Sunday, January 9

Why continue? Youth Oboe Marvel…

Holy Schmoe… just take a look at this (posted on Oboists of the World on Facebook).
(See it on You-Tube)

Child oboe genius makes me want to cry!

Listen, I have never been a fan of child prodigies, but I have played pretty much all instruments and I find this one hard to swallow on an oboe!

OK, ok, ok  the Schumann Adagio and Allegro (2nd video in the list) is lacking in feeling to say the least, BUT SHE’S ELEVEN!!!! How much feeling has she had time to develop in her personal life: she must have slaved away at the oboe for years now.

Oboe & Reeds difficult? HA!

Her young age completely disproves all that crying I’ve been hearing for years about reeds being so hard to get right. If this were true Howarth and Rigoutat would not be making special instruments for children as you as 6! Indeed, take a look at news clips of Howarth’s special work [video] [article].

Just keep playing….

I told my wife, half joking and half discouraged: “All right, why continue to practice after this!” and she replied: “Your blog is not about growing up with the instrument and naturally developing into an amazing player. Your blog is about adults who have never played or who have stopped for so long, to show that it can be done, they can enjoy playing again.”

This reminded me of 2 things:

  1. As a student, I was never impressed with acrobatic-styled music: music is about the soul, not the speed.
  2. There is soooo much more joy and benefit in playing (even poorly) than there is in listening to MP3s or concerts (even the most amazing).

I certainly cannot put down this amazing young player and I wish her all the happiness of a fulfilling life, musically and in all other respects. But we have to remember why it is we play: because it’s worthwhile to do so; because it fulfills our soul to do so.

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