It would be great to see you there! It's a super day, and well worth the trip

I've got a copy of the Edexcel "Difficulty Level Booklet" and that has some of them in at 6-8, 1 movement of no12 at Grade 4. Most are not mentioned in the lists at all, so I don't know how hard they are. I've had a stab at no. 6 on my own just out of interest and it doesn't seem too hard (to play badly).

I've only had a go at no.1 so far but I like it. There is a huge amount of detailed technical detail in the scores so I'm sure they will be very useful.

I had a bit of a look at Pan a while ago. I think it's time to revisit it. I've had a stab at Niobe too which I think is lovely. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Nick Daniels has Youtube videos of all the Metamorphoses.

Oh no that's awful



I visited one just after I started the oboe (for a look, not to play). It was very enjoyable - as was the goat curry. I did contemplate playing this year now I don't feel too bad about inflicting myself on others but I'm afraid I'm working. Phew.

I think they might be easier on flute than on the oboe - I have only ever found them on diploma lists for the oboe I have just checked my copy and N?2 was the one I started with.



They are fun (and one of the things my teacher didn't know but liked so perhaps yours would think the same).


Oh no
Does that mean you can't legally even look for another job in Costa Rica?


I will be in Australia then so won't be going.

EDIT
Pushpull and I posted at the same time. The Edexcel difficulty booklet only has No2 in the oboe lists and only the 1st two movements which it lists as grade 8, those at a lower grade are all in the flute list.

Oh dear, third day running that work has kept me away from the oboe and I'm not even away on a trip (will be next week). I really want to get started on the Telemann. It doesn't really matter what grade level it is, I suppose. It certainly won't be sounding anything like G8. For now it's only the Grave of Fantasia No2 so nothing too strenuous.

Thanks for the comments on the Bourgeois, kerioboe and pushpull... now on the list for spending my Howarth's voucher.


Yes they are
Too bad ND hasn't uploaded anything new for a while...


That's too bad. It would have been great to meet you! Maybe we could have tried something together?


Yes.
I really stupidly decided not to apply for citizenship a couple of years ago. I am going to put in my application but it takes around 2 years and I will be out of a job by then. I am going to look at whether there is any chance of a different residency option, even without work for a while, so that I can complete that process and hope I can find a lawyer who can help. I'm not feeling quite as hopeless as two days ago but it is still quite unsettling. It's bad enough having to think about leaving my job and home... but moving away from my oboe teacher is thoroughly traumatic even to contemplate!!!!

I know I should be saving all my pennies right now but I am almost on the verge of signing up for Dartington. Just waiting for family and work to OK my proposed dates for UK leave. I think I am going to need that sort of a break that will really take my mind off work stress.

I've just started no.4 and it's pretty reasonable - for a Grade 8 piece!

Gosh, it's quiet round here! Nearly a week disconnected from the Forum and no oboe news...

Oboeless in Honduras...

I've been struggling a bit with oboe stuff recently.

Felt I'd gone hugely backward over holiday and haven't really been able to get back into it. I've been moved to a new role at work and it has been a bit of a baptism of fire, I was doing bits of it before my holiday but really thrown in at the deep end since getting back - which has left me a bit drained and tired. Had to go to a conference for this week which meant that I had to miss another lesson, and 3 days of practice and it is now Easter holidays so no lesson till after the May bank holiday. My tone and stamina is appalling, I don't know if it is all me or partly reeds - but as my teacher is going away for the Easter holidays I can't get any new reeds for a couple of weeks. Arrrgggghhh....

practising is definitely a chore rather than a pleasure at the moment, I'm finding very disheartening at the moment but I know I need to stick with it! I have also ordered a couple of reeds from Howarth to see if that makes a difference. Maybe need to stick with doing long notes for a couple of days to get my tone back into some sort of shape.

I am toying with coming to Stalybridge...will decide when I am back into a proper practising routine again.

Sorry to hear about your job Katica, sounds rather rough. Hope you manage to find a way to stay in Costa Rica.

