 The Fingering Forum
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Author: D-oboe
Date: 2003-01-08 03:16
I occasionally get water under my keys, usually the "A sharper" and "B sharper". (If you have an oboe, you'll know what I mean.) I swab regularly, and use cigarette paper to remove persistent water; that hasn't been working. What would you guys suggest?
D-oboe
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2003-01-08 04:03
Sometimes if neither of those works, I'll take the top joint, close the end with my finger, and blow into the top while rapidly opening and closing A and B sharper keys by pressing the bar mechanism on the side. This blows out any water that the cigarette paper may have missed, and I then collect that with more paper. A couple rounds of this alternated with swabbing out the bore should do the trick.
Ideally it's best to allow the bore to dry out for a few minutes to make sure the water does follow the same path back down under the tone holes, but this isn't always possible.
One thing I've learned to do to prevent water from collecting near the tone holes in the first place is to always hold the oboe in such a way that the keys are facing up. That way the water running down the bore will tend to stay on the back side of the instrument instead of building up under the keys.
But unfortunately even with all this, everybody's playing goes for a swim from time to time. It's only in moments like these that we can truly appreciate how fun, easy, and never-frustrating the oboe is to play.
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