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Re: Which is the default: tonguing, or slurring?

Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-03-26 17:52

... hey ohsusan that's interesting

i like to imagine a downward slur like a waterfall (and an upward slur as a bird taking flight) but even with these ideas in mind i found i was hesitating momentarily at the top note or not sounding the lower note -- until i realised top notes on lines (but not top notes on spaces) made me briefly hesitate to drop off into the slur, and lower notes in spaces definitely seemed harder to sound right away since there's no line to 'ground' them at the bottom -- weird eh? go figure

upward slurs are another animal, smoothing & tapering off going up with the accent only on the first note -- aaargh! so often that slurred off second note gets louder or more emphatic -- or sharp!

anyway, what's working for me in down slurs are

start with 'primed air' -- steady airstream supported from the abs, use tongue to start and stop reed

warm bottom of oboe first with lots of practice sliding around semitones from low Eb to low Bb and back again (spoo-ooky sounds!) -- a warm bell & lower joint definitely makes lower notes come out easier and up to pitch, it's amazing the diff in pitch between cold and warm sometimes

practice slurred intervals as part of warmup process, i do octave leaps and drops on ascending and descending scales -- when oboe's already warm enough to open up the octave keys

i usually think slurs mentally as Tee-ooo (legato slur would be Lee-ooo)

also the regular process of warming up the bottom of the instrument first has gradually made me realise that air and embouchure really have to be modified to sound the notes easily down there, such as

playing at the tip of the reed with a softened lower lip, rolled out just a little bit, and embouchure generally opened a bit, this allows the aperture slit to widen side-to-side -- it's usually more pinhole focus for the upper range

blowing with 'relaxed' air pressure but 'broadened' air volume since the reed's more open -- aim for a wider slit from side to side, not wider between top and bottom blades, that lets the ducks and geese have their say

all these adjustments are fractional, not a big event

doing octave leap & drop as a regular thing exercises these air & lip adjustments, after practising for some time, finesse confidence arrives -- time to broaden the leap & drop exercise interval after that, try 13ths (octave + 5th) -- then 2 octave intervals

coup de grace, try the more extreme leap & drop intervals in Mozart's Oboe Quartet (Sonata in Jay Arnold's Oboe Solos) -- heh heh

Before going there though, Gekeler's books have several wide interval exercises & melodies, as warmups i'm especially fond of Gek I, p.45 #4
(i call it Leapfrog, does Anybody know the original name of this merry little melody?) and Musette (p.43 #3) which includes extra effort for dynamic contrast with the D'-F drop and D-A" leap, among others

Clemens' book has a hot tip for slurred drops, for the H.H. notes, briefly raise the forefinger on the top note while playing it, should sound the same if oboe's properly adjusted, and then 'drop' the finger to sound the bottom note, dropping the finger taps the oboe, jars the air stream, but don't hammer it, just raise & lower finger 'deliberately'

for the other notes on octave keys, he suggests body drops, sit with one ball of foot under chair, raise foot and hip that side on high note, drop foot and hip to jar air in oboe to get bottom note, again, not a big event

methinks this particular hot tip was specifically designed for ring-key oboes, so if any bboarder is regularly playing one of those, try it

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