The thumb rest can be adjusted once you realise that it is supposed to be resting against your thumb. I know this sounds quite unbelievable but I hadn't realised it was supposed to be resting on my thumb In fact I was deliberately avoiding it resting on my thumb so that if I moved the thumb rest lower, I also moved my thumb lower Because my thumb was underneath the thumb rest it looked visually correct, which was my teacher had never picked up on it. And because for him (and I think from the tone of your posts for you too) it was so obvious that the thumb rest rests on the thumb he had never specifically told me that was what I should be doing. In fact at first he didn't believe me when I said I wasn't using the thumb rest - this is when he took it off my oboe and I continued to play in exactly the same way as before and he discovered that he couldn't play at all without the thumb rest.

And it is largely the weight of the instrument - after all there are notes where you don't use your right-hand fingers. My teacher had always commented on the lightness of my touch, often saying that it was too light and that I should use more finger pressure. I think the lightness was partly self-preservation since, as you rightly point out, pushing against my fingers as well as the weight of the oboe would have made the pain even worse.

Yes, it was thanks to your discovery that I realised I might be doing this too. Actually, I'm only partly doing it because the thumbrest is taking a little bit of the weight but not all. I did your test and took the thumbrest off and can play "normally" without it, unlike your teacher. So I got my teacher to have a close look yesterday (as you say, it's an easy problem to disguise) and he did think I was pressing the oboe with the thumb. He suggested a slight change in the position of my thumb against the rest. It worked for about 20 seconds.

No, he just looked unconvinced, sang it to himself and very evidently liked it better with out the unequal quavers. I didn't and he just said lamely "well, there's different ways to play it..." He was very polite, really, and relaxed about things... this will probably last a month (if we're lucky ) and he'll get gradually more frustrated and crotchety ( ) as the year goes on... usually needs a bottle of whiskey as a Christmas present at the end of it!

OK here's a thought. I might be talking rubbish (not for the first time). I have had my oboe and treble recorder out this morning and had a good look at my thumb position. The main thing that occurs to me is that the balance point is very different. On the recorder, the thumb is behind the balance point (i.e. the head is heavy) whilst on the oboe it is the opposite (the bell is the heavy end). So without the thumbrest the oboe will tend to slide backwards. When I tried to play the oboe without the thumbrest I found I had to rotate my thumb so the pad was in contact in order to provide enough friction to prevent the instrument sliding. If I maintain that thumb rotation and then slide it up to the thumbrest that does feel awkward. My normal thumb position is with the thumb only slightly rotated with the thumbrest touching between the base of the thumb nail and the first knuckle which feels OK and the oboe feels secure.

Then again, I started on a Buffet student model which was very light and my current HowarthS40, whilst significantly heavier, is lighter than your XLs. Perhaps my thumb has had some progressive weight training?

As this is an oboe thread I thought I would post this here.

What happens if you play every note on the oboe on the same embouchure?

I think I'm right in saying that some of the notes would not be in tune.

They usually are more or less. A lot of people can pass grade exams playing like this. Anything else?

Teacher Pick Me!!! You can't get certain notes on the same embouchure as others. I flat out don't believe anyone can get a top Bb with the same emb. as a bottom Bb.

Swot!!

I agree with this. However assuming that someone can play from bottom F to top F all on the same embouchure and it was more or less in tune, what else would you notice?

That seems normal based on my experience It seems such a simple thing to change but in fact it is incredibly hard. For well over a month I had to think "thumb" to myself almost permanently to keep it in the right place (which of course meant I couldn't think about notes, rhythm or anything else). Then for over another month I could keep my thumb in the right place for a couple of lines without thinking about it but invariably my teacher would end up saying "Are you sure your thumb is still in the right place?" And of course it wasn't It was purely by the sound I was making that he could tell when my thumb had moved so it really is something vital that you need to get right. My thumb still has a tendency to move but it now feels decidely uncomfortable when it has moved so I rectify it almost immediately. I am hoping that given another month or so it will stay permanently where it is supposed to.


