Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-02-14 13:24
Stephen's advice is good!
I would just add a couple of observations of my own.
Be sure you have the right idea about oboe embouchure. The thing that works best for me is to put my lips on the reed as if I were sucking on a drinking straw. Then, I try to maintain that shape while I turn my lips inward, being careful to create pressure ONLY at the corners of the lips (not in the center -- that will make the grip too tight and the sound too harsh).
Here are a few other things to consider:
-- are you resting your mouth on the reed, as if it were a mouthpiece? The oboe reed should be able to move around in your mouth a little. Make sure your back teeth and the back of your mouth feel very open while you are blowing.
-- are you playing pretty much on the tip of the reed, or are you letting your lips go down and almost cover the threads? Try to stay out on the tip. That way, less of the reed is left free to vibrate inside your mouth, and the sound will be mellower.
-- when you look at yourself in a mirror while you are playing, what does your mouth look like? If your lips are drawn back into a tight "smile", your sound will tend to be harsh. They need to feel rounder, and feel "bunched up, with the pressure coming in from the side of the mouth.
-- how resistant is your reed? You want a reed that responds easily, but some soft or medium soft reeds (especially the kind that you typically find at music stores) are so soft they sound like kazoos no matter what you do.
-- how hard are you blowing? Too much air forced through a soft reed sounds very quacky. Try for a consistent, controlled air stream that is neither as loud as, nor as quiet as, you can blow.
-- feel the air inside your mouth as if it were going UP over the back of your (raised) soft palate to the bridge of your nose, not out into the oboe.
Keep trying! Get help from a real live oboe-playing teacher or advanced student whose tone you like. A lot of school music teachers unfortunately haven't had much experience with the oboe -- maybe only a few weeks (if that) during their woodwind pedagogy class in college. Make sure what you get is good information.
Keep trying!
Susan
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
