It was one of the (many) passages that has sextuplets with one low note tongued and five adjacent high notes slurred together (eg DBCDCB, DABCBA etc.). Instinctivly I wanted to crescendo up to the highest note and then do a diminuendo for the two remaining ones. My teacher wanted me to do it the other way round with the highest note being the quietest and with a crescendo down to the low note. He assured me that if I did it properly, it would give just the right amount of prominence to the low note without making it squeak, honk or not come out at all. For the brief moment when it sounded like Vivaldi, the low note was bouncing along with the high notes floating over the top (if that makes sense).

In technical terms it is all to do with managing the air-stream correctly. At the moment I feel that if (and it is a big if) I manage to master these passages satisfactorily then I will have made a huge leap forward.


My teacher has never asked me to memorise anything (although occaisonally he will ask me to play a couple of bars with my eyes shut so I can concentrate on the physical sensation) but he knows this piece from memory and in my lesson was walking round the room playing bits with me from time to time. I thought perhaps memorising it would mean my fingers would know exactly where they're supposed to be going and I could just concentrate on the air-stream.

Listening to Albrecht Mayer playing "kerioboe's" Vivaldi...

Those sextuplets are truly

I have some in mine but not quite so many and not quite so awful (I hope!). I'm not there yet... my teacher says they're not as bad as they look. Says he!

This is how I'm currently feeling about them and I have my lesson tomorrow
Not helped by my daughter (the oboe-playing one) saying to me on Sunday when I was practising: "Doesn't X (our teacher) ever tell you you're hopeless?"

I hope daughter was duly ignored and the lesson is great!


No oboe practice again today . My two remaining reeds are almost completely dead. I don't think I've ever had such blown-out reeds.

I spoke to my oboe teacher today but I don't think he's quite back on this planet yet. I don't think I should get my new reed hopes up until he is properly back from holiday. Unfortunately I have a work trip and workshop so I'll miss the first two weeks when music classes (and wind band ) re-open in Feb. More

My part-time flatmate has re-emerged for a week-long summer wind band course. We pulled out the Vanhal Sonata Duet again and it was absolutely DREADFUL. The worst we've ever played and it's not as if it's difficult.

He very kindly declared that the Telemann G minor sonata (the one pushpull and I probably bored you about) is sounding pretty good. Let's hope my teacher (a) agrees to put it on the menu and (b) ... agrees with my flatmate!

Daughter was ignored but my lesson was not brilliant. He said that the 2nd movement was too slow since it is marked larghetto and not largo. I objected that if I played it at the speed he wanted (which, when he insisted, I discovered I could actually do) it was then about the same speed as the first movment and there was no contrast between the two. His answer to that was that you get contrast by playing the fast movements faster, not by playing the slow movements slower

Fortunately we didn't look at the first movement but at the end of the lesson he decided we could make a start on the 3rd movement, which is a minuet. This starts off with a nice sprightly little tune in 3/8 with the feel of one in a bar. This bit is well within my ability but then you turn the page...
and discover semi-quaver triplets and demi-semi quavers. I told him there was no way I could play these at the speed he wanted me to play the opening tune and all he said was "I'm not expecting you to sight read them at that speed. It just takes a little practice. It'll be fine by next week - we'll start with this bit next week"


Have you tried Wiggins reeds? (Howarths sell them). They are expensive but I currently like them and they play "straight from the box". They are a bit more resistant than the Fortay reeds but not as resistant as the Ke Xun. Or you could try looking on the Oboe BBoard - there are loads of recommendations on there for American reed-makers.

Is your flat-mate any good at making/scraping reeds? If you're desperate (and you're just playing by yourself and it doesn't matter if you have a slightly sharp reed), you can cut a couple of mm off the tip and rescrape the tip. This will prolong its life by a week or so. (Although having written this I've just remembered that I think you use American scrape reeds and I'm not sure it works for them).


I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that he likes it
How long have you still got to wait for your first lesson?

More
I think your teacher sounds like he's a close relation of mine!


