Author: Dutchy
Date: 2008-12-15 15:14
Yes, I was dismayed to find that Gekeler comprised a lot of Barret, because I was already using Barret, so I felt like I'd sort of bought the same book twice. But there's other stuff in Gekeler that's good, too.
To Essential Elements and Standard of Excellence (which have the additional advantage of coming with playalong CDs) and Rubank I would definitely add the Blaine Edlefsen Student Instrumental Course books. They come in sets--Studies and Melodious Etudes, Tunes for Oboe Technic, and Oboe Student, all for Levels I through III. They mesh together, so that material you're learning in, say, Studies and Melodious Etudes coincides with material you're learning in Oboe Student. I've worked with just about every method book that's out there in my quest for self-taught oboe, and I really feel like I learned the most in terms of technique from the Blaine Edlefsen books.
As a cure for boredom for the beginner, I'd recommend the Hal Leonard series of "Favorites" playalong books. They're trashy, yeah, and hardly "art", but they're fun, tuneful, and not too hard to play. It's a whole series; here's one entry.
I would also like to mention that you need to be sure that all your playing time isn't done all by yourself--it's crucial that you spend time playing with another instrument because you need practice in matching a pitch, i.e. in not playing flat. I went through a huge crisis once as a beginner, because I'd been spending all my time perfecting my technique in the privacy of my bedroom, and then when I went to play with a playalong CD, I was horribly flat. I'd been in tune with myself just fine, but not with anybody else. So I realized that I needed to spend some time every day playing with another instrument, and the various sorts of playalong CDs available out there work perfectly for this. (If you want more than the Hal Leonard cheesy Broadway tunes sort of thing, search on music44.com under "playalong oboe"--there are a goodly number of them out there.)
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The Oboe BBoard
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