I think what you say about the balance point is perfectly true but I don't think the weight has a great deal to do with it. (I started with a plastic oboe which was much lighter than my second oboe which was a Marigaux and almost the same weight as the XL). I think you just understood how you were supposed to hold it and I didn't When my teacher realised what I was doing he said he was amazed I had got as far as I did since I was holding it in such an awkward way.

And when I think about it now, I can't understand why I didn't realise earlier that I was doing something wrong. All sorts of things that both my teacher and course tutors have said to me now make perfect sense

Is the thumb rest adjustable?

No sorry. I need a hint. I don't know what you are driving at.

Now, I'm not sure what you're getting at, but I think that some notes come out louder than others. At least, they seem to when I play.

I just realised that when I last posted I had missed some excellent advice - thanks especially to kerioboe and pushpull!

I need to spend less time on here today (more oboe practice!) so I hope you don't mind a three-in-one of questions and comments.

TENSION/THUMB PROBLEMS
I haven't discarded pushpull's "toothpaste tube" theory and I'll check this with my teacher on Tuesday (will endeavour to avoid any "critical" work meetings earlier that afternoon...). I'll also ask him to help with that thumb position test, kerioboe. My thumbrest is adjustable but only up and down (obviously!). I have been toying with the idea of a kooiman adjustable thumbrest that would take my thumb right away from the oboe itself but I would prefer not to have to resort to cumbersome extra appliances unless I really have to. Maybe the cheaper clarinet version (which apparently works on the oboe) could be used as a trainer or something. But I hope only as a real last resort. I tend to agree with kerioboe that the weight is not itself the root of the problem. I did consider getting the cocobolo XL, which was noticeably lighter, but I liked the darker sound of the grenadilla better. The XL isn't light but it's not heavy for the kind of sound it makes - my teacher's Loree Royale is slightly heavier, as is my old Patricola.

STAMINA
I like the idea of the swimming pool training - I need some motivation to get me pack in the pool anyway. Actually, I think swimming generally is good for oboe breathing. I tend to breathe a bit like on the oboe - quick breath out before breathing in - and increasing time between breaths in the pool could help, a bit lying the lying-on-the-bottom trick. It's funny but when I think about breathing too much in the pool I get the same sort of panicky feeling that I do when in the middle of a piece or long phrase on the oboe. It's entirely psychological as I have no problem once I'm "in the zone". Doesn't happen much on the oboe, sadly...

EMBOUCHURE
I wonder whether there are slight differences to how we make the oboe embouchure on this side of the pond. Or to what extent the difference in reeds changes the embouchure. My teacher claimed I was doing very odd things with my embouchure after using British reeds (changing the embouchure a lot more). With US style reeds (and our variant of it) the position of the lips on the reed supposedly changes according to the register, though I have found that with really good reeds it's hardly necessary and in any case is not as simple as nearer-the-tip-for-lower and more-reed-in-the-mouth-for-higher register. As for the embouchure itself, what does actually change and why? Certainly if you play all notes with exactly the same embouchure, at the same position on the reed, some may be out of tune or not of equal volume/timbre. But most of the time problems of intonation and unbalanced timbre/volume should be first addressed by adjusting the air pressure/speed (involving - dare I say it - the dreaded air "support") rather than embouchure, I would think. So in what circumstances, how and to what extent should the embouchure be changing?

I haven't posted on here for a long time, but it's nice to be back.
I'm busy getting ready for G6 in March playing Handel, Neilsen and some Bach. I'm enjoying the Neilsen, especially as I have a great accompanist who just picked it up and played it. It really needs the piano to make sense of it. I think that I was quite fortunate in that I twigged early on that I was playing the syncopated passages all wrong and was able to fix it, so when I played it for my teacher it was ok and has stayed ok, trouble is, he now wants vibrato..!
I'm feeling quite on top of all the oboe stuff, it's just the aural that's doing my head in...my sight singing is rubbish!

Does anyone know of a sound recording of the Dittersdorf Concerto in G for Oboe. It's on the Grade 8 list but as far as I'm aware not on the CD.

