumlate my gibberish into something corrrect). He would always check my judgement before scraping and correct it if necessary. He also always says because X is wrong I'm going to do Y. Eventually this has meant that I am fairly confident about what I ought to be doing even if I would rather he did it because he never slips with the knife takes the ears off by mistake


I hope you enjoy Bolivia. And I will think of you playing in a forest


Could be either really. You can adjust not just for tone and amount of breath pressure needed but also for responsiveness (dynamics), ease of detached notes...


I still don't like the term "light" though.



We have major drama before concerts when she insists that she should be playing on the prettiest reed rather than the reed which plays the best .
Our teacher is a lot more patient about it than I am about it. He said that all his little girl pupils are like that and that they grow out of it.