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Re: Does doubling hurt oboe embouchure?

Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-05-19 14:07

Just because she doubles on other instruments I can't see that being detrimental to her attending music college if she wants to study oboe. If she still wants to play sax, clarinet or bassoon then that's up to her and not up to her professors.

If she likes both Big Macs and Double Whoppers then why not? If she likes Coke and Pepsi then who's to stop her liking one or the other if she likes both? If she enjoys playing oboe and also enjoys playing sax, then that's up to her and no-one should dictate to her what she should be doing so long as she is enjoying playing both.

There is a lot of prejudice towards saxes from certain circles, but if your daughter wants to broaden her horizons then that's a good thing. Oboe playing will be beneficial to her sax playing and vice versa - both play different types of music (and variety is always a good thing) but both can also play the same.

Any prospective oboe professors shouldn't be so narrow-minded, but they will expect her to put the hours into her oboe playing. When she wants time out and to get away from all those hours of playing through studies, then she can always find a dance band to play sax in to get out one or two evenings a week to wind down but still be involved in playing.

When I was at college they didn't allow me to do both 1st and 2nd studies on woodwinds only and I didn't want to study sax as I can't stand 'classical' sax playing or the performance diploma syllabus at the time which was all 'classical' (and I was out playing in dance bands anyway so I was still getting plenty of proper sax playing in), so I studied clarinet as my main instrument and the syllabus was geared up to clarinet specific music, and did double bass as a second study as there was only one other bass player.

Most music colleges insist on piano as a 2nd study, but not everyone wants to play piano - I know I didn't back then and I still don't.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

Post Edited (2011-05-19 14:15)

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