Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-08-13 22:11
<<At the moment I don't think I get the reed in my mouth in the same place and I don't do the same thing to it each time. Therefore tuning is different each time I play. Not only that, But I'm not consistently sharp or flat, normally a mix of the two>>
Isn't it so-o-o frustrating being musically savvy but lack adequate physical technique which interferes with what you want to express ? !
... after wetting up, try warming up your reed in mouth first with gentle steady tones and lip around for the reed's sweet spot, the place where it 'croons' readily and easily for you, sometimes one blade up works better than the other blade, so turn it over couple of times to experiment with that during this warm-up process
... usually a newly moistened reed's aperture gapes open just a bit more than it should be for playing, so this warmup lets you lip it down into shape and get it ready for the oboe
then warmup the oboe in the mid-low register with steady tones until you've found the reed's sweet spot again
adjust your playing posture to ensure you've got oboe angle, lip, hands / thumb positioned just right to hold comfortably steady on that sweet spot
Sometimes it helps to have a methodical order of practising all the different elements that go into making music
when practising anything, scales, melodies, i find i absolutely have to train my fingers to play the notes right first, otherwise there's nothing happening! so this slowly, tonguing every note cleanly and paying no attention whatever to meter, and after my fingers have got it, then i can train fingers in the right rhythm at a tempo i can manage, and gradually work up to desired tempo over the weeks of practising
after achieving sufficient finger skill that the melody goes along, i pencil in enough breath marks at appropriate places for the piece when I know what the musical phrasing is like, and practice actually doing the breathing as marked -- full breath exchanges 'EXHALE-inhale' at rests, or Puffs & Whiffs (alternate exhale-inhale) in longer continuous passages
very general guideline is alternate breath every 2 bars (later on adjust to musical phrases) which should be 'methodically' practiced to begin with, in order to train mind & body to do it, otherwise we tend to play too long before gasping for breath, too late, optimum air pressure to maintain tuning has dropped off already due to more CO2 than O2 dominance in the air mix
after the breathing practice exercise, next add articulations and phrasing, and then add dynamics
... and after all that, when it's all sounding a whole lot nicer by then, lastly attend to any major tuning issues that sound really gross
for now, just carrying adequate air pressure consistently across to the next note might be a significiant physical challenge, variations in air pressure definitely alters ability to stay in tune, so perhaps the breathing step of this method could assist improve physical technique so you get closer to your sense of tuning?
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
