Doublereed Archive - Posting 000044.txt from 2003/02

From: Karen & Kevin Martin <kazkev@-----.au>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Playing both oboe and bassoon
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 07:54:49 -0500

Hi Bruce

Thx for sharing your experience. The convention is only sixteen months
away, according to The Australasian Double Reed Society (ADRS)newsletter
which I received yesterday. :-) I'm also hoping to be there as I'm in
Melbourne where it will be held.

I've only been playing oboe for 4 1/2 months so can't really speak about
the double reed experience in this country yet. I've joined the ADRS
and been to a meeting and have played in 4 sessions with a training
orchestra that disbanded before Christmas. I assure you I had nothing
to do with this at all lol. The conductor moved to the country, we lost
our venue and our two first violins left as well.

Unlike you I have quite small hands and very short little fingers. I
mean my little fingers on both hands are very short. I'm glad your
hand/arm have returned to normal. Unfortunately I had to continue with
computer/mouse work after the over-use problem cropped up and due to
this I will continue to have problems. It has been 4 years now since
the original injury. I miss playing my bass recorder so I thought I'd
play a little last night. I only played for 10 minutes and my hand,
wrist and forearm are very painful and very uncomfortable.

Thanks to you and Barbara's feedback I am feeling really positive that I
will probably be able to cope with the bassoon. I have always wanted to
play one and soon I will get the chance.

Cheers

Karen

Brucec18@-----.com wrote:
> Hi Karen,
> I saw your post on the listserv and thought I would share my experience. I
> see you are in Australia. Wonderful. I hope to attend the convention there
> in Melbourne in two years. I am also curious how is life for a double reed
> player in Australia?
> I am a woodwind doubler, though I made oboe my major instrument about 4
> years ago as in the US there is much more work available for double reed
> players than for other woodwinds. I play professionally in the Fresno
> Philharmonic Orchestra (English Horn), and also the local community
> symphonies nearby. I teach bassoon in the local high schools and play
> bassoon occasionally in the Broadway shows that come through.
> In my experience I have had more hand injury from playing oboe than playing
> bassoon, but then I have pretty large hands. My right hand feels cramped on
> the oboe so when I started having burning up my arm from overuse I had to use
> a MUTS thumb saver for several weeks. After about 6 weeks my hand returned
> to normal.
> There is no such stress for me on bassoon as the weight of the instrument
> is held by a seat strap. Your left hand might get tired at first from
> leaning the bassoon to the left against your hand. But I rest by holding the
> bassoon straight up with my right hand while still on the seat strap.
> There is quite a stretch for the left hand to keep the holes covered as the
> holes are oval rather than round. The right hand doesn't have as much of a
> stretch as the ring finger closes a covered key. And you have a crutch to
> rest your right hand on while playing.
> Hopefully that all makes sense. Good luck with bassoon. I think you will
> really enjoy it!
>
> Bruce Carpenter
> Kingsburg Public Schools (in central California)
> Fresno Philharmonic
> Tulare County Symphony
> Kings Symphony
> President's Quintet
> DOUBLEREED-L mailing list
> DOUBLEREED-L@-----.edu
> http://lists.washburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/doublereed-l
>
>