Will You Tube do?

Anything! Will get her on to this thanks!

Hello itchy1.

Yes, as katica said, I have looked at the Nielsen. It was a while ago now but at the moment I'm inclined to think it's my list B piece of choice. Though I have put off my Grade 6 until the summer session as I don't feel quite ready. One reason for that is the dreaded v word. Yes I think your teacher is quite right, the Nielsen will benefit greatly for the addition of some vib. I'm working on it at the moment by introducing it in small doses into my normal practice - long notes, scales and pieces. It comes and goes but it is beginning to become more natural. I think two other factors to try to make the most of the Nielsen are making the phrases really legato and going for it on the dynamics.

I take it the Bach is the Aria from the Christmas Oratorio. I like that too but think I might end up with one the flashier modern pieces, the Jacob or Madsen.

I don't know if you've looked at it, but just now I'm working on the Boni for list A which I think has a lot in common with the Bach and I like quite a lot. I have the Handel but haven't got to it yet.

welcome back itchy1.

I've been having a look at some Handel this week! First two movements of the Sonata in C minor -it's really rather nice. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, but some of Handel's stuff does leave me a bit cold...really like this one though!

Are you ditching the Telemann, then?

The Boni sounds nice but I don't have the sheet music for it.

How are you working on the vibrato, pushpull? Mine sounds so ghastly I think I am going to give up for now. Where do you (either of you) think the Nielsen most needs some vibrato?

I have been playing those syncopated notes a bit different from written, too, itchy1. Rhythm OK (I think) but I know my articulation is different from what's written and I like it that way... one of the benefits of not having to be examined on it.

No I'm far from making a decision yet.

I would say it's the first piece I've looked at in a shop and thought "I like the look of that".

I started last year but put it on the back burner until the beginning of this year. Put simply, "bump" your diaphragm (can I use that word? ).
Set the metronome to crotchet = 60, pick a note and blow. Without using your tongue "pulse" the sound by vigorously "bumping" at one beat per metronome tick (i.e. in crotchets). It sounds pretty awful to start with but you have to exaggerate it to feel what's happening.
Then do the bumps in quavers, triplets then semiquavers. Then make up some exercises. Start a note non vib, then add vib at crotchet speed for 2 beats, then 2 beats quavers, 2 beats triplets, 2 beats semi quavers, back down the same way to finish non vib.
Then try it on scales, going up and down with vibrato at 2,3 and 4 pulses per beat, then try varying the number of pulses per beat going up and down scales or arps.
I then picked some of the easy studies in Hinke and played those adding vibrato before moving onto adding vib in some of the slow bits in Ferling.
It's still far from natural for me but it's coming. You should eventually be able to turn it on and off at whatever speed you fancy without having to vigorously bump.

I would start out with the longer notes and phrase beginnings probably. Certainly the log held D at the molto accelerando and the final G. The endings of the main phrases, bars 6, 8, 10 etc. I think lean on the penultimate note with some vib and let the final note die a little non-vib. I reckon the agitated section at bar 18 onwards would benefit too and certainly the dotted quaver B going up to top B and C at the forte.

Just my thought of course. I'm not saying I can currently achieve all that. My main problem is having sufficient presence of mind to do it. Teacher says for now write in "vib" where wanted.

hey everyone!

just thought i'd say hey on this thread!

i've just started the oboe (already play clarinet, flue and sax so not a first time musician)

i have one questions. . . fingering for C to C# and D#!!! how bendy do you have to be??? haha

that probably the only thing im finding tough at the moment. finding the middle/low (from low C to high A) range quite nice (high, being high A up, is a tad more. . . hmmm how shall i put this . . .painfull haha keeps sending me light headed)

any advice happily received

I tried one of these on the cor-anglais but didn't find it any help.


I'm sure there are differences. French embouchure technique is to have the reed resting very firmly on the bottom lip (much more firmly than in the UK).


Welcome back and good luck for the grade 6


Which octave are you talking about? I presume you have discovered the left-hand D#/Eb key which enables you to play C# followed by/preceeded by D# with different fingers. If you're talking about middle C/C# you can try rubbing your finger on the side of your nose before playing (the grease helps you slide).



