 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2005-05-29 01:36
Renewbie oboe student here, 8 months later... your brand new students not strong enough to play oboe yet? What focus on? Here are my few-bits' worth ...
Emphasize the importance of DAILY PRACTICE for as long as embouchure or lungs can handle it. That's usually only a few minutes to begin with. Over several weeks / months, work up to daily half-hour. Keeners can practice longer if they're stronger.
PLAY OBOE MUSIC TO STUDENTS, so they can hear the desired tone quality passively, but don't belabour the tone thing, just play oboe music until they really know several pieces very well, and have "sponged up" the sound of oboe just by listening ... work smarter, not harder.
When they start complaining they can't get that tone, ask them how long they can practice before their embouchure is too tired. If it's less than their regular time with you, or less than half an hour, that's their first goal.
When it comes to oboe embouchure, the rule of mouth I learned was "twice as long, twice as strong" meaning embouchure should have the stamina and endurance to go on playing twice as long as lessons, practices, rehearsals, performances.
USE PLASTIC DRINKING STRAW as exercise aid to build up embouchure (cut to reed size, goes in a pocket, carry with you anywhere) ... can practice a few smile-releases, and focused blowing through narrowed straw, any time of day, several times a day, really builds up those mouth muscles used in embouchure ... FASTER than just daily blowing practice on oboe which offers more resistance, true, but until stronger there's no joy doing that...
PRACTICE HOLDING THE BREATH (as if swimming underwater) for various counts (5-15) before slowly exhaling in a very controlled way through the straw ... this helps build up the rib-cage and ab muscles, plus conditions the body to accept lower levels of oxygen for short periods of time, reduces dizziness and feeling out of breath ... FASTER than just daily practice doing long tones on oboe (which is also important).
After a few weeks actually doing these weird exercises, several times a day, anytime, students would find blowing oboe easier, and duck tone won't be quite as honky, nicer listening for teacher and family!
LEARN HOW TO FIX (SCRAPE) REEDS so they blow more easily like a whistle, in student's weaker embouchure as it is now, and as they get stronger ... why struggle with "bad" reeds if you know how to scrape them to blow easier, and more in tune right away? Yes, there's quite a bit of reed turnover this way, but if the student can blow the reed comfortably, isn't that more productive?
BASIC NOTE FINGERING in the middle & low upper register, one octave in Key of F probably the easiest key and range of notes to play in the beginning, lots of tunes in this key for them to practice note combinations.
Too early for any scales (other than F) or tedious technical exercises to get rid of those awkwardly fingered "grace" notes ... leave that until they're in second year and really keen on oboe!
Too early for technical explanations of anything ... students want to PLAY TUNES as soon as possible. Make it fun and rewarding, and ... make it as easy as possible, while instilling the most important thing of all ... DAILY practice, practice, practice.
PLAY NEW TUNES several times for students, rather than make them sight read everything right away. Yes, sight-reading needs to be done too. Most students can learn the sound of a tune easier and then learn to read it later when they know how it goes, and how that relates to the way music is written. Gradually introduce more "cold" sight-reading much later on, when their fingering skills are more fluid and up to a reasonable tempo.
Sometime after mastering one octave in F, it's time to introduce Alternative fingerings for F by introducing key of B-flat ... and that's the first technical exercise, getting the forked F (beginner student oboes don't have LHF's, so have to learn forked F's) ... it's easier to finger forked F's in keys with flats, forked F's not just for D-F-D intervals.
Even with its F resonance key (and its LHF), I've found using the E-flat key brightens forked F's on the oboe I'm using. Better to learn this fingering skill than avoid it. Most oboes in the world don't have LHF's! Student oboes don't always have F resonance keys either, so ... have to learn to use the side E-flat key to brighten "stuffy" F's. Even if not stuffy on any particular oboe, will still have oboes where F's are stuffy ... so it's really a valuable skill to learn.
Start as early as possible, as it's really awkward to get the hang of it at first ... and it really must be practiced a lot, which is why so many people avoid it and assertively claim it really isn't necessary ... but, why not improve dexterity in alternative fingerings on any oboe? Learning left and right forked F's is a distinct playing asset ...
If student is right-handed, suggest learning the left pinky E-flat / forked F first, as it's really hard, and really needs lots and lots of practice, practice, practice. Vice versa for lefties.
... and teacher (or an oboe-savvy someone) blow the student's oboe to see how much resistance is in the pipe. If the student is having trouble getting started, it could be the pipe itself. Some student oboes are really easy to blow and others fight back.
That should be enough of a learning curve for any first-year student.
Best wishes with your students!
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d-oboe |
2005-05-10 01:50 |
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sömeone |
2005-05-10 11:47 |
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ohsuzan |
2005-05-12 02:36 |
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Re: Beginner students new |
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vboboe |
2005-05-29 01:36 |
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The Clarinet Pages
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