Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2005-09-04 18:53
<<it seems like sometimes I play the high notes are nice and open, round if you would. Sometimes though, expecially after picking up the insrument after a break, re soaking, etc the high notes (anything about a d in the staff, and really at the F in the staff (both fingerings)) sound thin and not full. >>
Two thoughts come to mind.
One, you may possibly have water in a tone hole somewhere. That will cause you to perceive a general dullness or lack of vibrancy in the tone and make the instrument feel harder to blow. Since you mentioned this as an issue after resoaking (the reed, I presume), it could be that there is water somewhere that it doesn't belong. Are you swabbing after playing (i.e., before you take a break)? Try swabbing before you play, when you return from your break.
The other thought is one related to high note tone production more generally. I was a clarinetist before I was an oboist. When I started on the oboe, my only reference point for how the high notes were supposed to feel/sound was, of course, the clarinet. I was surprised at how relatively "small" the oboe high notes seemed, vis a vis the clarinet. Initially, my solution to this "smallness" was to try to blow them bigger. This just results in a forced, thin tone. So, it might be that you are overblowing the notes, trying to make them more resonant.
The solution to overblowing (for me) was to remember something a voice teacher had told me a long time ago about "high" notes. She said that to get a big, round high note, you have to start the note small -- she described it as just a pinpoint of sound -- and then let the air expand it from there. You start on this pinpoint of sound, and then just let the air float it into existence, rather than trying to start it out big. With practice, this becomes automatic, and the note comes out full on demand.
Hey, it works for me!
Susan
Susan
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