Author: Dutchy
Date: 2007-03-10 14:00
Larilee is a mid-range oboe, not the best, but not the worst, either.
Besides asking the band director, as already mentioned, I would think that her clarinet teacher, if she has one, would have some ideas.
Also, your local school band instrument rental store almost certainly can give you some leads.
If she doesn't already have a deep commitment to "music", then nothing we can suggest is going to encourage or motivate her. Be aware as a Mom that the oboe is quite a bit more difficult than the clarinet to play--if she struggled with obligatory practice times with the clarinet, it's going to be "more so" with the oboe. The embouchure is a killer compared to the clarinet embouchure, and it can take her months to get to the "halfway decent" point, which many children find quite discouraging. So she may have some extreme frustration over the next few months, since because the clarinet no doubt came rather easily to her, she'll expect the oboe to be the same, and it won't.
What was her motive in deciding to switch to oboe? We have all had the experience of seeing junior high and high school band directors (quote unquote) "encourage" a woodwind player to switch to oboe merely because they wish they had an oboe in their band, not because the student evinced any particular aptitude or desire to play the oboe, and the experience is never a happy one.
But if she's switching to oboe because she's in love with the sound, then more power to her. ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif) If she has questions, she's more than welcome to register her own nick here, and ask away. This is a VERY kid-friendly forum, no bad language, no dirty jokes, nothing but oboe talk.
So just hold her hand, be sympathetic, and--DON'T LISTEN. That's one of the things that bugs all beginning oboists, is the thought that someone, somewhere is listening in horror to their atrocious beginning playing.
Someone who is already competent on another instrument will be especially self-concious about this; she knows the clarinet sounds good, so she'll be doubly embarrassed that the oboe doesn't. If it seems like it's necessary, make a big obvious point of going upstairs for a while (or downstairs, or whatever), so as to leave her to herself during practice time.
My daughter is taking singing lessons, and is terrifically self-conscious about her practice times. "Don't listen!" she commands. So I make a point of scheduling some oboe practice upstairs whenever she's downstairs using the piano.
And I hate it myself when my husband lies there in bed, reading and listening to me while I practice. I find myself focusing on sounding pretty and interesting, rather than on hammering away at the necessary drudgery of repeating those few notes in that one particular measure where I haven't got the fingering quite right...
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The Oboe BBoard
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