Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-03-18 17:34
ohsusan writes
<<In general, since I have gotten a "real" oboe teacher, I am finding that the instrument is a good deal more difficult to play well than I had previously thought. Maybe once I get my facial muscles and tummy muscles in shape ...>>
Amen to that! Hey ohsusan, so that's what was going on, eh? your sound wasn't blending in with that 'tuning police' post a few months ago because your sound isn't refined enough yet? Major break-through happened! Light has dawned, you get it, the problem you're having, wonderful news!
It takes us students quite a while to get a good sound on oboe (but hey, it takes time to get good tone on any wind instrument and on strings too, and leaning just right on piano keys for expressiveness isn't learned in a day either)
It's important to get a good start on oboe as several other posts have said, but admittedly it's usually expensive to get oboe lessons. Meanwhile, who on earth sits in front of a full length mirror while playing to self-check things like posture, how one is forming and holding their embouchure, and how one is managing their air support and breathing techniques?
An oboe teacher is an observer and can see what you're doing, or not doing, and works you to make the adjustments you personally need to make to become a better player. Each student presents teacher with different challenges as they attempt to play the instrument, and so an oboe teacher who knows exactly where you've got to arrive, helps design personalised methods of getting you there successfully.
For example, last year's summer teacher kept telling me to play the tip; i was taking in too much reed. My present teacher is telling me not to take in so much reed too. This is a common problem i'm told. Teacher can analyze why i'm doing this by observing exactly what i'm doing (or not doing)
i'm not maintaining an air-tight seal between gums and teeth, the under lip muscles aren't fully developed there yet (hey they're only 18 months, a toddler yet!) so the reed keeps sliding deeper into my mouth as these muscles weaken and loosen the lip-gum seal.
It was a major revelation, because i had absolutely no idea i was puffing out! I couldn't tell by feeling it, consciously i wasn't aware of even doing that, since i wasn't admiring myself in a mirror everytime i practice, i hadn't a clue. Teacher observed and watched exactly what was happening and brought my attention to it.
But now i'm aware of it, and working to improve the situation, and thinking about it, i've discovered the cause of not playing tip is actually more complex. In my memory, having played on bright and flexible reeds years ago, where the top 8-10mm (in 3 different sections) is played by more lip action, i've been trying to do that on shorter tipped and comparatively stiffer american style reeds and of course, not getting good results.
The stiff woody part of the hump is defeating me as i'm unconsciously attempting to nibble the reed to find the sweet spot in the right zone for the note range i'm playing. Meeting that stiff woody resistance is tiring for my embouchure as it is at the moment and 'pop' out I puff.
Playing this type of reed is a *** different embouchure technique *** than the one i learned as a young player.
Now this problem is identified, it's easier to work on solutions, hm, wonder if a piece of tape under my lower lip will help me recognize when i'm losing it?
But i didn't discover this on my own -- it was oboe teacher who told me
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