Thanks for reed tips. I'm a bit cautious about buying British style reeds, even though I have - according to me - been able to play OK with them. The first time I bought reeds in the UK my teacher announced we had to begin all over again with the embouchure and banned the reeds (destroyed them, in fact). That was in the very early days, though.

My sister sent me a reed that I suspect she bought in Banks in York and it looks as though - possibly accidentally - she picked an "American Scrape". It looks rather weird to me, though. The scrape is really long, almost down to the thread. This makes me suspect the style here may no longer be totally classic American as the scrape is shorter than that. I got a look at one of Gordon Hunt's reeds once and it was not dissimilar to my teachers' - he seems to have come up with a sort of hybrid scrape.

Whatever the case, the recipe for rescuing old reeds is the same. These ones have already undergone adjustments so I think they really are moribund. One of them is ULTRA soft now. The only good thing about it is it requires absolutely no biting, my eternal bad habit. I think I will have to resort to my sister's mysterious reed even though it looks (and sounds) suspiciously as though it's a possibly-hand-finished machine made affair.

My understanding is that the American scrape is much longer than "British". This diagram, for instance:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~schuring/Oboe/diagram.html
shows the scrape starts 50 mm from the back of the staple. On mine the scrape starts at 60mm.

I found some old, clapped out reeds useful for that too. I don't seem to go rocketing into the stratosphere quite so badly now.

My adventures into reed making continue. I have to try to curb my enthusiasm with the knife as my tips are ending up much too long at the moment. I also seem to be producing reeds which work best on cold, clear days which is not ideal for Manchester! I need to put in an order for some more cane and I'd better get 2 or 3 new "made" reeds. I think I'm likely to go back to Fortay as although I liked one of the KG reeds I bought recently, they don't seem terribly consistent. Maybe I should have a go at a Wiggins.

Perhaps closer than I thought I think I'm going to have to go back on saying that he lets me play things slowly first - the last two lessons he has played alongside me so that I can't slow down (And then says "what are you doing?" when I make a complete mess of things ).

I *think* it is an attempt to force me to use more air and to play more exuberantly -whatever it is, it has taken me way out of my comfort zone.


My teacher was very disapproving of the first English reed I took into a lesson - a bit like yours he complained that it would ruin my technique (not the embouchure but the amount of abdominal support and air pressure). Although unlike yours, after hearing me play on it, he did grudgingly admit that it suited my playing style and said it was all right as long as I alternated with a "proper" reed. However, when I asked him to scrape me one the same the result was very disappointing and barely playable. He claimed that it was because the gouge was too different but (although I know the gouge does make a difference) I can't help thinking that he didn't try that hard because he didn't really want me playing on them.

After I went on my first summer course I came back with a reed made by the oboe tutor which I loved, again my teacher was initially disapproving but as soon as I started playing on it he was impressed by how much progress I'd made so he wasn't quite as dismissive as he had been the first time and helped me scrape a compromise between his reeds and my "English" reed.

This year he has more or less left me to my own devices as far as reeds are concerned - he will adjust them if I ask and he does try them occasionally when he can't decide if a particular problem is me or the reed but as it is invariably the reed he doesn't make too much fuss about what I am playing on, although he periodically says that it's just a stage I'm going through and that I will eventually grow out of it and move on to what he deems to be "proper" reeds (makes me sound like I'm going through a second childhood ). Just before Christmas he gave me a "present" of two of his reeds to encourage me to play on something a bit harder and I did find them nicer than I had a year ago...

Anyway, all that to say that I think I would take your teacher's opinion with a pinch of salt - particularly if you haven't got any workable reeds (I bought my first English reed because he was sick the week before Christmas and I had no workable reed to play at the Leeds concert). I don't think it will "wreck" your embouchure - it might just make you think about what you are doing which is never a bad thing, in my opinion (although my teacher does sometimes say I think too much ).


You could try leaving it in water overnight to harden it up a bit (as long as it's not ultra soft because it's gone mouldy, in which case it will rot completely).

