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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000031.txt from 2004/12

From: Keith Sklower <sklower@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: [DR-L] Left thumb position on oboe
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:51:22 -0500

Lines beginning with ">" written by Phil Freihofner:

>Up to now, I've been placing my thumb on the oboe body, in contact with the
>octave key and rolling to open the key.

That's what I do.

>I've started experimenting with leaving
>the thumb on the octave key itself, all the time.

Two conflicting reactions -
a.) I try to leave my fingers in contact with all the keys all the time
(especially ring finger of the right hand to lower the "E" a little bit)
mostly as a means to remind myself not to raise the fingers too high
when opening a key. (and so as *not* to slap the fingers down
on the instrument, as in playing the piano, which would otherwise
cause notes to pop, ruining the legato).

b.) when the oboe is at an angle (as opposed to the close to the body
vertical position), having the left thumb on the wood seems to
relieve a little bit of the weight on the right thumb (of course,
I might be fooling myself!).

>(perhaps anticipating with the thumb a bit to make sure the key gets opened)?

It seems very likely there is anticipation of this sort going on all the
time with possibly different amounts. And after a while, it probably becomes
automatic.

Where I went to college, there was an electro-mechanical organ
which had a significant (quarter-second) delay between when you pushed
the key and when the note sounded. I was amazed at the facility a
faculty member had in following a conductor, and asked him about it,
and he said "you just get used to it".

I've been doing tonguing exercises with rhythms like (e = eighth, s=sixteenth)
(e e e e ss e e e e) repeated many times, and its clear that some anticipation
is required to get the sixteenths to sound at the right time, and not have
the eighth following the sixteenth be early or too heavy. Can't wait for
*that* to be automatic! ;-)

Regards,

Keith Sklower

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