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Re: Starting the Oboe

Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-08-04 00:29

Hey welcome UK Beck'num

What are your long-term playing goals / dreams with oboe?
This will determine which kind of instrument will best serve those goals

Visit your local music store and check out their rental oboes for your first year, they probably have starter models, and you don't need to buy a starter, but * you can get started * on a rental before you have to finally decide on buying an instrument, which depends on your long-term goals
Who else do you know can maybe lend you an oboe?

First year tonal sound on oboe is generally coarse and ducky, so when tone improves you're ready for a better instrument then, and that's like a reward system :-)

Make preliminary inquiries -- what new makes / models can your local music store/s readily get for you? How many stores are there within reasonable travel distance for you to give you other options?

I think your biggest decision over there will be deciding to get thumb-plate or conservatoire fingering system, so this will depend again on your long-term goals -- are you likely to be travelling out of UK, or only playing in UK?
If you want both (dual system) you have to pay a bit more for it, and your choice of makes / models are limited

Hm, with reeds over there -- first week, try out 3 reeds, one long-scrape soft, one long-scrape medium soft, and one soft short-scrape. Play the one/s that are 'easy', and save the other/s for later on, next week or so maybe

Remember to wetup oboe reeds in fresh cool water each time, do not wet up in mouth, saliva degrades them quickly. After playing oboe reeds, dry them 24 hrs in a ventilated container to rest them before using again

After finding out which strength you can manage easily, get two more the same, so you can practice every day, rotating a reed a day every 3 days, they'll last a bit longer over time that way, but by 3-4 weeks you'll probably be ready to move up to next strength anyway, so 3 starter reeds will be blown out by then too

When these softer reeds collapse on you (too wet to stay open) before your lips are tired, rotate 2 reeds each day until you can play long enough to collapse 2 in a practice session, that's the time to start phasing in to next strength up

Since you're a musician already with a trained ear for pitch, the biggest thing that's likely to bother you is not being able to play in tune by the end of a week or so ... !

it's more realistic to give your embouchure development 3-6 months to improve overall general tone, the facts are that soft reeds are nearly always flat and frequently unstable (don't play top 8ve in tune with low 8ve) and if you focus blindly on playing this kind of reed in tune you'll develop the bad habit of lipping your reeds too hard

it's not until you can play medium reeds, with more wood on them (which brings overall reed pitch up) that playing in tune becomes more feasible -- after that's another story :-}

so focus on trying to refine your overall 'tone' at whatever the reed and finger-holes give you until you're able to manage medium reeds comfortably without munching them

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