I was struggling a bit with reeds tonight too. The most recent reed that I bought from my teacher was absolutely gorgeous a couple of weeks ago but seems to be on the wane now. I may have a play around with some old ones tomorrow.

How are your Vivaldi's going? I am still working on the Marcello which isn't going too badly though apparently it is still quite wooden.. What I am doing in my head doesn't seem to be translating to reality still.

I'm also doing the 1st movement of the Saint Saens and the two demi semi quaver runs are causing me to tear my hair out. My fingers just don't work that quickly, it sounds horrible at speed. I am trying to speed them up very gradually but at the moment I lack faith that it is ever going to get there. I think i am now moving into the territory of things that I never managed to get close to mastering on the flute and was always a bit ropey at on the piano so part of me thinks it is something that I "can't" do. Any tips for how to practice speeding up and getting fingers to work smoothly? Or is it just a case of edging up the metronome bit by bit?

My Vivaldi (as you may have gathered) is making me feel utterly hopeless .


I have this problem a lot too - I think you have to really exaggerate everything.


I did eventually manage to play them properly but I didn't do it by gradually notching up the metronome. My teacher got me to play them in lots of different ways: with a dotted rhythm and an inverted dotted rhythm, slurring two together, the first note really short and the second one long and the second note then becoming the first note of the next pair (so D-E, E-F#, F#-F etc.), then the same thing with three notes, with the first two fast (D-E-F#, E-F#-G etc.), starting at the end and adding one extra note each time (CD, BCD, ABCD etc.) After several weeks of doing this daily, they did improve I think what is particularly tricky with this particular run is the fact that you want to put a C# in and turn it into a D major scale. After the hours I'd spent training myself out of playing a C#, I was appalled to discover, when I eventually got to the third movement ,that the same run turns up again but with a C# in it


I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that self-confidence plays a big role. The Vivaldi has some incredibly fast runs - my teacher said you need to think "whoosh" rather than individual notes and to trust your fingers. Occasionally (maybe one in twenty attempts) I can play them the way they are supposed to sound and it has always been when I've just taken a breath and blown without thinking. Most of the time I can't switch off the bit of my brain that says "you can't do this"

oh dear. Hope things come together on it soon,sounds like you are making some progress though.

Yes, I am coming to that conclusion too. I think i need to record myself, maybe, to help me listen to what I am actually playing rather than what I think I am playing.

Thanks, I will give that a go and see how I get on.

I think it does, often I play better when I am not thinking about it. But in this case I think it does feel like my fingers really don't work that quickly!

My teacher assures me that fingers not working fast enough is really due to a lack of breath. I know it sounds ridiculous but there does seem to be a link (or at least there is for me). Because I'm apprehensive I hold back air creating tension which means my fingers can't move freely. It is, however, incredibly hard to just "let go."

He also tells me at the moment to bang my fingers down on the keys to create muscle memory (as I posted a while ago, he thinks my fingers are too close to the keys ). He also quoted one of the well-known French oboists (although I've forgotten which one) who apparently used to practise fast passages on planes going from one concert to another by using a pencil as an oboe and banging his fingers up and down on that

All mine seemed rather fluffy yesterday (bought and made ones). But of course as we all know, making reeds is easy. I'll have a dozen new, perfect ones ready by teatime

Part of last night's lesson included an "exchange of views" regarding swinging the quavers in the Teleman Dresden Sonata. The jury is out.

I think there's a lot in that. I was contemplating the finger speed issue the other day and it occurs to me that your fingers move just quickly if you are playing slow or fast. What I mean is that changing cleanly between notes requires you to move your fingers accurately and quickly. If you are playing slowly, the only difference is the gaps between movements are longer. The difficulty of playing fast passages is more to do with tension than the inability to move your fingers fast enough. That might be down to breath control (which we all know ratchets up the tension very quickly) or simply the mental block of thinking "I can't play that quickly".

Well, that's this week's theory.

This is going to be a pretty useless post, but I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying reading everyone's trials and tribulations, successes and discoveries, tips and techniques....