I assume you mean the A two octaves above middle C (and not the A above that which would be advanced technique). Make sure your air-stream is very fast and focussed and with plenty of abdominal support. Try playing the A (one octave above middle C) with a crescendo and in the middle of the crescendo press the 2nd octave key. If your air-stream is correct, the note should come out without any further adjustment. The risk, as a beginner, is to bite down on the reed. You will get the note out that way but it is likely to be out of tune and it is not a good habit to get into.

Feeling light-headed suggests that you are not breathing out fully before breathing in.

Do you have a teacher?

hello kerioboe,

no i dont have a teacher yet. im trying this out for a few weeks before i decide on whether to take it on a perminant basis (3 instruments keep me very busy so im trying to see how it fits in)

sorry about my wording before, i read it back to myself just and realised i made no sense what so ever haha

yes i was on about the A above middle C. when pressing my second octave key it doesnt seem to make much differance. . . . i am on a very basic model at the moment (my friend has been good enough to loan me a student selmer model, but its fairly old and a tad battered but does the job over all)

I do think the oboe is rather different from other woodwind instruments and that having a teacher helps. I had played a lot of recorder (and piano and violin) before taking up the oboe and had an oboe for about three weeks before I started having lessons. Like you I had worked the basic fingering out for myself but had not understood how to breath at all, although I didn't realise this until my first lesson.

There is also, of course, the added problem of having a suitable reed for which I think a teacher is indipsensible in the early days.


This makes me think that it is a problem with the speed of your air stream. With his young beginners my teacher describes the air-stream as an arrow coming out of a bow.

Thanks for the welcome back folks it's nice to back around again!!

The vib practice is a bit hit and miss. My teacher wants me to play an A and then let the note go flat and then bring it back up without moving my mouth, bumping, I suppose. It sounds dreadful, but it's getting easier. Sometimes I'm aware of playing a note and the vib just appearing bit by bit, but I wouldn't say that I have much degree of control over it. the bits of advice here have been really useful.

As for the Nielsen, the G# at the end of the first phrase and some of the other phrases as well as the long low D need a bit of vib. I'm trying to put it in, if it happens fine, but I won't worry if it doesn't appear. I'm more bothered about getting the dynamics and character of the piece right. I'm really enjoying it, better than the Handel. My teacher suggested Albinoni and I wonder if I should have gone with that, but I'm not changing now!!

As I've said, it's the aural that's really worrying me. A friend is drilling me most weeks, but my sight singing still needs a lot of work, as well as the intelligent listening test. I'm almost spending as much time practicing aural as anything else. I haven't done an exam since G4 in the early 1990's and my aural skills had practically disappeared

On a different tack, how do I change my user name??? I really don't like mine now, but I'm trying to think of something else.

Yep that sounds about right.

Yes that's what I was getting at with "vib on the penultimate note", so lean on the G# and then let the final A drift away.

Me too.

Don't get too flustered by it. Providing you're not paranoid about emitting a noise through your mouth, much of it is fairly straightforward and overall the aural section doesn't count for a huge number of points. If you have a reasonable stab at it I'm sure you'll manage at least half points.

afternoon all

Kerioboe just wanted to say i had a decent practice today, took on board what you said about the air stream and breathing and have found a improvement this morning higher notes are actually starting to sound decent

cheers for the advice

I took the afternoon off today to get some practice in so this week I had lots of time to get to my oboe class.. I got there half an hour early so I had an extra long class ( ) and got treated to my prof practising Pasculli's Gran Concerto on themes from Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani... for which he begged my trusty Howarth XL! At the rate we're going I may find myself the proud owner of a Lor?e Royale in exchange.

