 The Fingering Forum
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Author: needy-oboe
Date: 2004-04-28 03:11
I have been having extreme problems with the tuning of my oboe. I have tired various shaping techniques, cooling my oboe down, and even using longer reeds but it still very sharp when tuning. I have a concert coming up pretty soon and I don't have enough time to get my oboe adjusted. Is there any temporary things I can do to get my oboe more finely tuned?
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Author: dboe
Date: 2004-04-28 14:22
If you're playing sharp, I'm tempted to say that your are either biting unnecessarily when you play, or you are "clenched" inside.
Try this: breathe in with you mouth in a "o-shape" and try to fill your entire body with air, right down to the bottom of you stomach. Now release some of this air, and then introduce the oboe. This is a very unusual problem, because any problem with leaking pads, or leaking reeds, would result in flatness, not sharpness. Also check that your reed is crowing a "C" to an A440 tuner. A couple of my oboe firends have made the mistake of not checking the calibration of their tuners, and ended up making sharp reeds. The only other thing I could suggest is that you are playing on a german oboe; they tune their instruments much higher than americans do (sometimes A 442!) so that could result in your playing sharp relative to an A440 tuner.
dboe
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Author: needy-oboe
Date: 2004-04-29 00:35
I have a Fox oboe, and only recently with the weather change has it become very sharp. I went to my lessons teacher and she adjusted some of the screws and it actually helped a little. Maybe the calibration is off on my tuner...I don't know.
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Author: Lee
Date: 2004-04-29 01:42
Try this as alternative to making the "o-shape:" whistle then put the oboe in your mouth. You won't be biting, and the air will be moving freely.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2004-05-08 04:33
Often, sharp playing is due to an unstable reed. In fact, if your reed is not stable, it is next to impossible to play in tune, regardless of how good you think your ear is.
Check the stability of your reed by crowing it with the lips on the edge of the thread, on the very tip, and on the thread. On the first two crows, it must crow a C in blowing from soft to loud with no variation in the pitch.
For the crow on the thread, I prefer a raucus C crow also but will settle for a raucus lower pitch on that one only, also with no variation from soft to loud.
To fix a misbehaving reed, there are many roads to heaven. For flat crows, I will sometimes remove extra cane from the sides near the thread or clip the tip a tiny bit. For sharp crows, I take cane off the back or hump. For unstable crows, a little off the upper end of the hump center will help. To free up the crows, a little off the upper outer corners of the hump will help. To get more bass in the crow, a little off the back center may be needed.
During practice at home, I never use a tuner or fork because I know what my Loree oboe tuning sounds like and should sound like. But my reeds must meet the above crow tests or I won't use them for practice or for rehearsal. At the rehearsal, I put a tuner on my stand mainly to indicate to the orchestra that I use standard A 440 for the tuning note.
Yet, I believe that some of the flutists I hear should spend a lot of time in front of a tuner as they are so often too sharp in their third register. This applies to clarinets and bassoons as well. Good luck!!
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Author: Wes
Date: 2004-05-08 07:42
Hi!
Another comment would be to make sure that you play on the very tip of the reed. If you put too much reed in your mouth, it will be very difficult to keep the pitch down. One can get a nice, covered oboe sound by playing with the minimum of reed in the lips. The oboe doesn't have to be loud and will cut through the ensemble sound even when it is soft. As Tabuteau said "It is the dolce sound that carries the farthest!" One does not need to compete with the trumpets.
A oboe player lady I know plays in a band and she learned the oboe in high school. She simply won't play on the tip of the reed, even though she sounds much better, both in sound quality and pitch. Her pitch(and strident quality of sound) with her band is so sharp that she drives others crazy. She is so busy with her kids and her SUV that she just can't address the problem. Good luck!
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Author: dboe
Date: 2004-05-10 14:45
There are a number of factors due to sharpness, many which are fixable; some which are not.
I find when my reeds are unstable when there is too much wood left in the sides and back of the tip, or the tip is too long.
First of all, the blend between the tip and heart should be smooth, and even. No "cliffs". This is a huge factor in reed stability, and pitch.
Second, the blend must be shaped in such a way that is forces the vibrations down the centre of the reed. Most people use an upside-down "V", or an upside-down "U" shape, and this channels tip vibrations into the rest of the reed.
Now back to the original point of sharpness. It is caused by three main things:
Playing with a bite
A reed that is too old
A reed that is too short.
If you bite the reed down, then sharpness is inevitable. You have to play without biting the reed. It should "crow" a C against a tuner. If it crows lower, and you have to bite it up, the reed needs adjusting.
A reed that is too old. If you've been playing on a reed for two months, and it's too sharp, get/make a new one.
A reed that is too short. If you've clipped your reed too short, you can try to scrape it back down to pitch, but it's usually hopeless. Clip only to raise the pitch of the reed, and only a insanely small bit at a time.
Hopefully that answers all your questions!
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