| Brought to you this hour by |  | Advertising and Web Hosting on Woodwind.Org! |
Doublereed Archive - Posting 000073.txt from 2005/01
From: PhilFrei@-----.com
Subj: [DR-L] Re: thumb rest
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 17:23:39 -0500
Hi -
Because of recently switching my left thumb to resting on the octave key
rather than supporting the oboe, there is more weight on the right. My right thumb
and arm started to get really sore this last week. The eraser for the thumb
rest is a good idea! I did something similar: took one of those foam ear plugs
and carved it into a sort of hourglass shape. It added maybe 30 or 40 minutes
of playing time. But it didn't help the accumulating shoulder soreness.
Finally I just broke down and bought a neck strap. Because I play with the
oboe fairly high, it maybe only reduces the weight by 30% or so? But that seems
to be enough that the shoulder is going back to normal and I no longer need
the improvised thumb rest.
I'm surprised folks want to put the thumb rest higher. The adjustable brand I
tried out at Forrests did allow this. Sorry I can't recall the name of it.
But the balance point on the oboe is lower than the existing thumb rest, on
my Loree. So moving it higher puts more weight on the right and may also tend
to push the reed into the upper lip. I find the fatter grip not to my liking
(easier to use the thumb as a reference for the finger positions when they are
closer), and imagined that the higher thumb position would make the reach to
the C# trickier. I did not relish having to take the thumb rest on and off every
time I play. I'm already always the last to get my instrument swabbed and put
away after rehearsals.
The neck strap can easily be stored with the swab in the case. It tends to
inhibit moving the oboe up and down as this varies the amount of support it
provides and adds a lateral/inward pull that is annoying if the oboe gets too
high, but that may not be so bad for me since my goal is to find the sweet spot
angle and stick with it.
I'm sure its important to everyone to find the tradeoffs that work best for
them and their style of playing, and that this will make for many individual
solutions.
I was hoping to try out Phred and Muts (I hope I am spelling them right) but
Forrest had neither in stock when I dropped in.
- Phil Freihofner
---------------------------------------------------------------------
For personal help: email doublereed-owner@-----.org
Doublereed is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org
