Author: WoodwindOz
Date: 2014-08-17 16:57
It seems there are divided opinions on this, and now I have a small studio of students, I would like to present all the facts and opinions to them.
Obviously this won't apply to thumbplate players, but when moving between the lower octave and notes using the first octave key, I take my thumb off the oboe to put it on the first octave key. I personally find I am more accurate, faster and it gives a me a sense of freedom changing between these notes. I have observed a few other players here in Oz doing the same. In my defense, I have extremely long fingers and thumbs (most of you would had a heart attack if you saw my right hand thumb position in order for me not to break the line of my wrist, which to me is more important for dexterity) and my thumbs are double jointed, so rolling just doesn't work for me. I also find that since I take the thumb off to play the high notes, I can rest it lower on the oboe when playing low notes, which is a better position to space out the LH fingers.
From a flute player's perspective, we do everything in our power to avoid rolling the thumb key. It destabilises the hand position and is not always as rhythmically accurate. But I can also see why people are hesitant to remove the thumb all together on oboe. I'm just interested in what other people do, and their reasons, because I want to give my students a choice, and reasons for the options.
Rachel
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The Oboe BBoard
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