Author: sömeone
Date: 2003-05-06 13:21
Well it truly isn't an easy instrument to get used to with, especially having originally playing the clarinet. I have a same case with you, the school band's senior oboist was graduating, so they needed a replacement, (most of the time the more prestigious clarinet player will take the oboe chair, as there is only one oboe seat in the band).
I had been playing for 4 years now (although i switched i still continued playing the clarinet, often facing a lot of problems, which i will explain later.), and switched only recently, which is about half a year ago. Firstly, getting used to the oboe embouchure is VERY DIFFICULT, which until now you must have found out to be very different from the clarinet.
Switching was hard and 'painful', no doubt in order to play really well (there isn't too many real GOOD oboe players out there, which means good recordings are also hard to find) you'll have to sacrifice a lot of practise time, and that usually also means sacrificing your good clarinet playing, i propose. A good teacher is also paricularly important, there isn't any good teacher around in my area, so i had to look for information in books and the internet and man i gotta tell you that trying to differentiate what was correct or not was definitely not fun. I had to try out a lot of things which i wasn't quite sure of, although at last (which took me about 3 months, under the guidance of my senior and a lot of bumping and falling) i got a hand on things, i'm still not a good player under my own rating till now.
You will have to consider one more thing, reeds. Most good oboe players make their own reeds, giving themselves a truly unique tone color which is very important. Spending time to learn how to make reeds can kill you.
If you still want to play the oboe after having read all my sufferings and all, please do so as the oboe is an excellent instrument. As for job opportunities i don't think i can give too many opinions, as i don't intend to further my studies in music (i don;t have rich parents you know.) but i'm sure i'll keep on playing in the local wind orchestra once i start working.
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