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Re: Intonation

Author: Wes
Date: 2005-07-12 06:43

Hi!

If one has to continually fight pitch problems, then the oboe is no fun. Try the following:

1. Use a stable Reed. Crow the reed in several different ways. It should always be a C and the pitch of the crow should not vary when blowing from soft to loud. If it varies, playing in tune will be a nightmare you don't wish. If it crows like a siren, it can usually be helped by scraping the top center of the hump. This may lower the tip crow pitch to a B and one may have to chop it a tiny bit to get back to a C.

2. Play on the tip of the reed, keeping a minimum of the reed in the lips, while not choking off the sound.

3. If the sound becomes a little bright during a rehearsal, check for the stable C crows again, fixing aas necessary, or switch to a different stable reed. Sometimes the bright character of the sound is more noticeable than detectable sharpness with an unstable reed.

4. Set the height of the oboe bell above the floor for the best, most responsive, covered sound on a low C. This from Robert Bloom.

5. One must play in tune during tutti passages and a stable reed will permit this, allowing the oboe to speak with it's normal tuning regardless of volume level. One may not have a reference pitch from anyone to compare with and yet it should be in tune.

6. Don't try to tune up to people who are grossly out of tune. Try to be in the 440 ballpark and be quiet and courteous to all.

Good Luck!

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Intonation new

Halcyon440

2005-03-29 14:27