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Short scrape is interesting

Author: sylvangale  Date:   2012-01-21 22:44 I've been playing with short scrape for a couple of days and one thing I've noticed is that the extreme high range just speaks easily (at least highest F#-G). On American scrape F# can be a little problematic to speak directly, I can always slur to that, but the G won't speak for me most of the time. I showed the reed to my teacher today and she was just shocked that high G came out with no effort on short scrape when with American scrape it's been extremely reed picky for me even on her reeds. So now I get to practice on short scrape this week and work up to high A! I don't know if I'll like playing short scrape long term, but my teacher sees value in using a different style when the piece calls for it since my current set up doesn't work up there... she even copied the dimensions to try and copy to test out on students. It's a UK short scrape and the scrape is almost exactly like an American scrape without windows. The reed is just longer and bottom of the heart ends with a U shape rather than the slight w or straight line you see in American reeds... then just bark the rest of the way down. The reed plays/responds as an American reed should except that the reed must be played at the extreme tip. The reed is dark, but not as vibrant as an American in the mid-low range (but that may just be that it's a bit hard), but the upper range is much darker than American reeds. I was actually hoping to get a brighter, less dark sound, but I guess UK is dark too, though it's interesting that my teacher is supportive with this reed style as she is so against listening to non-American oboists in general. It probably helps that the reed is from the UK and she loves BBC television ♫ Stephen K.

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Re: Short scrape is interesting

Author: WoodwindOz  Date:   2012-01-22 04:01 It is interesting that you say the reed must be played at the extreme tip - all the short scrape players I know (myself included) play a lot more reed than any American oboists I've observed, some even play down to the wire, if they play a wired reed. One of the reasons I abandoned American scrape when I first got here was that I couldn't get used to having less reed to control in my mouth. And as for response, I also couldn't get used to the way the sound seemed to bounce back at me immediately from the reed, I assume because the windows act as a type of amplifier. I am more used to the sound projecting from further through the instrument, if that makes sense. Perhaps UK short scrape is a little different (my reeds are based on the K.Ge style reed, which is more of a French-hybrid style), given your description of the reed you have, and this might explain the different embouchure. On a similar note, the Royal Philharmonic played at U of I tonight, and while the vibrato of the principal was a little on the fast side for my taste, his sound was like an old pair of jeans - familiar and comfortable. And he could solo beautifully (Brahms #1...I feel satisfied for the night. ) Rachel

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Re: Short scrape is interesting

Author: sylvangale  Date:   2012-01-22 06:36 I'm afraid I do not make reeds from scratch (that play). These are dims that I measured: overall length: 73mm triangle blend dims from tip: bases 5.5-6mm, top 3mm U shape dims from tip: corners 10mm, base 11-11.5mm And here are a few pics of what the reed looks like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvangale/6740434431/in/set-72157628976812339/ I'll have to play with taking in even more reed than usual and see how that works. With my regular reed position once I got up to around high A, pitch was drastically flat, playing at the tip made the pitch consistent. The American sound bounceback is kind of nice to me. I never really noticed it till I played played reeds back to back. The American reed is like singing in the shower. lol. I need more time to spend with the short scrape and see how it develops though, it's already sounding much nicer with a little more scrapping. I want to play it in quintet this week and see if anyone notices. I did read somewhere that the American scrape came from a French short scrape in an attempt to get a sound that was more German to blend in with German brass. ♫ Stephen K.

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