Hope things are better soon

The music school is currently shut for two weeks for the Easter holidays and I discovered this morning that I am down to invigilate an exam at the time of my oboe lesson on the first week back. I have only got three lessons before my exam and I haven't yet played either piece with the pianist so this is threatening to send me into major panic mode . My teacher will usually try to fit me in somewhere else when this sort of thing happens but Monday is a bank holiday and on Fridays my teacher works in a different town and my university have managed to spread invigilations over the other three days in such a way that the only free time I will have is early Tuesday morning, which is not one of his usual teaching periods. I am trying to see if I can find a colleague to swap invigilations with but haven't had any luck so far (It doesn't help that, although we are theoretically free to swap, we don't have a list of who is invigilating when and everyone I have contacted so far is already invigilating at the same time as me nor that we are only told when we are supposed to be invigilating on the first day of the holidays so people have gone away).

Now back home and rather daunted by the number of reports and stuff I still have to complete (a) today (Sunday ) and (b) over the Easter hols... everyone else has backed up and it's landed late on my plate. Looks like the next nine months are gong to continue to be heavy going at work so I'm going to have to breathe deeply and make the best of my hols in NZ and the UK.

I am sorry to hear you're feeling bogged down at work and with the oboe, flobiano. I must say, though, it sounds as though you have been progressing by leaps and bounds and it is quite possible that although you are an oboe superwoman you may have hit one of those plateaux us ordinary mortals hit quite a lot. I had the impression that I had gone backwards, too. My oboe teacher insists that you don't really go backwards, it just feels like that when you've managed a big step up and are facing the wall of the next step.

I quite often like the idea of playing but am just too exhausted to practice or to enjoy it. Long notes are good. For a bit of motivation I get out the old iPod and play a few easy, fun pieces to backing tracks that I have on a play list for the purpose, just to feel I can and to get some motivation back. I know it runs against all advice and good practice discipline but I think that anything that gets you back on the oboe without making it feel like a burden is good. I expect everyone is different and would have a different "trick" but that's mine.

Over the last week I've been reading The Perfect Wrong Note by William Westney. His approach seems to be mainly about getting beyond the conventions of music practice, which can take the joy and vitality out of playing music, to a more intuitive, almost meditative, approach - learning to play in a sort of mindful and ego-less state which liberates natural energy and expressiveness. It's not religious in any way but it does sound a bit like musical Buddhism. I don't utterly agree with all he says but I do think I myself need to get back to the kind of oboe-yoga that playing the oboe felt like in the first few months when I had great hope and enthusiasm but few expectations.

Maybe a bit of yoga and meditation would be good to do before your exam, kerioboe. It all sounds bit of a worry but from of all you've said the one thing you don't have to worry about is failing. I suspect that's not really what you're worried about. You don't want to do less well than you are capable of (even though you know it's much less than the examiners expect) and you know that your teacher, who will be on the panel, knows what that is. Just DON'T WORRY! (easier said than done, as I know too well ). I bet that actually, if you don't manage to work things out and you miss a lesson and get only one practice session with the pianist, all will be OK on the day. Even if you don't really need it,

I have signed up for Dartington Week 4, though I don't think the hundred quid deposit has been deducted from my credit card yet. This despite the fact that there were no places left for elementary/intermediate oboists in the wind chamber music course.

I have just realised that I had miscalcuated dates. It's going to be a stretch to make both Stalybridge and Dartington. And Dad has invited me to go the south of France right at the same time as Stalybridge because his girlfriend has a concert scheduled then. I'm very divided...

Now you've said it, it sounds so obvious but I had never thought of putting backing tracks onto an iPod. I don't use backing tracks but my daughters do and a CD player (which is what we do) is not a convenient way of doing it as it requires a 2nd person to operate the CD player and the volume is never right.

I wouldn't worry about it not being "proper" practice. After all, stamina is always a problem on the oboe and if you're playing with a backing track you can't stop and are necessarily developping stamina And as you say, playing is supposed to be above all a pleasurable activity.


I hadn't thought of it like this but (having read it several times) I think you're right. Perfectionism and anxiety are not a good combination of personality traits However, since the hypnotherapy was based partly on putting fears into words, I might be able to do something about it now that you've put it into words for me


Is this the week Nicholas Daniel is going to? I'm sure it will be a great experience - having nothing to think about but music is wonderful

I complained to my teacher recently that I felt I'd taken 2 steps back and she gave me a very "old fashioned" look and firmly informed me that I hadn't.

A little while ago when attempting to improve several technical issues I resorted to starting at page 1 in Hinke. It was quite a revelation and did actually give me a big boost by making me aware of the progress I HAD made.

