Klarinet Archive - Posting 001134.txt from 1998/12

From: ROBERT HOWE <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Oboe doubling
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 22:21:13 -0500

I am 42 years old. I began the clarinet in the 6th grade as a precursor
to the oboe, which was what I wanted to really play. Now I play both,
oboe at a not-quite-professional level and clarinet a half a step less
well; I play clarinet full-time in the summer bands and am usually
assigned to first parts. My oboe AND clarinet teachers include members
of the Cleveland Orchestra. I say all this to set out my credentials in
this thread.

Clarinet and oboe are entirely different in their embouchure, fingering,
breath support and most importantly, in the mental approach to the
sound. The oboe is approached with an entirely different ethos than the
clarinet.

This is the best reason for clarinet players to take up oboe (or for
that matter, Saxophone, which plays very similarly). Playing oboe will
make you think differently about the clarinet. For one thing, pro oboes
are better voiced than pro clarinets. No oboe player worth his salt
(and there are many poor oboe players) would ever accept the sound of a
throat Bb or a low C# on the clarinet. We would make it better, either
by vibrating it or by fixing the instrument.

FOr another thing, oboe is not a technically adept instrument. Our best
arpeggio, believe it or not, is F# major. No oboe player worth his salt
would emphasize technique to the expense of tone and expression, as so
many clarient players do.

Finally, oboe players know that an Interesting Sound is Everything.
This begins in the tuning A, which allows the oboist to show how he can
make a single note beautiful. No oboe player worth his salt would play
with the glacial, wooden tone that so many clarinet players cultivate in
their attempts to sound "pure".

SO learn the oboe. Get a teacher. A symphonic player, preferably. Get
reeds from a pro maker (we don't have to make our own, I last made a
reed when I was 29) like Dave Dutton or Fred Capps or David Weber or
Steve Hamimoto. They all make fine reeds for under $20 each. Oboe
reeds are actually less finicky than clarient reeds, once you know what
you are doing. Get the best damned oboe that you can afford, a Loree or
Marigaux or Laubin. NOT a Selmer or Linton or Conn or LeBlanc! Then
give it 30 minutes a day for a year, and you will learn the oboe--or not
learn the oboe. But even if you don't learn the oboe, what you learn to
do with your tone, with the iniode of your mouth, with your musical
imagination, will make you the best clarinet player on your block.

And don't even think of disputing me until you can play the oboe as well
as I can play the clarinet.

Regards,

Robert Howe

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