 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: LKKlarinet
Date: 2008-07-27 17:24
I played clarinet for years and am thinking about learning oboe. How easy is the transition, emboucher, making reed, fingering?
LKKlarinet
Borbeck V12 Bob Harrison S-1Buffet
Post Edited (2008-07-27 21:23)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2008-07-27 18:24
You'll have a sore top lip at first due to the double lip embouchure, though that'll pass with time (just as you had a sore lower lip when you started clarinet).
Oboes overblow an 8ve (like a sax), so the lower and upper register fingerings are mostly the same, though you can make an oboe overblow a 12th (like a clarinet) with special harmonic fingerings for special tone qualities and ease of playing quietly in the upper register. But the general fingering will seem back-to-front at first, though you'll soon adapt.
You should be able to buy ready made reeds from a reputable source which is better as they've pretty done all the hard work for you, though you will have to learn to adjust them so they work for you (and this'll help you understand where and where not to scrape to get the reeds right).
But I reckon oboe is a good double as you may get called to do shows with oboe/cor anglais parts (such as 'Guys and Dolls') if you get recognition for playing oboe, and you may also like to add sax to your list of instruments as well (unless you already play sax).
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2008-07-27 19:04
Chris says it very well, much my own experience. Badly needing the "ill wind" in our small-local symp [early daze], and having a loaner Linton available, I started a 10 year trial to play and sound OK. Helping to obtain an Eng. Horn, I found I preferred it, even with it's differing problems, but when fairly-skilled high schoolers, oboe that is, joined, I was happy to revert to cl, and found that I liked the bass cl even better. Along the way, all of those insts, plus saxes, put me in the pits for many musicals playing Reeds 1,2,3,4, as needed. An enjoyable, ?semi-pro?. musical hobby ! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: jimk
Date: 2008-07-27 22:27
I took oboe lessons one summer not too long ago using a borrowed instrument. I think it helped my clarinet playing. My clarinet suddenly seemed easy to blow after trying to play an oboe. The embouchures are of course extremely different. I definitely couldn't have got anywhere without taking lessons.
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Author: Joseph Brenner, Jr.
Date: 2008-07-27 22:29
With the Bb clarinet, I generally have enough air at a time to play. When I started playing the oboe I found that I had an excess of air at a time and needed to dissipate it. The oboe is lighter than the clarinet and, with a double reed instead of a hard mouthpiece, the double lip embouchure on the oboe does not present the initial endurance and stability challenge that it does on the clarinet. And you'll probably have plateau (covered) keys on the oboe, so you mitigate key coverage problems with the oboe. When I learned to play the oboe, one dried out the bore with a feather...the top of the oboe has only a small opening for the double reed to enter and the diameter near the top of the instrument is quite small, so that one could not run a swab through it. If you price oboes, you will feel less inclined to besmirch the names of clarinet manufacturers. Best wishes; you're in for an adventure.
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2008-07-28 05:42
How easy is the transition? Fingerings-easy Embouchure-more physical Reeds-100 times more difficult.
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2008-07-28 17:03
Ancient history. I played clarinet for 10 years before teaching myself to play the oboe, with a little tutoring from a student. so that I could play in a university orchestra for three years, while learning. Never played it again, but it was most enjoyable and not a difficult transition. My clarinet enbouchure was no problem since I do not bite ; teeth do not touch the mp. I bought and played on a used Selmer.
richard smith
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