Or relaxation - which I reckon is pretty much the same thing. I like visualisation too - thinking through the whole process of the exam from entering the room to playing all the elements (perfectly of course ). I used to try this in my rock climbing days too but then it didn't work - I kept falling off at the hard bit

I mentioned before somewhere that I think some people get into a state because they feel they have to play perfectly. That's not how any exam works, written or practical. There are only a few who actually will perform perfectly, the rest of us mortals will fluff bits here and there.

What will you be doing other than the oboe class?

Sadly, I am most definitely not an oboe superwoman. Apologies if I've ever posted anything which seems to suggest that, I certainly don't think I've been progressing any quicker than anyone else..... ... But thanks for the kind words, turns out i was going down with a head cold at the weekend which is one of the resaons my stamina was virtually non existent. Feeling a bit more normal now and moving towards building my practice times up again.

Would be a shame if you couldn't make Staleybridge, but must be difficult trying to fit everything in when you come over! I know what you mean about being too shattered after work to practice, but playing to backing tracks definitely counts - at least it keeps your stamina up and your muscles in shape...and that's often half the battle! :-) Sure you'll have a lovely time at Dartinngton - feeling a bit jealous but I already have plans for all my annual leave this year. Next year I'll maybe do an oboe related holiday, quite fancy Marches oboe school.

Hope preparation for your exam goes OK Kerioboe and hopefully you will be able to fit in an extra lesson ( or be able to swap with someone), I'm sure you'll do fine in the exam. Sounds like your teacher has no worries about you passing.

Pushpull - yes I have seen the Britten recordings by Nicholas Daniel, thanks, they are fab. :-)

Yes, indeed!
Just got confirmation of my registration!


Choir and Chamber Music (I hope). I wanted to sign up for the Wind Chamber Music but even in early Feb it was already full for elementary/intermediate oboists. I secretly fancied the Tea Dance outfit but that's on at the same time as the oboe class.


No you certainly haven't - I don't think any of the bunch currently active here are at all show-offs. Quite the contrary. But you obviously have worked very hard and earned that great G7 mark.

Staleybridge isn't completely off the cards yet. I'd love to go the Marches School and it's not to far from my mum - but that's definitely for a year or two ahead.

If (more like when) I end up being redundant again I hope to be able to put aside a bit of savings to ensure that I continue musical activities over the next couple of years, even if I have to sell everything else I own and learn to live on the bare minimum again. In the worst case scenario I could cope with a bout of unemployment (not too long, though) if I could do creative things for a bit and rethink the next stage of my life. The idea of returning to the UK makes me gulp a bit, though. From what I can see, the only property I might be able to afford these days would be one of those unmodernised terraced places in Burnley ("cheapest street in Britain" and all that). Perhaps I'll open a thread on the Forum Caf? for a bit of forumite advice one of these days...

Meanwhile, back to the Telemann Fantasia. (Hugely enjoying VERY free interpretation of No.2 Grave. Attempt at the Vivace was decidedly pathetic but thought I'd better give it ago in case teacher gets one of his frequent bouts of madness and asks me to give it a go...)

I'm sure you'll have a really good time - his playing is so inspiring


I hope things work out for you
I sometimes fantasize about moving back to the UK when I'm fed up with life in France but I would hate to be pushed into doing so (like you I wouldn't be able to afford to live anywhere).


Hope you enjoy your lesson whichever bit of it you play

I have just had an e-mail from someone willing to swap their invigilation times with me so am feeling distinctly happier

Not only will I now be able to have my lesson but will also be able to go to my windband rehearsal and drop my daughter off at her string orchestra.

Lesson on Tuesday after three weeks without.

I was just wondering generally about the oboists on here (as you do when you're putting off getting back to work on a report )...

What are your oboe dreams and aspirations? Especially those who took up the oboe relatively late. Do you think you might ever do anything professional with the oboe e.g. teach? Or anything else in particular you'd like to achieve?

that's a hard question. I try not to think about it too much as it may make me realise the futility of putting so much effort in.

I don't have any particular ambitions right now, I just play for the joy of playing and of doing it as well as I can. After grade 8 I would definitely like to continue lessons, I'd like to get a Cor and also do some reed making. I imagine that I will get to the point where any further progress is hampered by the amount of time I can devote to practice. I can't imagine ever being able to practice more than about an hour a day without seriously unbalancing my life, so not really sure if I could manage to do get up to diploma standard, but who knows what will happen in the future. I am sure that there will be more than enough repertoire to keep me busy for many years to come. I would prefer to just see what happens really, for me it is really all about the journey rather than the destination.