It's very inspiring to hear about all these lovely pieces, and follow people's progress. Makes me think "I'd love to be able to play that one day, and discuss it like a proper oboist"

Good luck to you all in your current endeavours. I'm sure I will be reading about how you have got to grips with them very soon!

hi everyone (: havn't posted here in aaaagggges




I think with playing fast bits, you need to be relaxed and know exactly what's next.

I've often wondered what you were up to? Is Chet's living up to your expectations? And what are your plans for next year.
I'm sure your oboe playing must be miles ahead of everyone else's by now

Chets is going really well thanks. I'm going to RCM from september
I don't know about being miles ahead lol

But you are doing really well, lizbun Good to see you posting again, and well done on getting to the RCM!

Hi Liz good to hear from you again. I was wondering if you were doing the conservatoire auditions. My daughter got into RCM too and is going in September. Have you applied for a room at College hall Ravenscourt Park? It's my son you know more about though, because of his oboe exploits! He's playing in the Oxford Uni orchestra - I think they are doing Sibelius 5 this semester.

Sara

Lizbun. Fancy seeing you around here. Nice to hear from you. You must be pretty far ahead if you're going to RCM. Well done.

Many congratulations from me too!

Isi, lizbun - great to see you back here! Huge congratulations on the RCM lizbun. Please don't abandon us lowlier oboe folks and let us know how you get on there.

As for other absent Forum oboists, anyone heard from Andrew?


I got out the ruler... the funny reed my sister sent is indeed 50mm to the scrape. An ancient British one a friend gave me is well over 60mm. My teachers' are 54mm so we do indeed seem to be using an intermediate sort of scrape, though the style (W, with windows and all) is nearer to the American ones.

I am umming and erring about taking reedmaking equipment on my upcoming trip. I just bought some sharpening rods as I was not doing well with the sharpening stone but so far have only been practicing with kitchen knives so I don't ruin my reed knife.


Thanks ... will try that! Oddly, one of the reeds didn't sound so bad yesterday. Maybe the drier, cooler, breezier weather hardened it up a bit.


My teacher gave me a while back a set of rhythmic variations to apply to difficult fast runs and also playing around with different articulation but I don't think I've tried this combo... It sounds complicated. I'm tempted to write out the offending passages in these variations as a sort of techhnical study but I suppose having them written down would partly defeat the object of the exercise.

Good luck with the Saint Saens, flobiano. I look forward to hearing more about how you overcome the challenges - I'd so like to get my teeth into it myself but I fear that time may still be quite a way off.


Right! Just the job for three plane journeys on Monday - whoever sits next to me is going to think I'm mad!


And???
What were the arguments on either side? Who voted for which?


What do you mean "not a proper oboist", Isi? I'm sure that's not true ...or neither am I! Doesn't stop me pontificating here about what I think I know or want to know about playing a piece... Just join in!
You can start your own conversations on whatever you're struggling with. Maybe someone will have a copy of it and get it out to join in or help out...

I sat in on daughter's Oboe lesson today and after months of frustration she was playing really well. Can't tell you how pleased I am for her. She had a lot of technical issues to sort out, the transformation isn't complete but they are now working more on interpretation. I'm really excited by her progress

I was beginning to think Sax had taken over for ever

I'll measure mine tomorrow (I've had an all day orchestral rehearsal today and can't be bothered going back downstairs to get them out). At a rough guess I would have said that mine would also be around 60 mm. The thread comes up to 47mm (the overall length is 74mm when I tie them on) and I think there is well over 10mm from where the thread ends to where the scraping starts.


You could just take equipment to tie them on with and come back with a whole stock ready to experiment on
I always chicken out of sharpening my own knife and ask my teacher to do it for me


I don't think it matters if you write them down - I think it's just the repetition of the movement which helps and stopping the correct fingers in a precise place so whether you do it from memory or from music shouldn't make much difference.



I have contemplated doing this on my train to work but have always been a bit worried about what others might think and so stick to using the pen for marking.


