Author: Loree BF51
Date: 2008-06-07 17:13
Having relearned the embouchure from Ray Still, here is what I remember: take the reed (hopefully, scraped American-style) and place it on the student's lower lip, so that the tip is about halfway in on the lower lip and then gently rotate the reed slightly, so that the student can get a feeling of where the tip actually is. The reed should feel "tacky", i.e., halfway between dry and wet. The lips should "focus" around the reed without being too loose or too tight. Then, have the student blow through the reed itself, so that an A pitch is produced with a normal embouchure. A standard U.S. reed should blow at A (with normal embouchure) and crow C octaves (reed all the way in to just where the thread begins). Without the oboe attached there is much less resistance to making the reed vibrate and produce a sound. Even now, how much air to take in?! Talk of taking in just enough air to play through an 8-bar phrase, in medium tempo, in 4/4 time. Maybe, for a beginner, in 2/4 time! In other words don't take in too much air! Then, have them roll the reed in slightly, along with a little more embouchure closure (try to not say pressure!) so the pitch goes up to B-flat. Tell them that the feeling should be the same as before, only the pitch has changed. One of the biggest problems, of course is, that it is easy to roll the lips back out, but the reed still wants to stay in some. This is an exercise they should continue to practice, often, eventually extending the pitch up to C# and D. During normal playing with normal lips, a little bit of the reed should be visible, just outside the lips. If not, the reed may be in too far. The tell-tale sign that a U.S. reed is in too far, is that (with the oboe attached) the middle B to C interval will "spread", with the B, being flat and the C, being sharp, assuming of course, that the instrument's B and C are properly tuned. Have them play this interval a number of times in a row, starting with the reed too far in and then helping them pull the reed out to the "normal" position and have them listen to the pitches.
To warm up try making scales creative! Have her play a D major scale (easy fingering, mostly), starting on the low D and going up to the E, just above the octave D, and then back down to the low D in Slurred mode, first, stressing trying to glue one note to the next. Notice that we have 8 notes going up and 9 notes coming down, so we do have about 8 bars in 2/4 time, so already, we've begun to integrate things. Now change the articulation to very quick and light tongueing of each note with as little space as possible between notes which is best done by using the lower part of the tip of tongue, which helps it to not get stuck between the reed and the lower lip structure. Say that only the tongue is moving, but the breath stays absolutely constant in this second type of articulation. Of course, extend this scale exercise to medium spacing, and then to big spacing - short notes, i.e., staccato, now decreasing the time the breath is flowing. As you can see, scale praticing can be used as a vehicle for introducing the concept of articulation, thereby killing two birds with one stone and making scale practice, much more interesting, I think.
Most of what I've written here is from Mr. Still with a few "observations" of my own. Mr. Still would not allow a student to produce an inferior sound for very long and by diligently applying the above, a beginning student should be able to produce a decent sound more quickly than otherwise might be the case.
I hope that what I've written here is of some help to you. Let us know
R. Still former student
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