As you may guess, I have no ambitions to do anything professionally with my playing, I enjoy my real job too much and would prefer to keep music as the thing I do for fun to switch off from work.

I don't have any professional aspirations and certainly not teaching (imagine having to sort all your pupils' reeds out as well as your own ).

I would like to play in a symphony orchestra, not a professional one just one with the right number of the right instruments (and no accordions ). However as there aren't any where I live, it is not my playing which is the limiting factor.

Like Flobiano, it is the journey which is important for me - oboe playing is what keeps me sane

Oboe ing is much better now, after a few days consistent practice. I'm still waiting for my reeds from Howarth's - despite email over a week ago to say that they have been dispatched. I'm assuming the bank holiday has slowed the post down a bit....will give them a couple more days before getting in touch.

I've also ordered a few oboe CD's from the website that Pushpull recommended a while ago.

I just found that I can't order via credit card from Howarths. Rather, I can but I can only get stuff posted to my credit card billing address which is my very unreliable Costa Rica post office box.

I have been thinking about my musical aspirations as I have surprised even myself how important musical considerations seem to be in making a decision about my job/home/life. If this is so, how come I don't feel it as much in the day-to-day reality of disciplined oboe practice?

I can barely say I have any really clear musical goals - I just want to increase my capacity to play more music and enjoy playing it as much as possible. I have frequently felt positively glad that music isn't actually my profession - even if that were possible - because I feel that if I had "proper" musical responsibilities and obligations it would be much less fun. Having said that, amongst my current post-job fantasies it has sometimes occurred to me that if I could progress enough before retirement, I could see myself really enjoying a bit of music teaching - especially in some of the music-starved communities here - if I didn't absolutely have to depend on it for an income. It's just a fantasy, though, really.

Lesson today was a great big flop. The really good thing is that I finally seem to be getting through being disheartened by the flops and am really enjoying just learning. The Telemann had been going really well in practice and it just sounded HORRIBLE in the lesson. A new reed didn't help. It's a great reed but I just haven't adjusted to its quirks yet.

I discovered that my teacher's plans for the Fantasias is actually much less ambitious than I thought, which is probably just as well. I'm not going to do the whole of No.2 yet. He wants me to work through the slower movements of different Fantasias before tackling the fast stuff.

Try sending them an e-mail and asking them. I once ordered something from them and got them to post it to my mother's address in the UK. This was a couple of years ago but I don't see why they would have changed the system.


I find a lot of the discipline of oboe practice relaxing (OK I'm probably weird ). Long notes in particular are almost meditative (does that exist as a word?) and I find my mind can drift in the fullness of the sound.


When I was about to leave school I was feeling very upset about knowing that I was going to have to stop all my musical activities and in particular the piano. I was also feeling irrationally jealous of one of my friend's who was going to music college, even though I had no desire to go to music college since I didn't like performing in public. The school music teacher said to me that really I was the lucky one as music would always be there for me and that it would always be a pleasure whereas for my friend it was going to become an obligation.


I'm sure that's the right attitude to have - and with a bit of luck next week's lesson will be better.


Can you trust him on that? My teacher has a nasty habit of saying "We'll just look at the slow movement" and then a couple of weeks later, "Since you've got the music there, why don't we have a look at the fast movement as well."

By some miracle I managed to play all of both my exam pieces in my lesson this morning (although not without him stopping me). This week I am supposed to be practising playing loudly; he told me I need to increase the dynamic contrasts but that I am forbidden to play the quiet parts any quieter

He also asked me what order I want to play them in. Should I play the shorter, easier one first in the hope that that will settle my nerves? Or should I play the Saint Saens first as it is longer and needs more stamina?

Certainly no professional aspirations. If I get good enough to play in a decent standard amateur orchestra that will do. I would love to have a stab at chamber ensemble work (e.g. wind quintets) and would like to be able to do justice to some of the superb sonatas we have to choose from.


I'll be interested to hear what you think to them.

I am very much at the beginning of my journey learning to play the oboe I am really enyoying my lessons and practising (scales are starting to fall into place

Have started to learn, on my own, some easy ensemble pieces with a view to eventually getting together with some friends (clarinet and cello) to play. Playing (in time ) with other people is a new skill I am attempting to learn and my metronome is certainly being used at the moment !

Would like to join an amateur orchestra at some stage and play at Forum events

Going to take G3 Oboe in session B.

