Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-01-20 18:36
Hey jrjinsa, good for you, what machismo you young uns have to post your early efforts, love your E-horn video, great playing :-)
also much enjoyed your Gek oboe video, good energetic tone, good inner metronome, nice phrasing, pleasant sound, very good at 18 months ... until the Big Gasp crashed you [:-[
so here's (hopefully) some constructive input re: your Gekeler 2:2 (a Barret!) -- your video is an excellent demonstration to all of us beginners and not-so-new beginners alike about one of oboe's toughest challenges -- efficient air management
we oboe players really have to deliberately work on 'air management'
yes, you had lots of 'air' inside and you have lots of 'chest' for long breath carrying capacity to play continuous phrases but you weren't replenishing enough oxygen in your air mix so stale air with too much CO2 did you in you were in oxygen crisis at that part where you accelerated and you crashed when oxygen deprived fingers fumbled, CO2 will do that to you and hoboy have we all been there? Yes we have, many times!
now read that long para above out aloud and use it as an example of the most important difficulty all oboe players have just trying to keep their air at the optimum O2 & CO2 mix *for the oboe* and the player alike
then punctuate that long para with commas and such, and practice little exhales and inhales alternately with the punctuation
the subtlest first warning sign came when your notes began to sag-off in the early second section, and that was soon followed by a whimper in one of the the slur-offs before hitting high C
you didn't seem to make a full breath exchange at the very beginning before you started playing, you just started blowing from the air already in your lungs, need to change that too-casual approach
you topped up your air by at least two inhalations, but until the Big Gasp, there doesn't seem to be an attempt at any exhalations (although i think you did puff out a tiny bit in one place) -- so you need to focus on where exactly in the music you will do enough exhalations to get rid of stale air CO2, and enough inhalations to replenish your oxygen O2 (staggered breathing)
At the 1/8th rest after High C and top G you tried to blow on through it without doing anything for your air, but your body already desperately needed more oxygen right there
you speeded up because your body was instinctively cuing you to hurry up and get this finished before running completely out of breath
finger fumbles could be you're still unsure of the sequencing, but it's also very likely fingers were in asphyxiation crisis -- the tiny capillaries in your fingers are too small for red blood cells to get through except one at a time, every red cell's oxygen is vitally important to revitalise the muscles there, and once the CO2/O2 mix falls below par -- fumble fumbs
There are 1/8 rests and 1/4 rests in this etude and each one of those can be used for air management, but the reality is there aren't enough of them to carry us beginners to the end, especially in the dynamically demanding second section !
Yes, you can hold your breath well, but you haven't yet pumped up your CO2/O2 exchange skills, need more exercise at that
So, ask your teacher about breath management techniques, you need to know about breath exchange and staggered breathing to get you through Gek 2:2 victoriously
youtube it again sometime later, OK?
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