Glad to hear oboe is making a come back

I have been wondering the same thing.

Do you know if a steel is ever used to sharpen reed knives? I would have thought not. Reed knives are scrapers not cutters or slicers. They are sharpened flat on a stone to produce a burr. You won't get that with a steel and I'm inclined to think it would be a quick way to ruin your knife.


Well, I mentioned to teacher what I had heard and then demonstrated. I think it's fair to say she winced. So I played the SF recording. She didn't appear any more impressed

She is far too open minded to say "you must play it this way" and will let me do my own thing, but she is far from convinced that it has any merit played "inegale". Of course she knows far more than I do about the oboe and its music, plus she has studied baroque oboe and knows a thing or two.

Anyhow, I did some browsing online. To summarise what I found:
Inegale was a French style.
It would be wrong however to suggest it wasn't used by German composers. It was - especially if writing "in the French style".
This whole area has apparently been debated by musicologists for ages and no-one has reached a conclusion.

I have found manuscripts on line of the Dresden sonata and the 12 Fantasien. These were written fairly closely together. In the fantasies, 6/8 movements have crotchet/quaver patterns which suggests to me that Telemann would have written the Dresden sonata this way if that is what he wanted the performer to do. Of course that one piece of evidence is hardly definitive, but it tends to make me think twice about the SF approach. What I now want is to hear some other players interpretations.

Me too. See above.

I'd just come to this conclusion myself I was a bit worried anyway about losing my reedknife from my luggage (my luggage has either been raided or not arrived on a few trips recently).


congrats to emsoboe!


Steel rods appear to be - precisely for the burr stage according to Edward Flower's contribution to this thread on the IDRS Forum
I have the DiamondVee rods and some ceramic rods but not the steel ones for stage three. My teacher just uses ceramic rods, I think.

That's an interesting debate about the Telemann. I tried it as written before I heard SF's interpretation and couldn't get it to flow properly. Then when I heard her it all made sense. So, no intellectual analysis at all, just pure subjective taste. More than two weeks for my first lesson to find out what my teacher thinks...

Well well. Very interesting. I would have thought that would have been precisely the wrong way to create a burr, but if it works.......
I have to say it sounds likely to be more difficult to create a good even burr than holding the knife flat on a stone, but I'm assuming a single bevel knife. Perhaps these people are talking about hollow ground knives.

STOP PRESS. Mrs. Pushpull tells me she used diamond rods to create the burr on scrapers for guitar making. So that's me told.

Oh I've been playing today on my best home made reed to date. I'd better make a copy of it quick, while it's still pristine.

I'll be interested to hear what he thinks. Don't give him any clues though - surprise him.

Mine's a double hollow ground.

That explains everything I use Gregson single bevel knives (so just holding them flat whilst dragging across a stone is fairly straightforward - well easier than playing oboe anyhow).

I urgently need any help you wonderful oboists have to offer.

I am composing a piece of music that involves a lot of quarter tones. As a flautist I have had plenty of example material to examine for this. I would really love to put an oboe into my ensemble, but I don't have a clue about these things- can you even get them on an oboe? If so, can anyone suggest any music for me to go and have a look at? Mainly I am looking at fingerings for quarter sharps/flats for scoring purposes.

Thank you!

You probably need an expert on contemporary music for this. You could try sending an email to Paul Goodey at the RNCM, he might be able to help.

Take a look at Christopher Redgate's website

http://www.21stcenturyoboe.com/index.php

Lots of good stuff there on "extended" techniques.

There is also a book by Libby van Cleve called Oboe Unbound. There are 3 sample chapters available online including Chapter 2 which describes many monophonic techniques including microtones.

http://www.scarecrowpress.com/Catalog/Sing...data=0810850311

I told my teacher in my lesson this morning that the Vivaldi made me feel totally useless and he replied cheerfully that he knew it would and that was why he'd given it to me He went on to say that it was not technically difficult but that it's a piece that can't be played timidly and that playing too timidly is what he sees as my main weakness at the moment. This in turn took me back twenty odd years to my piano teacher saying virtually the same thing about a Beethoven sonata. I like to think I have got more confident as I have got older but it seems not

I have now played through all three movements in my lessons and have been told/shown how to work on all of them but there's just too much work. I think I need to choose one (or two) things to work on for next week just so that I can feel there is some improvement somewhere.

