Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-11-20 12:57
<My teacher also said that I blow into the oboe too hard and that I need to focus on the narrow passageway into the reed. >
Ah! A woman after my own heart! Coming to oboe from the clarinet, it has been a challenge for me to scale back the volume of air typical for clarinet playing into an amount appropriate for oboe playing. For me, this involved not only learning to manage the air, but also learning to firm up my embouchure.
To get the "nose" feeling, try this: WITHOUT taking a big breath, clamp your lips together very tightly, tense your abdominal muscles, and then let the air escape through the nose (like suppressing a sneeze). When you can do that reliably, try it on the oboe, but instead of letting the air out your nose, direct it, with that same degree of air AND lip pressure, down into the reed.
One of the things I did not understand for a long time was that, even though we are advised not to "bite" the reed, you still have to develop a really, really firm musculature around the reed. The oboe embouchure must be, for want of a better description, very "tight" around the mouth. It is definitely *not* biting, because it is lip muscles, not teeth, that do the job. But my teacher had to practically beat me about the head and shoulders to get me to understand how firm the embouchure must be. It must be firm enough to restrain that pressurized air. If it is not, you will end up giving the reed too much air and not enough pressure, and your sound will be harsh and too loud.
When the whole thing clicks in, it will not seem difficult. Until then, it may seem impossible and require constant vigilance.
Susan
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The Oboe BBoard
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