That’s what it feels like to return to work after taking the week off between the holidays…
I got to blog a whole lot and I am REALLY grateful to all of you who have troubled yourselves to read it: I hope there was something useful or interesting in it for you. I’m certainly
But I could not slow down too fast. The Oboe BBoard just got a couple of really good posts on the subject of crowing reeds and tone production. One person has contributed valuable videos on the techniques associated with these. He looks young, but if you can grasp the importance of what he’s showing, you’ll find deep experience there!
What he shows is what I learned to do when I went from a 2nd class student to a sought player with reputation of playing well… if only I had listened to one of my profs. and taken up the Baroque Oboe instead of leaving the scene!!!!
So I really encourage you to look at these. I’ll add a link to the whole discussion to the Threads Page too before next post. In the mean time, since I have to work at my day job now, I’ll favour practicing over blogging!
Again, may the joy of easy oboe playing bring beautiful sounds to your ears and lovely feelings to your soul!
3 comments:
I would post if I knew my reed from my ... um....what's the other end of the oboe called?
Hi Robin,
You found some nice videos. I especially like on the first video that he mentions that we should try to adapt ourselves to the reeds rather than keep fussing around to make them work. This allows us to be more flexible in our playing.
On a different note, you wrote that you should have "listened to one of [your] profs. and taken up the Baroque Oboe instead of leaving the scene." I'm curious about this comment, particularly because I also play (or try to play) the Baroque oboe. Would you mind telling this story and why you didn't follow with the Baroque oboe?
Cheers!
Baroque oboe: this was in 1992 when things were looking really sour for the arts. I just didn't have the courage to stick it out.
I have always been taught to try to play well on bad reeds, but I do believe in not tolerating bad reeds. Mix the contradiction and you get the best of both worlds. We must not complain so much but rather master our breath. Reeds are not so hard to make, if we leave aside prejudices, do only what works and improve our breating!
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