 The Oboe BBoard
|
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
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: huboboe
Date: 2014-08-18 01:13
I used to play thumb on, but while subbing in the SF Symphony and sitting next to Marc Lifschey, I saw that he played thumb off in the upper octave except when it was on the octave key. I found that freed up my motion since I didn't need to pick it up before putting it on the octave key.
Marc's advice, "Caress the instrument, don't assault it" is the best I have ever received on technique...
No matter the speed, every move the man made was smooth and graceful. Fingers next to the keywork, he stroked rather than pushed. Amazing to watch...
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: RobinDesHautbois
Date: 2014-08-24 04:23
HEY, get real here:
1. does it slow down your scales?
2. does it cause blips?
3. does it crack any notes?
4. is it causing muscle tension resulting in pain?
If the answer to all of these is no, THEN WHO CARES? (to put it very politely).
It's just like all the talk on the shape of the half hole and lifting the index for high G, or "German" fingering to trill B-C# or dawg-knows-what.... provided it helps legato and doesn't affect tuning or tone quality, GIVE ME A BREAK ALREADY!
.... but then I'm not a pro....
Robin Tropper
M.A.Sc., B.Mus., B.Ed.
http://RobinDesHautbois.blogspot.ca/music
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: WoodwindOz
Date: 2014-08-24 10:44
Those are my thoughts exactly, Robin! I have encountered the 'my way or the highway' attitude to things such as this and more, and if something works for you, why is it so important?
I feel that my duty as a teacher is to present the options and allow my students to make informed choices, have valid reasons for those choices, and the freedom to say, "You know what, that didn't work for me, I think I am going to try this a different way." It is not my duty to create a legion of robots who do what I say...that is not education and is certainly not promoting an art form.
I am interested in the reasons for people's choices, because obviously I have valid reasons for my own and often find it hard to find reasons for others.
Thanks for the input, guys. Robin, I hope we start to see more teachers and players out there who think along the 'who cares what others do, this is what I do' lines.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: cjwright
Date: 2014-08-26 12:31
I don't understand.
Are you talking about taking the thumb octave off as you use the side octave?
Or are you talking about your movement between using the thumb octave, and not using the thumb octave, you disconnect contact between the thumb and the oboe?
I am a 6'4" man with extremely large hands (188cm) and I keep my thumb just below the thumb octave, and rock it up to contact the thumb octave when needed. You only need to barely touch it, not slap your whole darn thumb on the key in order to trigger it. I feel very strongly about this topic, so I won't ramble much further, but I will say that everything about my technique and what I teach my students is cutting down on wasted motion, whether that's keeping fingers very far away from keys, pressing down extra fingers, or creating more tension than is needed. Lifting the thumb to put it smack on the thumb octave would be a lot of wasted motion and fraction of seconds for me.
Blog, An Oboe In Paradise
Solo Oboe, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: newedit617
Date: 2014-08-29 23:33
The oboe I used throughout high school and college -- a Rigoutat RIEC -- was ergonomical enough that I could comfortably rock my thumb to activate the octave key. I have pretty small hands. Now that I have a Marigaux 901 oboe, I noticed that the thumb octave key is higher up the instrument. So it is almost impossible for me to place my left thumb close enough to the octave key to rock it without a huge stretch, because the other fingers of my left hand are lower down. I think I do lift my thumb off the instrument to use the octave key because of the distance. It would be great to add a keyplate extension so that my thumb could be in a comfortable place on the instrument.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-09-18 01:33
I just can't understand why the Conservatoire System Oboe doesn't have a thumb rest for the LH. All the other woodwinds have something to put your LH thumb on, even the Saxophone has a 'dummy' thumb rest. It seems to me to be one of those stupid French ideas that results in a very useful touch point for holding the Oboe securely been lost. I play a Dual System Howarth S55c Oboe.
I had a loan of a Conservatoire System Cor Anglais once and the first thing I did was fashion a LH thumb rest out of quality cork and 'blue tacked ' it to the body of the Cor. It made playing so much easier. The thumb action is to just slightly slide over onto the first octave key, very much like the Saxophone.
This was easily removed before I returned the Cor to it's owner with no trace of the blue tack on the wood .
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-09-18 01:48
If I went to playing pure conservatoire system I'd definitely have a LH thumb button fitted for comfort. Either a round and slightly domed one made from a large pad cup or one fashioned from the same thumbplate castings Howarth use as they're the best shape. On dual system you can lift off the thumbplate for any notes with LH3 closed, but not on pure conservatoire as the top joint Bb key is linked directly to the thumbplate and not linked to be held closed by LH3.
Being a sax player I roll or slide onto the 8ve key instead of lifting and placing my thumb on it and on clarinet you have to nudge the speaker key open due to there being a thumb hole which has to be kept closed for most notes.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-09-18 02:27
Yes Chris , come to think of it , my thumb action on the Cor with the my improvised thumb rest was more a rolling action than a sliding one. I fashioned it to fit over the round body of the instrument and the top was slightly curved for thumb comfort. As I said , I made mine out of good quality cork but firm rubber would also do. It was approx 1.5 cm in diam. I can imagine if one was fashioned such a thumb rest for a Conservatoire Oboe it'd be about 1 cm in diam.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-09-18 02:39
I'd go for something nearer 17mm in diameter if using a pad cup (eg. an XL oboe low Bb pad cup) for comfort as 10mm will dig into your thumb after a while.
I've still got ideas on Sax system oboes (and cors) and they'd have a large pad cup as a LH thumb button if they ever saw the light of day.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-09-18 06:16
Sounds like it'd be a very interesting Oboe Chris. Keep working on it. Although I read somewhere that they tried out a Boehm System Oboe in Spain but it never caught on.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