I'm not feeling so hopeless this week

My lesson didn't look as if it was going to get off to a good start as my teacher came into the room while I was warming up and, before he'd even taken his coat off, demanded that I sing a note and let my voice drop an octave, when he knows I hate singing (although I have to admit that the broken chord I had been playing did come out much better afterwards). He then said that he'd come through the back door, which meant he'd heard a good five minutes of my warm-up. I was expecting him to come up with a whole list of things that were wrong but to my surprise he told me he was impressed by the fluidity of my playing

I'd decided that this week I was going to "forget" that the Vivaldi has something like 9 pages and just concentrate on the 3rd movement which can be easily broken up into chunks of about two and a half lines. I practised just one chunk a day, which meant I hadn't had time to work on the whole piece but I had done some very intensive work on almost two of the three pages. I wasn't altogether convinced that I would be able to play them successfully in my lesson since they still weren't 100% secure at home, but I did. Even more gratifyingly, when we got to the bit I hadn't worked on, there was a huge difference so I'm no longer feeling that the piece is totally beyond me, just that it will need a lot of work.

I haven't got a lesson for the next two weeks because it's half term, so I'm going to try and adopt the same techniques with the first movement. Unfortunately, this doesn't divide itself up into chunks quite so easily, or at least it does but the chunks are twice the length.

It's not common practice to put quarter-tone fingerings in scores, unlike multiphonics, where it is standard. There are usually several solutions to a quarter-tone and each oboist will find a method that suits the piece and the player - they're usually not problematic, though are easier the higher up you go. Quarter-tones below E above middle C should generally be avoided as there are substantially fewer fingering options for the lowest notes.

News from Dartington: Nicholas Daniel's course is indeed only for advanced players. Ordinary mortals need to sign up with Holly Randall.

Only suitable for one from these forums then eh?

It has come to my attention that I do not have enough stamina. (And when I say 'come to my attention', I really mean that I've decided to do something about it - I've always known it's a problem.)

Now, I know/have been told that improving my breath stamina is mostly a matter of practising long notes. Also my teacher suggested breathing more frequently whilst I'm practising, and taking out breaths later (hope that makes sense). I'm also trying an exercise where you breathe out completely and then play a phrase - on the basis that you have more air available than you think you do.

I'd welcome other suggestions.

The other problem I have is arm stamina.

My right hand position is less than optimal. This is because I have both small hands and small fingers, so I can only cover the (split) D by placing my hand in 1 specific position. This is not a relaxed, strain-free position and becomes uncomfortable at about the same time as my lip gives up.

But my right arm supporting the weight of the oboe becomes uncomfortable much earlier (like after playing through about a page of music non-stop). It's the (one of?) muscle between my shoulder and elbow that I'm having problems with. I'm perservering through and also stopping to relax and shake out my arm/hand frequently. Is there anything else I should try? Is there anything I can do without the oboe that might help?

(I don't use a sling or any other support at the moment, I hated the stand thing-y when I tried it previously.)

Things I find helped me (apart from long notes):
- playing the whole piece right through at least once in each practice session (I have a tendancy to get carried away practising just a few bars)
- playing a piece with a metronome (it stops you adding extra little pauses to make breathing easier).
- play scales one after another with the metronome, allowing yourself only one tick to breath.


I have small hands and short fingers and I'm sure lots of other oboists do, so there ought to be some way around this. Does your teacher not have any ideas?

For example, have you tried altering the position of your thumb rest?
The angle at which you hold your arms will also play a role (try lifting your elbows up and out a bit more).
And is the oboe resting on your thumb? (I too had problems with arm stamina which were solved instantly when I finally realised that the weight of the oboe was actually supposed to be on the thumb - I had been holding it like a recorder).