I am also having great fun exploring oboe music (just love the sound of an oboe played well)

Are you thinking about attending any of the upcoming events, pianophrae?

Hi Katica, well I made ny debut on the oboe at Egham this year and have played a couple more times in front of a small audience (Solari's piano gathering with corenfa accom;panying) and at my piano teachers adult get-together.

I don't have any forum events planned at the moment, definately hope to do Egham 2012
but will keep my eye on the Events pages.

Have you got any planned ?

Glad to hear things are progressing well, good luck in your G3 prep- what pieces are you playing?


Well they arrived yesterday after being ordered at the weekend so very impressed with the service. Haven't had time to listen in entirety yet.

I bought:
Britten Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Anatomy of a masterpiece - I LOVE this, it would be worth the money just for the booklet that comes with it! Lots of background and analysis of the pieces and recordings by 3 different oboists including Joy Boughton who was the first person to perform it.

Mozart Chamber Music for oboe - have listened to a couple of pieces from this so far, the famous Oboe Quartet and a Quintet for wind and piano. Really enjoyed what I've heard so far!

Birtwistle Orpheus Elegies played by Melinda Maxwell. Competely different to anything I've really listened to before, I've only listened to the first few tracks so far, some of them are a bit too weird for me, a couple of them I do really, really like, very strange and haunting!

So overall I am very pleased with all of my purchases! Added to that my reeds finally arrived from Howarth's today, I had decided I would email them if they hadn't arrived in today's post so was pleased to find them waiting for me when I came home. I managed to do an hour and a half's playing tonight which is more than I've managed for weeks, I had a play through some old pieces too - the Schumann Romances (one of the first things my teacher did with me when I restarted lessons) and Poulenc first movement. I could definitely feel/ hear some improvement in my playing which was rather reassuring.

Now going away for a long weekend so hopefully won't regress too much before my lesson on Wednesday!

I live raaather far away to make Forum events but I hope to be back in the UK in July-August and hope maybe to sign up for the Stalybridge event on 23 July.

Flobiano, you thinking of going to that? Very sorry to see that pushpull will be working that day and can't make it. I'd really like to meet some more Forum oboists...


Me too.

Yes I am planning to go, in fact have just written my form out tonight.

I love playing with a cello
I'm waiting for my daughter to grow out of her dislike of flat keys and then I can try and convince her that she would like to spend her free time playing baroque music with me


Good luck for the exam.
What are you playing?

It's a superb collection.

I saw MM play some of these at the IDRS in Birmingham (which is why I bought the CD).

If you are open to a bit of contemporary music I will plug (again) 2 albums by New Noise - Insomniac and Frozen River Flows and Intercession by Pipers 3. Certainly nothing "frightening" on them.

Oh good!



The cello is my very favourite accompaniment to the oboe.

Wouldn't mind trying Piazzolla with a viola... and an accordion/bandoneon!


I vote for Insomniac too. Haven't heard the other New Noise CD.

It's brilliant. I reckon even better than Insomniac. But then Frozen River Flows (yes the title track) and Peace for Vayu have become two of my favourite pieces having seen New Noise perform them (twice!).

I had my A Level Recital yesterday evening, and it went really well! I started off with Pan by Britten, and it was probably the best I've ever played it I was really worried, because I had to get a new reed the day before, as my nice one split, but the whole evening went really well, and everyone played really well

Now I get to choose some new repertoire to learn which is exciting- thinking of more of the Mozart, starting Saint-Saens, and then whatever else I can get my hands on

Congratulations, OboePiano!!!

[quote]
Going to take G3 Oboe in session B.
[/quote]
Good luck for the exam.
What are you playing?
[/quote]


A) Handel - Bourree anglaise: Allegro
B) Mussorgsky - Tranen
C) Graham Salter - Gnome or Carl Baermann - Study in C

[quote name='pianophrase' date='Apr 30 2011, 12:08 PM' post='1054773']
[quote]
Going to take G3 Oboe in session B.
[/quote]
Good luck for the exam.
What are you playing?
[/quote]


A) Handel - Bourree anglaise: Allegro
B) Mussorgsky - Tranen
C) Graham Salter - Gnome or Carl Baermann - Study in C
[/quote]
Ah.... I did the Handel and Mussorgsky in my Grade 3. Nice pieces. Good luck.

Thank you, I have the notes under my fingers and am working on producing a good tone, breathing (in the right places), dynamics etc.


