Author: Loree BF51
Date: 2012-06-15 03:00
After starting to recover from being hit by a tree while walking the 1/4 block from the bus stop to the office I work out of two days a week, I think I've come up with some interesting points in Ray Still's teaching. Just before I started studying with him, I got his original recording of the Mozart Quartet. I, then tried imitating his fairly rapid vibrato (at that time) with both the throat and then the diaphragm or whatever it is that moves around "in there". While I could match the rate with the throat it just didn't sound right. I couldn't match the rate with the "d" thing, but it didn't feel too bad, so for once in my life, I decided to wait untill I could study with him. When I talked to him early on, he made it clear that he didn't "teach" vibrato as such, simply he set up the "conditions" for the vibrato to occur, naturally. Much later, he told me that I had asked him, if he didn't use very much vibrato in his playing. I was really taken aback by this, as I couldn't believe I would say such a thing like that to him, even though I was only 16 at the time! Of course, he was absolutely right, as he was on almost any oboe subject. Part of his ability in that area came from his having had vocal coaching. I, myself, took a semester of voice to try to better understand what he was talking about. Let me end with something funny: after we had finished a Civic orch. oboe, sectional rehearsal he brought out some video tapes of Laurel and Hardy, including the classic one where they're trying move a heavy dresser and they just can't manage it. Then, Oli get the bright idea of taking the stuffed-full drawers out of the dresser to significantly reduce the weight of it. So, they take the drawers out, put them on top, and then lift it up and take it away! Nobody laughed harder at that scene than Ray, himself. Regards.
R. Still former student
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