I had one orchestra concert last year where for some reason I really found holding up the oboe very uncomfortable, like you I couldn't manage more than a page at a time. But I'd never had it before or since. I ended up putting it down to the angle/ height of chair coupled with maybe just having to keep my arms at a different angle due to the seating arrangements. So it is definitely worth thinking about posture and how experimenting with different positions. I bought a rather interesting book last year called "Oboemotions: what every oboist should know about the body" which goes into great detail about maintaining the right posture to avoid injury and tension.

I would also re-iterate Kerioboe's advice about the thumbrest. If it is in the wrong place for you it maybe leading to tension which is also contributing to your arm ache. Good luck.

I bought this last year too and found it fascinating

How long have you been playing plonkee and how much practice do you do in a session and/or in total on one day? I'm currently playing 1-1.5 hours in a session and I reckon I'm only just starting to develop some good "playing" stamina (as opposed to the ability to play long notes). There are all sorts of tensions which creep in when you actually play and these do affect your ability to breath efficiently.

Certainly kerioboe makes some good points and "challenging" yourself to take breaths in a limited and defined time does help. I would also suggest taking some time to sort out phrasing and mark in breathing on pieces you are currently working on. Then make sure you breath where you are supposed to and force yourself not to breath elsewhere. Keep going even if it sounds dreadful (sometimes it will).

I'm currently spending some time developing vibrato and as part of that I'm re-visitng some of the simple legato exercises in Hinke. I think doing simple studies as legato as you can with minimal breathing should also help stamina.

As for your D ring issue. I think you just have to work hard on your hand and finger positioning. My Howarth S40 doesn't have a split D but it does have quite a large hole in the D pad. When I first started to play it after my original Buffet I kept fluffing notes because I wasn't covering the hole properly with my 3rd finger. Try some slow scales and arps and aim to get the changes really smooth and accurate.

Actually, I got TWO replies from Dartington and the other contradicts this so I am going to have to write again. But in any case the wind chamber music course is now full for elementary/intermediate obosits, so I will have to re-evaluate whether it will be worth going for the courses that are still open. Unfortunately I don't think I am going to be able to get a good idea of whether I can take time of work then or not for a few weeks, by which time it may be too late to sign up for anything.

I've been playing for nearly 3 years and I practice for an hour at a time, give or take. My playing stamina has improved in that time for sure, but its now the thing that's holding me back. (So I'd like to fix this somewhat and discover the next thing to work on specifically.)



This sounds good. I will experiment with angles and stuff whilst practising.

Thanks everyone for all the tips suggested. I've got quite a few things to try out in practices.

Arrived late for my first lesson of the year (after nearly three months' break ). So frustrating but I couldn't get away from work and it's nearly an hour's drive...

I got a new reed (fine for about 20 mins and then started playing horribly flat in the middle of band rehearsal ) and my teacher, AMAZINGLY, managed to resurrect my dead ones on which even he had sounded pretty subdued when he tried them. They won't last long, however. They really are on their last legs.

So, in the lesson I really only got time for some long notes to get my sound back but even that was worth it. I was just SO, SO happy to be back.

Band rehearsal was bit of a washout. Some complicated rhythms but my main problem is STILL not being entirely used to the Howarth XL - still having trouble moving from some notes (eg C, C sharp) to LH E flat. Haven't managed to cure the LH hand/finger position so I all too often end up slightly uncovering the hole on the LH middle finger (A key) with disastrous results (notes won't sound properly).

I have been having a similar problem to plonkee but I hope slightly less serious (pain/tension and also stamina issue). Pain in right hand is definitely due to a tense right thumb, which I am still pressing too much against the oboe (like on a recorder). I wish I had had a "light-on-the-road-to-Damascus" discovery like kerioboe but obviously it's going to take a while to cure this bad habit.

I note that my sound improved when I managed temporarily to reduce the tension. I am sure tension is also at the bottom of my the stamina problems too.

Does anyone know if general physical fitness helps breathing and stamina on the oboe?