Which piece did you choose in list C ?

Hinke, page 18 no.1

I don't know the Mussorgsky, but I am currently working on the first two movements of the Handel Sonata. Definitely an option for my Grade 8.

Best of luck in your prep for grade 3.

Well done in your recital OboePiano, glad that it went well, let us know what you pick to work on next!

I am really looking forward to my lesson on Wednesday - my last lesson was immediately after my holiday when I had no stamina and was horrendously jet lagged. My lesson before that was 7 weeks ago! Really looking forward to having something new to work on!

The Mussorgsky is one of those lovely, nostalgic little pieces I like to fumble around with when I'm trying to get stamina and motivation back... I think I'd probably have chosen that for G3 too. Good luck with that pianophrase! The Bourree Anglaise is lovely and sounds nice both played simply (G3) or more ornamented (G8).

Have a great lesson, flobiano!

And if kerioboe is around here, I hope exam preps are going well!

I've got a Music Minus One edition of the Handel in order to have backing to play to but have got too much else on to start on that. I don't really have the agility yet, anyway.

What do people do in the run-up to their exams?

My exam is just under two weeks away and I'm not sure that I can do much more to the pieces at the level I am at at the moment. (Of course I would like to be able to play Saint Saens with a tone like Albrecht Mayer on the CD I have of it but that is obviously not an achievable aim).

In my lesson this morning my teacher just picked up on two fairly minor points in the Saint Saens and nothing at all in the other piece. His verdict was that if I am having a day when I can control my breathing then they will be very good and if I am having a day when my breathing has gone to pot then they will be just about OK. (His polite way of saying that they will be out of tune, with a poor tone and no musicality ). He said I should practise "deep" breathing as much as possible (and not just when I've got the oboe, when I'm cooking, standing at bus stops etc.) to try and make it become instinctive. But he didn't really give any suggestions as to what to do with the oboe. I will sort out the two precise things he mentioned and practise playing the two pieces one after the other but apart from that I don't know what to do. Part of me is bored with them but part of me thinks I ought not to be playing anything else (and I don't have scales, sight-reading or aural to do).

I was also getting quite stressed about reeds - I only had one that I felt happy with so I spent last weekend trying to make another one. I scraped three, two were not much better than what I already have but one felt like it might be very good so I got cold feet and didn't scrape it to completion. I asked my teacher to finish it for me this morning and it is Only problem is I now can't decide how much to play it so that it stays the way it is.

Thanks for your thoughts about my G3 pieces. My teacher suggested/helped me choose them and having listened to the other pieces on the CD I am pleased with them.

Keriobe good luck with your final preparations, sometimes waiting is the hardest part

Maybe take it as a compliment that your teacher does not have too much to correct

It can be tricky if the preparation comes together before the day. When I did my last exam I had two pieces that were pretty much there a month or so before and my teacher told me not to overplay them but just run through a couple of times a week. My third one I still felt quite insecure on so I focussed mainly on that (plus scales, sight reading etc). She did give me something non exam to look at as well though so really don't feel that you shouldn't play anything non exam related! Sounds like you really need to find something else to play and work on!

I got in am absolute panic about reeds before my exam as well - I'm sure some of it is psychological...or maybe it is the bit that is hardest to control! I ended up making an emergency visit to my teacher about 2 days before my exam because I was convinced that none of my reeds would work!

I am sure you will do excellently, sounds like you are really well prepared!

I think it's part of his anti-stress policy. He was quite careful this morning to say that what he was suggesting was just to perfect it and that I could carry on playing it the way I was already playing it. But actually I'm not used to him saying that things are good and nor am I used to playing through a whole piece (let alone two) in one lesson so I don't quite know how to deal with him having nothing to correct



The only other thing I've got is the Vivaldi but this makes me feel that I don't know how to play it all so I don't think that psychologically it is a good thing to be playing just before an exam. Maybe I need to have a look on my shelves and find something which can just be "fun".


I read something somewhere that said naturally anxious people are attracted to the oboe because the reeds provide them with something on which to focus their anxiety Maybe I should just try and focus all my pre-exam anxiety on the reed on the theory that reeds always work better when my teacher is present (even if he doesn't touch them) and he will be there in the exam so therefore I can worry about the reed before the exam secure in the knowledge that it will work once I get into the exam room .