Well, I definitely know my teacher pretty well! No, I was not going to be let off glissandos and the like in the Pink Panther with the "pathetic" excuse that the part was really written for flutes and that glissandi are "extended oboe technique"... I confessed to my weird experiments after a whiskey or two and it turns out I was on the right track. The main instruction was to let creativity loose... and loosen up. "I'll need three whiskeys for that", says I. My teacher looked at me hard... and then said... "Seven!!!" In fact we aren't really talking about "real" glissandi, just something that sounds reasonably convincing on the oboe. I only managed one little one in rehearsal, though.

Before you think I am doing really "advanced" stuff with my teacher... I brought up the vibrato question (I agree about the points which would sound nice with it in the Nielsen, pushpull and itchy1)... but my teacher is definitely NOT going there. He is very definitely of the let-it-come-naturally school. He himself has a lovely vibrato, of course, but said he thought that it could be very over-rated. So that's that for now on vibrato.

On the thumb issue, the jury is still out. I definitely have a lot of tension in my hands and pushpull's "toothpaste tube squeeze" theory is not ruled out. My teacher thought I could try a neck strap if I get desperate. (I have a bit of pain in my shoulder today and by the end of band rehearsal I was feeling a definite connection between weight of oboe on the thumb and the shoulder. )

I played so much today that after an hour and a half or so of band rehearsal my embouchure just completely collapsed. Too bad as we were playing the theme music to the film "Twister" and I happened to have the opening solo and a quite nice little solo in the middle. All right for a couple of whirls and then disaster struck! We were "forced" to repair to a nearby bar to recuperate.

Very happy oboe punter today.

afternoon all

well i had a fab oboe practice this morning i spent quite a lot of time just warming up, doing scales etc and my practice went really well after that. not sure if its because i spent more time warming up or because i was feeling more confident but either way im feeling very pleased with myself.

on another note, i need all my fellow oboe players advice (please dont laugh) . . . once i had finished my practice i took my reed out to dry, needless to say two minutes later it had gone anyway on looking around the room i noticed my 7 month old kitten chomping away at it (little moo) anyway my questions is, does anyone know of any decent websites to get reeds from? the few i have (now down to 2 thanks to eddie) were given to me by the person im loaning the oboe from so it needs replacing.

most of the local music stores near me dont stock "unusual reeds" as i was told grrrr

anyway any ideas very gratefully received

and katica sounds like you had a fab practice??? really pleased

Fortay are have nice reliable reeds which are available by mail order.

It's a very inquisitive dog that causes trouble in this house. She loves to investigate where the sound is coming from which means nose up the bell of Oboe

Great to hear you had a good lesson

My teacher is always borrowing my XL as well His usual technique is to say "Why don't you try that bit on my oboe and I'll play along with you on yours" He invariably feels the need to continue playing long after I've given up and gives it back saying "This is a really nice oboe."


Does he think you are too "anglo-saxon"? My teacher sometimes says to me "you need to be a bit more "latin"


My teacher has the same ideas as yours and believes vibrato will come naturally . He says that if I am doing everything properly and have got rid of all tension then it will appear by itself. What is extremely frustrating at the moment is that it does appear briefly but as soon as I think "wow that's how I want to play" it vanishes


The best oboe supplier is Howarths (in London). They sell a wide variety of reeds by mail-order through their website but I suggest you ask the person who is loaning the oboe what reeds they use as there is a huge variety and they are all very different.

hullo

will have to give howarth and fortay a try, i normally only have to get claarinet and sax reeds haha so im a tad lost on this one. would it be best to go for a soft to medium reed?

will ask my friend where he got it, have a sneaky feeling he made it though.


and notmusimum my cats just look at me like im demented when i play. eddie just meows his head of when i play clarinet haha almost like he's trying to sing along haha they dont seem to mind the oboe so much (or so i thought until he chewed the reed. . . maybe its a sign he wanted me to stop playing haha)

I agree re. Fortay but their delivery times can be a bit long (I'm told they're working on it). If you need reeds quickly then Howarth is probably your best bet. They sell Fortay reeds If they have any in stock. I use Fortay for reeds and now for cane but I get an order in a month before I know I'll need it.

thanks pushpull, i'l have a mooch on their website in a bit and check out howarth too

Give them a call and tell them where you're at. They will sort you out something appropriate. My guess would be medium soft to medium. I tend to ensure I have at least 3 reeds available at any time and rotate them daily.

cheers for that pushpull, i did have 3 until eddie destroyed one haha

You didn't really expect us to keep a straight face, did you?



