Author: Dutchy
Date: 2007-07-04 16:21
JRJINSA, your first paragraph is *exactly* my experience, too, except not with teacher-made reeds, just with commercial reeds.
As an adult beginner, after I'd been playing on Medium Soft reeds for about 6 months, I felt like I "ought to be able" to "move up" to a Medium reed. So I started ordering Mediums, and the result was that I spent an inordinate amount of time every day being unable to practice effectively at all, because my embouchure got so tired, so fast, that I was basically able only to play 8 to 16 measures before I'd have to stop for a substantial rest. This meant that it took me upwards of 2 hours to get through a total of 30 minutes of actual playing time.
Which I found incredibly discouraging, that my embouchure wasn't strengthening fast enough, that it took me SO long to get through what, according to other oboists, ought to have been a doddle--30 minutes of practice? No sweat.
But I *was* sweating, like mad. I'd been playing the oboe for months now, and I *ought* to be able to play on a Medium, right? Very frustrating.
I even began to wonder if maybe my mouth just wasn't built to play the oboe or something, because I couldn't even get through the simplest 64-bar Beginning band arrangements without having to stop in the middle several times and rest. (I don't mean "rest" like where you take a quick 1/8 note rest, I mean "rest" as in the embouchure turns to complete jelly and you have to put the oboe down for a while and go read a book or something).
So anyway, after struggling like this for, literally, months, the penny finally dropped and I realized it was that my reeds were too hard. So I went back to Medium Softs, and haven't looked back. I can now, as of this week, get through an entire hour's worth of practice without having the embouchure turn to jelly.
And when I go back to the Mediums that I ordered 18 months ago, and try them again, they work pretty good now, but spending time struggling with them and trying to get them to play wasn't what developed my embouchure--going back to Medium Softs was what did that.
Developing your mouth muscles is the same as developing any other set of muscles. If you're lifting hand weights to build up your biceps, and say you're starting with 2 lbs, you aren't told, "Now, you ought to be able to be lifting 3 lbs by now." No, they say, "Add weight when what you're lifting seems too easy." You aren't going to build muscle mass by jumping in and struggling to lift 3 lbs right away--slow and steady is what does it.
So reeds are the same way--you should move up to a harder reed when the reed you're playing on seems too easy, i.e. it collapses. I have trouble playing on Fox Medium Softs now, so now I get Medium, because the Medium Soft collapses. But even 6 months ago, the Mediums were still too hard, so I put them back in the box.
But you shouldn't feel like you "ought" to be able to "move up", because the phrase "move up" implies a graduation, a mastery of skills, and "not moving up" implies a lack of skills, which is negative.
Pushing yourself to play on a harder reed is going to be counter-productive because you're focusing just on getting through the practice, and you're not able to focus on tone production or pitch or phrasing or any of the other things. I really feel like I wasted a lot of time over the last 18 months, when I could have been learning other things besides "let's just get through this practice".
And I'm here to tell you that pushing yourself to play on a harder reed isn't going to develop your stamina faster, because if it would, then by this time I'd be playing concertos.
At any given moment in your training you should play on the reed that's right for you, and if it wears you out after a few bars, then it's not right.
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