I've never felt that prepared! I'm very envious!!! My teacher seems to believe very strongly in not overworking pieces and as got leaving the peak to the last minute down to a real art - even with the orchestra/band too. I find it quite scary. I never quite feel I'll be ready in time (and sometimes I think I really haven't been) .

flobiano's advice sounds really sound - and a good idea to focus on scraping reeds, even if you end up not using any of them.

Missed lesson and band yesterday.

I've never felt my teacher's left me enough time to prepare properly when he's got me to play in pupils' concerts but never having taken an exam before I don't know what he usually does for exams. I'm inclined to think that he miscalculated partly because I practise more seriously than his other pupils (I know this because he's told me) and partly because the "imposed" piece is too easy for me. (My elder daughter is retaking her cello exam at the end of the same week and her "imposed" piece is certainly far from ready and if I'd had to learn something like the Saint Saens from scratch I doubt I would have been ready either).



I hope you manage to get to next week's one.

So do I! Sounds like life is a bit chaotic at the moment.

My oboe playing week started badly but has got better.

I had a truly horrendous orchestra practise on Tuesday, I couldn't get any of my reeds to work and every entry either didn't speak or gave a horrendous squawk! Despite my reed having played beautifully in my practise the day before of course!

Lesson on Wednesday started badly when I just fell to pieces on my first study (Ferling no 26) which I had worked so hard on, but which sounded as if I was sight reading it. But did get better when we moved on to other pieces. I also got a nice new reed and we tentatively agreed that I would do Grade 8 in Session C.

Also had a chat about potential pieces for Staleybridge - she has leant me a piece called Arioso by Fiocco to try, which seems very nice. She also recommended I get Sarabande and Allegro by Grovlez as another option. That has arrived today but looking at YouTube performances it seems I would have to only do half of it to be within the time constraint. We've also finally managed to arrange a date with 2 of her other pupils so that we can do some trio playing....this has been talked about for over a year so this is a huge step forward!

Isn't it just ghastly when that happens! If all your reeds were affected I guess the most likely cause is a change in the weather/atmosphere. That happened to me a couple of months ago but fortunately not at a critical moment. The worst time was just before our oboe recital last September. My teacher had last minute (during dress rehearsal) made me a new reed (always a bad idea but my last good one had just bit the dust the night before) and they switched the air conditioning on. I was just playing a scale backstage during applause before going on and the reed just seized up! I was playing part 2 in the duet but it was more like some kind of weird improvised accompaniment.

Cross fingers my reeds can take the weather change between Costa Rica and Stalybridge in July!


Ooooh, how exciting. Just looking up Fiocco on the web... I see it's on the OboeClassics Goossens CD but I don't have that one... I hope you find something you'll really enjoy playing.

Any other oboists planning to turn up? emsoboe, maybe???
I'd so like to put a few more faces to Forum names!
pushpull, you absolutely SURE you have to work that day? Don't fancy an oboe choir? Or melodeon and oboe??? Or a beer in the pub afterwards

Reeds


I remember rejecting the Arioso a couple of years ago because it had nowhere to breathe Perhaps I ought to get it out and have another look at it. I bought a copy of the Grovlez last year but haven't yet tried playing it. I found it hidden away on a back shelf in Virgin Megastore (of all places) with the price still in Francs! I thought they would look up the uptodate price on the computer but instead the cashier got a manager to come and convert it into euros so it was very cheap

I discovered this morning that my oboe exam has changed date and venue. It is now on the 17th (probably just as well as this afternoon I discovered that there is a meeting at work on the 16th which I really ought to go to). However I am a bit upset about the change in venue. It was supposed to be in the room that is used for pupils' concerts, which is a room I like and have played in quite a few times and have been having my lesson in there for the past couple of weeks (my teacher's theory being that that way I will feel really at ease with the acoustics). It is now being held in an annexe of the music school, in a small concert hall (with a stage) in which I have never played (although I have been there to listen to other people). I can't see that I'm going to be able to try the room out before my exam because a) it is a good 15 minute walk from the main school so I can't just pop in there during my lesson and b) even though it is only a 2 minute walk from where I live they only open it when there is a concert going on so I can't even go and try by myself .

Ever seen a hamster on the oboe?

I think he ate most of the reed!

I'm afraid Emsoboe is a little too young for an Adult Learners event




Emsoboe has been playing this though it's resting at the moment as it's not one of her chosen grade 8 pieces. She is enjoying playing it on Sax too