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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000033.txt from 2003/09

From: David Lurie <david.lurie@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Oboe Reeds & Sound Production Philosophy
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 12:32:14 -0400

At 12:04 PM 9/3/2003 +0000, you wrote:

>"If I play upon reeds of
>different schools, I still sound just like myself."
>
>"Whenever I have tried on someone elses reeds, never been able to produce
>the sound I hear in my mind's ear!"
>
>And Prof. Martin Schurring once told me that I "will produce the sound
>that I have in my mind eventually."
>
> From different kinds of reeds I go to another interesting yet mysterious
> issue, Sound Production!!

Let me throw in my 2 cents' worth here. The above I believe is true, but
only partially, and to a very limited degree. As a rather extreme example,
if you take someone who is used to producing a rich dark heavy American
style sound, like Harold Gombergr's tone, and give him a Pierre Pierrelot
style French reed, he's definitely not gonna sound like he was playing on
his own reed. His sound will be quite different.

>I cant help but to think alot about what you guys meant by what you said.
>I understand that the reeds do have an effect on the sound. BUT how can
>one produce the same sound if given 2 different reeds??

Answer: they can but only to a very limited degree, as per my example above.

>Again I' m not asking anyone to teach me how to do step by step. But
>rather explain the basic elements involved in the long process of learning
>how to produce different colors of sound on the oboe.
>
>For some reason I have always compared the oboe playing to human singing.
>I really think they are the same, at least in concept. The reeds are our
>vocal cords and I let you imagin the rest. But really I think the
>breathing and techniques etc etc on the oboe are similar to human singing.

If you look at the mechanics of each, you must realize that they are very
different. Oboe reeds, no matter how much or little resistance they have,
still offer far more resistance to breath pressure than vocal chords do.
Furthermore, the narrowness of the opening in an oboe reed changes
drastically the amount of air going through the whole breathing apparatus,
so these few factors in themselves constitute major differences between
singing and playing the oboe. There are others also. While there are also
major similarities, lets take the whole picture into consideration and not
concentrate only on one set of factors to the exclusion of all the rest.

>Since I think oboe playing is like singing I started thinking maybe the
>same thing is applied here?? When you guys say that it doesnt matter what
>reeds you are playing on you will still produce your own sound, are you
>doing the same thing?? Is it all a breathing technique? and maybe its your
>own unique embouchure shape and muscles????

Only some people are saying that. Not all. There are so many factors that
go into tone production, that you could write a an encyclopedia on this one
subject alone. Breathing is one, but so is HOW you breath, how you hold
your chest, the formation of the tongue and embouchure. And then of course
how the reed is made.

>I tried many thing from muffling the reeds, biting more and less, and
>taking more or less reeds in but got very little disappointing results. My
>oboe teacher said the same thing. "you will produce your own sound that
>you like eventaully." I know i will but I just can't help and think about
>it alot.

I think this is something that will develop over a period of time, based on
what you actually do when you play. It can not be analyzed abstractly.

>Is this something I should know about right now in my early years or
>should i just leave it alone and let it come by itself?? The same thing
>happened to me with vibrato. EVERYONE told me to leave it alone as it will
>come by itself. My oboe teacher in Kuwait told me that she started
>producing vibrato after 3 years of playing. She also said that no one ever
>told her anything about it while she was studing in the conservetory in
>Bulgaria. and now after playing over 20 years she has the most beautiful
>sound I ever heard. As for my vibrato production, I couldnt wait for
>another day. I picked up the exercise offered by Prof. Schurring and I was
>able to do it. But then after awhile of not doing the exercise it came
>by itself. Now when i"m the least thinking about vibrato while i'm
>playing I realize that I did produce a beautiful natural vibrato on some
>sentences. It feels great!! I think its like driving a stick shift. If you
>dont think about it alot and be less conci! ous about it you will get it
>and do it perfectly automatically.

My opinion about vibrato, like most everything else in playing the oboe is
based on a set of mechanical and philosophical principles, that have been
found to work. There is no mysticism involved. I also think many of the
things that happen spontaneously may or MAY NOT be found to be the best.
Vibrato is one of them. I used to let a vibrato take over spontaneously,
and thought I was doing it properly and well, until my teacher saw what was
happening, and pointed out that I was getting a horrible nanny-goat
vibrato, instead of one that had the right characteristics. So I learned
that just because it appears to come naturally, doesn't necessarily mean
it's either correct or the best. After all, playing the oboe is one of the
most UNnatural things one can possibly do in life.

David Lurie