 The Fingering Forum
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Author: Polar
Date: 2003-03-24 06:34
I find that I play sharp often. I'm not sure if this is because of my reed, my embouchure, or a combination of both. How should I go about this problem?
ps it's not the oboe itself
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Author: ken
Date: 2003-03-24 15:49
Hello,Im ken.
Reed and embouchure are improtant factors.
But most imporotant factor is mascle of stomach.
The good muscle is that can send out smaller and hi speed breethe.
With the good muscle, you can choice various type reed.
you can play the oboe with relax embouchur.
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2003-03-24 21:11
Well in considering any problem you're having on the oboe, the main factors are the instrument itself, the embouchure and the reed as you mentioned, and finally air.
The reed could be causing you to play sharp if you're playing on exceptionally hard reeds, or if you're playing on reeds that haven't been suitably shaped. Reeds that are too narrow for instance tend to play sharp. Also a really sharp reed could be the result of improper overlapping of the blades; check and make sure the blades aren't slipped to far to one side.
The classic cause of playing sharp on the oboe though comes from biting down on the reed. Biting down with the embouchure will cause the pitch to jump up while at the same time producing a thinner, less resonant tone. It's analogous to trying to sing while being strangled; it just doesn't work. I think most people bite down because they're not using sufficient air to control the tone, and instead rely on pressure on the reed with the embouchure to keep the instrument in check. It's important to remember as well that the teeth should not be kept too far apart either as this can cause all sorts of tone and intonation problems, including playing sharp. I find if I keep my teeth about as far apart as I can gently bite down on my ring finger, that is a good width to use in my embouchure.
Last you should think about how you're using your air. Blowing too much air through the horn will cause the pitch to rise. The oboe works on pressure, not volume of air. One major way I can think of to cause the instrument to play sharp is to not focus your air enough in your throat and mouth before if leaves to move down the horn. When playing the oboe, you have to imagine that you're using the muscles of the throat and mouth to focus the air into a tight, intense stream. This is sort of counter-intuitive to most other woodwind instruments for which you must play with the throat in a more open position. When the air is properly focused before it leaves the mouth, you should strive to feel the sensation of "blowing down to pitch".
Anyway that's all I have for now. Hope this helps.
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Author: Lee
Date: 2003-04-05 06:01
Unfortunately, I find that most notes on oboe have to be lowered and rounded. Try lowering your tongue inside your mouth and putting less reed in the mouth. Also, sit down and play long notes in front of a tuner regularily: get used to playing notes in tune, especially A, all the time.
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Author: Polar
Date: 2003-04-07 06:27
I'm still kinda confused about this air pressure thing. I'm assuming air pressure is the speed at which the air travels through the reed. However, if this occurs then wouldn't that also subsequently equal more air being blown through? That sounds contradictory to me.
And also, I'm not too sure about what you mean by building up air in the throat, Torus.
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Author: Emir
Date: 2003-04-08 12:23
I'm a new player , and had the same problem as you do . Even using different reeds , problem still there. At last ,I made a ring with high 34mm hole 7mm out circle 21mm , then put it on the reed (through the hole ). The lips is touch on the ring , and don't give to much force on the reed . Now I feel the Oboe is really good instrument , make a lot of fun everyday .
Just do it !
Emir
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2003-04-11 22:51
Well what you should be aiming for is more speed of the air, not necessarily more volume of air. Increasing the pressure/speed doesn't necessarily increase the flow or volume of air you release. Here's an analogy:
Take a hosepipe for example. When you turn it on, a certain amount of pressure forces a certain amount of water through the hose in a given amount of time. If you squeeze the end of the hose, the water comes out faster and consequently with more force. However, this does not mean that more water is actually coming out. What's happening is that when you squeeze on the hose, you decrease the diameter through which the water is flowing. This causes the pressure to build up behind the area of constriction and with this increased pressure the water must speed up as it passes in order to compensate. This is called the Bernoulli principle for all you science dork types like me. All this speeding up of water can happen without any change in the actual amount of water that comes out.
This is the same idea I was talking about when I was saying you should focus your air in the throat and mouth. You can have the same amount of air moving through either a large opening with a lower velocity, or a smaller opening with a higher velocity. The latter is better for playing the oboe. Now since the opening of the reed is constant for any given amount of lip pressure, then yeah you're right that if the air moves with more speed the more will be coming out in a given amount of time. But what matters is the speed itself, and not the total amount expelled. What I'm talking about is how to get the air up to speed in your body before it even leaves your mouth.
Now that I go back and look at it, I think what I said about people wanting to blow too much air through the horn is a little misleading. Perhaps I should say, people sometimes play <i>as if</i> they are trying to blow too much air through the horn by playing with their throat and mouth too open.
That's also what I was trying to say with the throat; just don't be tempted to play with it too open.
One thing, well two things I will add. First everything I'm talking about will be for naught if you are playing with too much reed in your mouth. I forgot to mention that previously, but that is an all-too-common reason why people tend to play sharp. It will also cause your tone to be really wild and unfocused sounding.
Second, where are you writing from? One problem I have found more and more on this forum, and especially when talking about playing the oboe, is that there is such a large variation in style of playing and reeds from country to country that advice from one person in one country may prove utterly useless to someone from another country. I'm talking about the American style of playing with American scrape reeds. I'm not too sure how much help some of this will be to you if you're not from America, but most of it does seem to be fundamental to the oboe regardless of where you're from.
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Author: Julie
Date: 2003-04-18 20:46
im a newcomer at the oboe. im only 11 and ive been playing for a few months and i have figured out that with the oboe anything can go wrong.sometimes it is the reed or maybe your oboe is broken. sometimes it can just be too dirty or the air or your posotion on the reed.just check all the posibilities and see how you can fix them.
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