I don't think so (I've pretty well "gone native" mostly) ... he was just being a bad influence!!!
Actually, I am really disappointed that I am so uptight on the oboe. Sometimes I think I just care too much about it...

Got another offer on the XL today... from another Loree player. But I don't think he was really really serious and he has his eye on an upgrade to a Royale. I had escaped from work to a lunchtime reedmaking session (not actually a teaching session - my teacher ended up making reeds for everyone - and I was the only person there who was actually a student of his... verification that his reeds are pretty suberb). All I managed to do was learn to sharpen my knife properly on my new rods. Tied a reed and my teacher with a wicked grin scratched at the knot until it fell apart and I had to start again... I hardly dared touch my oboe in front of the talented little crowd that had gathered (we were sitting in the canteen of the National Symphony Orchestra HQ so not a good place to demonstrate one's incompetence) and I felt thoroughly unworthy of my much-praised instrument... We started comparing reeds and oboist X had a reed made by Alex Klein and one or other two US ones so I was able to verify that the scrape preferred here is indeed quite a bit shorter. X had managed a look at one of ND's reeds and says that it looked like a German reed but that he had "cheated" by adding something that looks like the "windows" that we have on our reeds. I remember that Gordon Hunt's - also a hybrid affair - looked like they have them too, but his W-ish scrape is a bit shorter still than ours. So it's hardly surprising that you can no longer distinguish a distinct "British" oboe sound...

Oops, sorry folks who think reed stuff is really boring...

Buy some clear nail-varnish and sneak some on the knot before your teacher gets his hands on it
(On the other hand, better to retie the reed properly than to scrape a lovely one and then have it unravel on you).


Must have been an interesting experience though


My teacher sometimes adds "windows" but he puts them on the unscraped bit of cane so they don't join up with the scraped bit (if that makes any sense). He says that he was shown how to do this by a French oboist who had spent some time in Canada and that it is the Candian combination of the European and the American reed. He doesn't put them in systematically but says that when used judiciously they can make a nice reed which is too hard playable without sacrificing any of the tonal qualities.

Afternoon everyone

well after a few hints from you guys i've ordered 2 reeds from howarths to try.

I've ordered a howarths student reed and an andrews student reed.

The guy on the phone was really helpfull fingers crossed they will be here tomorrow

I do have nail varnish but unfortunately had left it at home. My teacher's excuse was exactly your parenthesis!

Had a great practice session yesterday with the first flute and sax from our band. Pseudo glissandi occasionally coming off quite convincingly. LH E flat still a disaster and worse when in combo with C sharp. It's so weird to be managing what pushpull claims is "advanced oboe technique" while still struggling with having gone backwards on something really basic.

Good luck with your new reeds, KatieS. One of the first reeds I bought at Howarths was an Andrews, after trying out quite a selection (on an S45 they kindly lent me and I immediately fell in love with!). Unfortunately a month later I got back to Costa Rica, my teacher claimed the UK reeds had completely done for my embouchure, and with a peremptory "you don't need this, it's not good for you" duly snapped it in half! My jaw hit the floor with a bang! He did make me a lovely replacement, so I couldn't complain.

I hope that your new reeds work well Katie. The best ready made reeds for me have been the Fortay reeds, but I've started making my own reeds, or using my teacher's reject reeds which work fine for me. Last time I went for a lesson, my teacher wanted to look at my reed..which he always does if it's one of my DIY ones...and burst into hoots of laughter!!! "There isn't much tip is there" . I knew it needed more work, but not that much
Still he went on to say apart from that it was ok, so not so bad after all.

You know my first reaction to this is anger. But then incredulity. I think it's frankly bizarre but then what do I know from my lowly position in the pecking order? I wish someone could put me straight.

