 The Fingering Forum
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Author: Accordionmaid
Date: 2002-04-04 01:37
It's me, the beginner oboist.
I've been doing okay, but, tonight while practicing, I changed my embouchure a bit and got a louder/better tone. I noticed that, then, my lips were "vibrating" much more than they did in my old method.
So, maybe this new way is more correct? It's more...loose and balloony, maybe...I am not holding the lower lip as tight as before, and not turned in, just resting lightly on the reed.
So, it that indicate of correctness, to really feel it in the lips, after playing? Seems so.
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Author: Torus Tubarius
Date: 2002-04-04 06:13
Hola. I just got through playing for the evening, and yeah I can still feel my lips tingling a little bit.
Making the emboucure looser will definitely help to free up the reed to vibrate. I don't know exactly what you mean by balloony, but if you have any air pockets in between your lips and gums that is not what you want. Also turning the lower lip out more is good.
The most important thing to remember is to not bite down on the reed, and to make sure and pull your chin down flat as you play. Try and imagine pulling your chin down serving to seal the sides of your mouth when you play. The whole emboucure should be drawn closed by the chin being pulled down and flat. (Just FYI, if you know any anatomy, the muscle that's actually doing all the work is the mentalis muscle which serves to draw the skin of the chin tight.)
Also make sure your teeth are not too far apart as well; some players (like myself) have a tendancy to want to drop the jaw more than is necessary, and this must be guarded against.
The oboe generates a warm, rounded tone when a) the reed is allowed to vibrate freely (as is accomplished by a flat chin and lips that are not to rolled in which will dampen the vibration at the tip) and b) by an air stream which is intense and highly focused. Blow through the horn, this is very important for attack, articulation, and intonation as well as tone.
Also, how's the reed situation coming along? A bad reed can kill the best of players' performance.
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Author: Accordionmaid
Date: 2002-04-05 00:46
It's my cheeks that were slightly ballooned, but, no air pockets between lips/gums. I think the mentalis was working correctly, and thanks for the new term, I never did take a decent anatomy class!
I'm using a med. soft reed that I bought from a music store, one more about guitars than oboes, and I'll soon try to find something better, but I had to see that I could actually make some kind of progress.
I take it seriously, but, I'm not really an aspiring musician, these days, except as a personal hobby. I kind of enjoy going at my own pace.
When I'm good enough AND have the best reeds and all, I'll try to do something like make some home recordings, join an ensemble, etc.
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