Author: Dutchy
Date: 2011-08-06 22:16
I'm a fifty-something amateur, I've been playing for a little over 6 years, and yeah, there's a big plateau at about 2 years. You've mastered the basics, you've stopped the desperate dying-duck squawking, and now you're ready to start working on refinement of tone.
Ten years to mastery sounds about right, yes.
Stick with it, it'll come, with time.
Second what everybody said about finding other people to play with. It's a world of difference from playing along with CDs, or by yourself. Needing to match a pitch with others in real-time, and being uncomfortably aware of how you're sounding to them, will do wonders both for your motivation at sticking with practice, and also with simply mastering the skills required.
Note that your oboe will inevitably sound different to you because of the way that sound waves are transmitted through bone; listeners are hearing a slightly different sound. You may not be as horribly squeaky as you think; what does your teacher say? I found that a big hurdle to get over at first was the way that my oboe did NOT sound to me the way oboes do on recordings; I was put off by the way I was hearing "clarinet upper register" tones instead of sweet reedy "oboe" tones. But I recorded myself, and what was coming out of the oboe was definitely "oboe". Recording yourself is always instructive.
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