 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: MudLily
Date: 2013-05-13 14:51
I am an American amateur player, working in France for 2 years. I joined a community orchestra (to help maintain sanity), and the other oboe player vetoed my American scrape reeds as sounding too open.
I bought some French scrape reeds, but some other threads here made me think that I might need to change my embouchure or other aspects of playing. My embouchure for my American reeds is pucker-like. Do I need to do something different to get the proper sound from the short scrape reeds?
Also, the reed I bought in a local store sounds stuffy to me (the Berthelot reeds haven't arrived yet). I would scrape just behind the heart to fix that stuffiness in an American scrape reed, but perhaps it is not supposed to be fixed for the desired sound?
Any advice on these issues would be greatly appreciated.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2013-05-13 15:02
Adopt more of a "smiley" enbouchure (with the corners of your mouth pulled sideways) for short scraped reeds and hold your oboe up higher than what you'd normally do and see if that helps.
Scrape the tip and sides to brighten the tone, unless you prefer a darker tone.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: HautboisJJ
Date: 2013-05-13 16:38
Yes... it will be stuffy, in every single way compared to a typical american reed. I have played with some american style players professionally in the past and never had a problem. Perhaps you need to darken your American reeds a little. I tend to think that if you are in it just for fun, you would be much happier not trying to jump into a can of worms yet to be opened! If you are really passionate about trying, go ahead! Be careful of the Berthelots, they can be HEAVY. Perhaps it would be useful to take a lesson from someone in town. There are oboe maestros in france in every part of the country!
Regards,
Howard
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Author: oboi
Date: 2013-05-13 20:35
In my opinion, if you're just an amateur player playing in a community orchestra, why bother? For an amateur player to "veto" your sound, that's just ridiculous. If you truly want to learn short scrape, then go for it, but if it's not something you want to do, maybe you can work something out with the other oboist (or find another group!). I would maybe try to tweak your own scrape, but I wouldn't bother with learning a new scrape (which means different style of reedmaking, change in embouchure, oboe positioning, etc...).
I know a professional who has modified her European scrape when she moved to North America. But this is a professional here, and blending in is of utmost importance.
Sorry for sounding a bit angered (for you!). But I'm just imagining if my amateur oboist partner said that to me!!! Of all the idiosyncrasies in an amateur group, that'd be the last of my worries. In truth, I really do like the European sound, but I am learning from a North American oboist and even if I had the chance to learn European scrape, I'd go about it as a fun experiment, and if I was very successful, I'd MIGHT then make the switch. But at the moment, certainly not worth the bother.
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Author: Jeltsin
Date: 2013-05-14 07:33
I normally play with European scrape reeds, but somtimes I also try American scrape reeds and I don´t have to change anything (I am not aware of that I change anything). The only thing is that it takes a couple of hours to get used to American scrape reeds and it takes 15 minutes when I go back. I recommend everyone to try the opposite style of reeds.
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Author: MudLily
Date: 2013-05-14 08:02
Update:
I used my store-bought French scrape reed in rehearsal last night, and the other oboeist was pleased. And the conductor noticed, too, and commented. The reed sounded too stuffy to me, but it did blend much better with the other oboe. As for the embouchure, I had to curl my lips over my teeth and sort of bite firmly on the reed instead of puckering lips softly around the reed, else the reed would be flat. And my neurally mediated syncope is going to be a bit of a problem unless I can successfully make the reed easier to blow.
As for the nature of this orchestra, it is associated with a University, but it is a community orchestra in that anyone attending or working at the university can join, not just students.
And don't be offended on my behalf, please, because it *is* important for the orchestra to sound like a whole instead of 50 or so individuals.
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Author: ceri
Date: 2013-05-14 15:24
You can do various things to make a French scrape reed easier.
If you want to make the whole thing easier, lightly scrape all over the reed (including the spine). The aim is not to change the balance of the reed but to make the whole thing thinner. This is what beginner oboists' reeds are like in France. If you put too much air-pressure down this sort of reed, it will close up and you won't get any sound out.
Less drastic (what I would do to a reed I found a little too hard), make the ears (corner tips) lower. Don't scrape the very centre of the tip as this will change the pitch and make the higher notes impossible to play but make the inverted crescent more pronounced. This makes notes easier to start and makes tonguing easier as well.
If it has a very pronounced hump just below the tip (this is not the case of all French reeds), you can reduce this in size a little. But proceed with caution as if you take too much off, you will make it unplayable.
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