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Re: However long should a long note be

Author: rickw48
Date: 2009-05-15 08:36

I've recently found the most wonderful warm-up exercise in a book by Guy Remaud (A Precise Method for Daily Study of the Oboe pub Editions Amuca). It's an extended version of a basic vocalise: the original involves singing an arpeggio upwards for one octave and then decending on the dominant seventh, arriving back on the tonic. In singing the aim is to practise all the vowels while maintaining a legato line.

For me personally, anything that connects playing the oboe with singing has to be a good thing. M Remaud has extended the exercise so that the ascent is an octave and a half. With metronome set to quarter note at 66, each note played is a minim (half note) with a fermata on the top note and a dotted semibreve on the last (six beats). You start piano on any note from bottom bflat to a and crescendo to the top, reaching ff. On the descent you do a decrescendo to pp on the bottom note. It's very good for so many things - creating an even, resonant sound:control of dynamics etc etc. And the best bit is that it really doesn't feel like a chore to play. I reckon that once the basic has been mastered (although diminuendo a niente on bottom bflat takes some doing!), you can simply reduce the metronome mark bit by bit. There's probably a lifetime's study in this one exercise.

Richard

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