By the way, pushpull, I think my teacher - like yours - is not really convinced that the quavers need swinging in the Telemann 4th movt.

But you shouldn't actually be pressing on a recorder should you? Shouldn't the thumb just take the weight of the instrument? If you are pressing that implies you are pushing against something more than the weight of the instrument - i.e. your fingers. Which sounds like the classic "squeezing the notes out of a toothpaste tube" issue.

I'm sure you are absolutely right.

I can't say for sure that it does but it seems logical. General physical fitness helps all other areas of wellbeing and performance. Looking at the reverse situation, I'm sure playing the oboe has reduced my respiration rate because of my improved breathing.

Did he wince noticeably, wrinkle his nose and look generally disparaging?

I hope you get a full lesson next week At least you only have 7 days to wait. (Are you crossing them off on the calendar - and at least you don't have a daughter gleefully telling you that she gets to have her lesson two days before you ).


A couple of weeks ago it suddenly occurred to me that I was no longer having problems with the LH E flat. (And I'm even managing LH Fs as well - my last oboe didn't have one). So rest assured the problem will disappear without you really noticing. I do have a (very boring) Gillet exercice to practise using the two E flat keys. PM me if you want a copy.


You could try asking your teacher to support your thumb while you're playing (ie, he puts his fingers under your thumb and pushes it upwards against the thumb rest). This was how my teacher helped my find the correct position and it was also when I discovered how much more comfortable it was to play when the oboe is held correctly. At one point, my teacher did suggest that I find some way of attaching my thumb to the thumb rest but I couldn't find anything that worked. Although it was an "instant" discovery, it has taken me over three months to be able to reliably (and constantly) hold it correctly. It has also had a knock on effect on what I do with my left-hand, my embouchure and even the way I stand, some of which I am still in the process of sorting out.


I'm the same and it's one of those Catch 22 situations. If you start thinking about not being tense, you become tense and when you are having a tension free moment, if you suddenly think "wow, I'm playing in such a relaxed way" you immediately tense up My teacher assures me that this sort of tension will eventually disappear when the techinical aspects of playing becomes instinctive (I haven't dared to ask how long he thinks that might take ).


Nicholas Daniel suggested lying at the bottom of a swimming pool to improve breathing and stamina. Lie on your back, let yourself sink to the bottom while emptying your lungs and stay on the bottom for as long as you can. (He did say that, when you get good at this, you need to warn the life-guard otherwise they keep jumping in to try and save you ). I don't know if it really works or not though as I haven't been to a swimming-pool since to try.

I'm sure your stamina has improved over the years without you really noticing. I was so fed up with the 1st movement of the Vivaldi yesterday (which refuses to sound like music) that I rifled through my music looking for tuneful pieces. One of the things I pulled out was Bozza's "Conte pastoral" which I bought several years ago after hearing it on a CD and had ended up putting away because it was too difficult. To my surprise I discovered that I no longer needed all the extra breath marks I'd added in.


With a recorder (most of which don't have thumb rests) you stop your thumb moving up or down by pushing slightly against the recorder away from your body. When I was holding the oboe like a recorder, the thumb rest wasn't resting on my thumb, I was just using it as a guide to where the thumb should be placed. However, because the oboe is so much heavier than a recorder, if the thumb rest is not resting on the thumb then you do have to push quite hard against the oboe to keep the oboe in the correct position. Try taking your thumb rest off the oboe and playing without it and you will see what I mean (my teacher tried and couldn't do it).

Yes I appreciate that, but shouldn't the thumb rest be fixed or adjusted so it rests against your thumb when your thumb is in the right position? I'm sure if your thumb feels tense it's because you are pushing against it with your fingers, not just the weight of the instrument.

I'll check I'm not squeezing in both directions but I don't think so... That might be a problem with the left hand, though... I wonder whether Marion Whittow ("A reed blowing in the wind...") is right and that the natural place for the thumbrest is higher than it's normally put. I feel I want it to be higher but my teacher says that it's all in my head... I just need to loosen up a bit.