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Re: adult students

Author: vboboe
Date: 2009-02-20 01:24

... as an adult renewbie i think i've had exactly the same experience as you describe

hm -- parts of the answer seem to be reed, basic embouchure development, air support stamina, and perhaps the way we older folks 'hold our tongues'

softer reeds (with less resistance) just can't do forte with conviction, so until one can play a reed with 'good body' (either meaty heart in American style or short-scrape with lots of lower back wood in U-style reeds), stong tone is basically limited by the reed's capacity to produce decibels -- so methinks there wouldn't be any point commenting on tone to a newbie until the student can do medium reeds

holding the tongue -- the lower jaw is perhaps 'wired tighter' in mature adults than in youngsters, this makes the tongue fit snugly against the upper palate, so 'yawning' the throat open and holding it open is more of a challenge, the muscles aren't used to yawning, we all stifle urges to yawn because either we don't want to be rude, or we just don't want to admit we're tired -- anyway, the muscles of our jaw & tongue get so used to preventing us from yawning, that we have to relearn how to yawn the throat again on purpose to play oboe

even now, it's a constant thing reminding myself to keep the back of my tongue from seeking physical contact with the roof of my mouth, it just automatically wants to go there and stay there -- except when i'm tired and can't stop yawning ...

also, mature adults have a thing about being in control, and so perhaps we newbies grip the reed more firmly than we should to begin with, which narrows the blade to blade width of the playing aperture below optimum for the loudest squawk any given reed is capable of producing -- and perhaps we older folk also take longer to learn how to let all that go again

and, as the embouchure improves and becomes capable of automated fast fine muscle adjustments to tune the reed, it's easier too to adjust the aperture to 'optimum' for volume and good tone at the same time

also, i found as my tender lips gained thicker skin to cope with that buzz feeling, it's easier to produce loud sound which have stronger buzz sensations that don't bother me now

another thing i've noticed is the size of the room i practice in -- i used to practice in a regular size bedroom until i realised i just wasn't blowing firmly enough because the sound seemed too loud in a small room -- and when i took annual lessons, that particular music practice room was smaller than my bathroom! -- so i really closed down a lot there

my summer teacher wanted to get me to play louder because i had that 'constricted small sound', so he made sure we practised in the biggest piano room available, and he also played trumpet boldly to make sure i had some competition !

nowadays i practise in our house's biggest room

but, even so that's still not loud enough for my orchestra's practice hall, and i'm pooped from blowing by mid-morning break

and that brings us to air support stamina -- it's a marathon athletic event, playing any wind instrument

in the beginning, the chops aren't strong enough to contain the right amount of air pressure needed to get strong tone -- the cheeks pop, air leaks out of the lips -- so, until the chops are iron, air pressure is automatically kept low

the abs aren't used to supporting air pressure for sustained periods of time, don't normally push air slowly and steadily in a controlled manner against resistance in the reed or instrument for periods of time longer than normal breathing rates -- they have to be trained for this

the intercostal rib muscles don't do this kind of squeezing in normal everyday breathing either, so unless the oboe player is already a jogger-runner with strong chest muscles, all the aerobic muscles -- and the porous alveoli in the lungs -- have to be trained to produce, hold and maintain adequate air pressure for strong oboe tone -- until the oboe player deliberately decides it's time to do a breath exchange to fit music phrasing

the older we are, and especially if we're female and not athletic or perhaps not as iron-rich as we could be, the more years' work we need to build up to good playing condition

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