 The Fingering Forum
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Author: Heather
Date: 2003-09-04 21:48
Hello, My name is Heather. I am 17 years old and have been playing the oboe for a little over 6 months now. It comes pretty easily to me, I guess because I have played every instument under the sun before it unril this one "stuck." I have two questions.
1. Generally how long do you need to have been playing/how good do you have to be before you can think of music school (as in university) I was thinking of majoring in something else before, but I love to oboe so much that I am slowly starting to consider the possibility of "what if" I went in that direction. Would it even be worth pursuing considering the fact that I still have (as does nearly everyone) a few things to learn? I know this is hard to say one way or the other, but opinions or otherwise would be greatly appreciated.
2. I recently had my wisdom teeth out, and because of having to heal, I have not been able/allowed to play much. it there anything I can do outside of actually playing to retain things that might be lost during such a hiatus? ( I am able to play on a limited basis at this point, but still have some jaw pain... so... any ideas?
Didn't mean to ramble on, but...
Thanks, Heather
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2003-09-04 22:38
Let's see. These aren't exactly easy questions to answer, but:
With regards to your first question: Do you have a teacher? If so, this is something you should really discuss with him (her). If you do not have a teacher, I would recommend getting one if you are thinking about pursuing the oboe seriously. Without ever having heard you play, I cannot really tell you whether or not it's a good idea. I can tell you that you are going to have to work hard, but if you love it and are persistent enough, there's no telling what you can do. If I personally where thinking about getting into an undergraduate oboe performance program, here are a few things I would be sure I could do on the oboe with proficiency:
-12 major/minor scales + chromatic scale
-at least some use of vibrato
-work at having a smooth, rich tone, not like a professional or anything, but not like an offensive beginner tone either
-sight-reading
-good attacks (i.e. no cracking of the tone and no obstrusive "wet-mop-hitting-the-wall" sounds)
-good releases (i.e. no sagging of pitch and no abrupt cessation of the tone)
-reasonably good intonation and pitch
-start becoming familiar with some of the standard repertoire for oboe
Really all these, except for maybe the last one, are just the fundamentals of oboe playing which you should always be mindful of no matter what level your playing has reached. A good grasp of the fundamentals however is what separates the beginner from the intermediate player, and it is that intermediate level that you should work towards before entering into any kind of performance program.
As far as your second question goes, I'm not really sure. That sucks. I guess you could practice holding the reed in your mouth in front of a mirror to try and weed out any embouchure problems, but really without playing the instrument I'm not sure how helpful that will be. Just be patient. I'm currently having to take a forced hiatus as well since I've come down with some silly virus these last few days. (Even though I've cheated and played some and made reeds anyway).  Get better soon and I'll try to as well!
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Author: Musical Mind
Date: 2003-09-04 22:52
Heather, I'm a flutist and I am really thinking about being a professional flutist in the future. I heard that majoring in flute is the most competitive in any instruments. But I shall not give up now. Like you, I do ask myself, "What if?" I heard that music is very hard to succeed, but I believe that if I play my flute and practice with objectives everyday effectively, I will get good results at some time, play better. If you want to major in oboe, you should be able to get 1 rating in State solo contest. That's all I can say about that.
Actually, you should have played oboe only until now if you wanted to major in oboe. That actually brings a higher possibility to success because you had years of experience in playing the oboe. And I don't think playing oboe greatly isn't gonna be hard for you now because you probably have played other instruments like oboe. Don't give up now on playing the oboe because the tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. (Benjamin Mays said that, whoever that is) And remember this quote also, said by Aristotle, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Well, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself at first. My name is Peter, 15 years old, and have been playing the flute for 5 years. I actually played the piano when I was 5 for 2 years, and I quit because I didn't like it. It was too hard for me at that age. Then, in the fourth grade, my life started to change a lot with flute. I don't consider myself the best nor the worst. I don't want to compete. I play the flute with God's love for people. If I don't become a professional flutist in this lifetime, so be it because I had at least an important goal. And don't worry about the pain. It will go away soon.
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Author: ~Heather ~
Date: 2003-09-04 23:10
Looks like they answered it. And I dont play Oboe, but my names Heather too, lol except I have swigglies on mine ~Heather~. lol.
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Author: Heather
Date: 2003-09-05 00:49
Thanks for the help guys. It was wonderful. Yes, Tubarius, I do have a teacher... a few actually. Trying at this point to get in with the university professor as a private student. I've been told that I have very good tone... not duck like by any means (even on a resin oboe) and I am most times perfectly on pitch (using professional tuner)unless the reed is acting up. Dunno if that means much at this point, but we shall see. Also, I wanted to say hi to Peter. Thanks for the advice. I'm glad to have met you, actually that applies to all of you. I'll definitely be lurking around here from time to time now that I've found this lovely little hideaway. :-)
Heather
PS. to the other Heather, cool... :-) I like the squiggles. lol.
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Author: miller
Date: 2003-09-05 16:28
hi i'm dani
i'm considering music college when i'm old enough
i'm 14 now and doing my grade 8 my teacher says i should be good enough one day.
i'm doing my grade six theory and have just started my gcse course today
i know it's very hard to get into music college but as musical mind said you'll never achieve anything in life and less you work hard towards something you want
or something along those lines anyway
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Author: Musical Mind
Date: 2003-09-06 04:09
I wanted to say that if you told your parents about your future as a musician, they probably won't believe you. My parents don't believe me really, but they SAID that we should wait and see...
Hm, this is something that we should seriously consider about as musicians, don't you think? Actually, even if I get into a music college, I may or may not make it to the professional level. Maybe somebody else will. Overall, I'm saying that if someone suceeds, the others fail. And yes, we can't avoid that. Music is a very competitive field, sadly. :'(
Finally, you (we all) must have these mind sets, "I can do it, I can make it. I will not give up now because all the hard work I did had important objectives." But, of course, there has to be some possibilities that you can fail even if with these strong mind sets because everybody's different, you know. Someone else can succeed without these mind sets. Well, I will just stop here because you know all the philosophy about it.
Really, ask God to help you. That's all I can say.
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Author: miller
Date: 2003-09-06 09:44
i can't ask god to help me the only one who can really help me along the road is me
my parents are both supportive they know what i can play and how much i could achieve if i put my mind to it
it's just a scary road to step along
even if i don't become a professianal mucian i know i still want music to be a big part of my life
teach ing music in schools is one option and teaching instraments
composition is one idea
they are all hard tasks to take on
like all the arts you have to have some skill as well as guidence to achieve your goals
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Author: Musical Mind
Date: 2003-09-07 01:51
Yes, good, there are alternative music jobs when not making to the professional instrument player. And yes, we all need good teachers to achieve our goals.
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Author: miller
Date: 2003-09-08 17:30
i know i definatly have work harder with a decent teacher with some of myold ones i just get bored
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Author: miller
Date: 2003-09-09 17:01
yeah but some of the stuff you hear today actually isn't music
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Author: Musical Mind
Date: 2003-09-09 23:01
But don't you play the many old classical music? Professionals play a lot of those, you know.
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Author: miller
Date: 2003-09-10 16:13
it not just classical thats only a small section i love bach and telemann who are both baroque composers who have a very different sound from mozart or behtoven or mozart who are classical and even more different from tchaikovsky who's a romantic composer
i'm not very keen on renasonce though as i find it boring
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