Author: Oboe Craig
Date: 2011-01-22 04:07
Mary,
I am sorry about the tremors and current unemployment.
Your finances are your own to manage and I don't mean to tread on that.
My post was about reed economics at large.
I also have peripheral neuropathy resulting from serious chemo 7 years ago.
Not tremors, but constant pain in hands and feet. A royal PITA.
I want to share something else with you, though. if you can scrape a reed, your hands can easily gouge and shape. The gouger carriage guides it all smoothly and the shaper part (well its does involve close tolerances to fingers and sharp razor blades) can be done by a friend, partner, husband or child. Its really not hard, and just needs to be precise and consistent.
Main thing is, its cheaper.
Now for the funny part.
At conservatory, i bought my Graf gear with 1 month's VA educational benefit check after doing army band oboe a while. The oboe prof could not afford one for himself, and for that matter could not afford a new pair of shoes, and had to use cardboard inserts in his old worn shoes with water leaking in from below through the holes.
I still consider this an inditement of incompetence for the deans and prez' and leaders of the school. How dare they treat their staff so poorly?
And also an indication of the devotion and true love the rest of us harbor for the musical arts and in particular for the oboe.
Hang in... I will. Lets just do the best we can. And keep on helping out each other in the process.
Post Edited (2011-01-22 04:08)
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