This stuff about reeds having to be "like this" I believe comes from one source - Marcel Tabuteau at the Curtis Institute. No doubt he was a huge figure in oboe playing and teaching in the US but his word seems to have become the Gospel. I don't know if that's what he intended but somehow I doubt it. Some years ago in America, if you wanted to study with a professor at a top conservatoire, the first thing you had to do was play on an oboe approved by them (which meant at the time Loree). Stupid. Plus you had to (and still do) use American scrape reeds.

Then there is this business about American sound, English sound, German sound. I went to the IDRS conference in Birmingham in 2009 to listen to all these national styles and make my own mind up. My conclusion was that it's a myth. Yes there have been national styles, but I think these days it's mainly individual styles irrespective of country of origin or where the player currently works. I'm sure this has been aired before but I'm quite certain if player A and player B swap their reeds they will not magically sound like each other.

I'm with kerioboe's teacher - paraphrasing here - that the job of the reed is to allow the player to do what they want with the minimum of effort. I think that was the gist of it.

I know a very fine oboist who, having finished studies in the UK, went to study and then (hopefully) eventually work in America. Of course the first requirement was to change reed styles. My comment was "I hope you don't change your tone". She said "No, I still sound like me". So what was the point? Why make someone throw away years of experience, make them relearn their reed making and the embouchure necessary to accomodate the new reed style, if in the end it makes no difference? Fine, if a player wants to join X orchestra and they demand a particular type of tone then the player may well need to accomodate that. Being proscriptive about how that is achieved I find very blinkered. From what I've read in several sources professionals take a bit from here and a bit from there to get what they want.

Long scrape, short scrape, U V or W shaped, windows or not..... Who cares? If a rudely whittled plank of wood produces suitable results then who is to say that's wrong?

There. I'll get off this soapbox now and wait for someone more experienced put me right.


I'm currently playing on one of my own which I produced about 3 or 4 weeks ago and my teacher declared she would "pay good money for" I haven't been able to make another one like it Yet.

I think the soap box was well merited. I am sorry to have disturbed your cool with my story! I do, in fact, totally agree with you and though you wouldn't believe it my teacher would too. Though I agree with why he snapped my reeds at the time (and I got a lovely replacement), I would be really, really furious if he did it to me now...

I think that destroying the reed was not so much believing that there is a "right" sort of reed but more to do with the fact that this was very, very early days for me and there are so many different things that can affect how you make a good sound on the oboe I think my teacher just wanted to ensure as much consistency as possible with my reeds so I could concentrate on understanding when there are variations in very basic things like embouchure and air support.

I told the reed-snapping story at the reedmaking session on Wednesday and my teacher laughed embarrassedly and went suitably red. That's when we started talking about the different reeds we'd seen (and I think my teacher has tried making reeds in all sorts of styles before settling on his hybrid... still learning, he says)... I don't know whether it's a fair conclusion but we also thought the different styles thing is a myth and that the different reeds reflected that.... with the possible exception of the US. Actually, that isn't quite fair as I can think of a couple of US oboists I really admire and one of them sounds really different - but generally a lot of American oboists do sound rather samey to my ears. Technically very good and a nice clear sound but a bit samey.

Pushpull, I hope your "fine oboist" shakes things up a bit... Only two days ago it turns out my teacher just had that very same conversation with an ex-pupil of his who is now in the States (elsewhere). I find it rather comforting to know that, with all the US influence here "tico" oboists don't necessarily aspire to conforming to that sound but I think it's really only recently that the double-reed world here is both mature and creative enough to break away a bit. On the whole, I think it's quite exciting times in the oboe world... new music, new techniques, no "must-do" reed styles, new oboe designs (soon, I hope...)...


Even one is a monumental achievement so early on!
Did you take a picture? Do post it!

Ah fair enough katica. I suppose with the full background perhaps there was method in his madness.

As for my "star" reed. Well it wouldn't win any beauty contests but it has a great crow.

Emsoboe is playing some new stuff on Oboe. she's started the Grovlez and Vivaldi sonata C Minor.

Oh the Grovlez is lovely.