Author: vboboe
Date: 2005-10-11 04:41
HI THERE, welcome, another OBOE newbie, WONDERFUL !
... want to get ahead faster?
... practice playing oboe EVERY SINGLE DAY
... find an oboe teacher, get oboe lessons
... failing that, get oboe specific tutoring books, videos, play-along CD's and talk to us on this board
... as a beginner, any day you miss you'll lose a bit of progress you made yesterday
... as a beginner, some practice days will be lots worse than others, but that's part of the learning curve, let it go, tomorrow's a different day
... schedule oboe practice on an fairly empty but not growly tummy
... gradually you'll see improvement over time, but only if you practice
For a beginner, building embouchure needs lots of help
... i can't repeat enough times how grateful i am for the suggestion on this board last year to use an ordinary plastic drinking straw to exercise my early embouchure
... it really helped go the distance in band practices without undue fatigue, although tone wasn't good for about 6 months, last spring i started getting good comments about improvement in tone, now i'm getting a few bars solo :-)
... my twist on this excellent suggestion ... what i did was cut up ordinary drinking straw into 3 pieces, put one beside my bed, one in pocket of clothes for the day, and another one beside my TV chair (from time to time need to replace them as needed, and use thicker soda straws when strong enough)
... that way in spare moments, can "smoke" the straw doing good ol' fashioned facial exercises, such as lip tightening, smiles and puckers, lip-rolling in and out, blowing full straw gradually down to a slit and gradually back open again, 'half-lions' (that's a jaw drop exercise), 'side-slings' (helps develop corners of mouth for venting), etc.
... it's a take-anywhere item, and it's much more practical than reeds which are too easily damaged and fiddly / time-consuming to wet up and prep for spontaneous opportune moments
... and it's really fun to facial exercise your eyebrows and eyes at the same time, little kids love it!
... HOWEVER, frequent buzzing of the real reed on the lips is absolutely essential for building up lip density, it has to build up a nice firm texture, so there's absolutely no substitute for daily blowing practice on the oboe for as long as your embouchure can manage for today, should be feeling a noticeable difference in lip texture by spring
... yup, to begin with it's 2 minutes today to lip jello, maybe 2.5 minutes tomorrow, maybe 5 minutes by next week
... soft reeds collapse around 10-12 minutes playing time (you in maybe 6 weeks), move up to medium-soft, these collapse 20-25 minutes later (you in about 3 months), get a trio med-softs to rotate every 10-15 mins until you can play medium (about 6 months or so), medium's hold up 30-40 mins better to have a trio of reeds to rotate every 20 mins, less work on each reed, live longer, play longer too
... ANOTHER THING that really worked for me last year to get ahead faster is twice-daily 'silent fingering' practice, with the oboe, no reed needed
First thing in morning, last thing before lights out at bedtime, for about 15-20 minutes each (or as long as you think you need) go over and over and over fingering sequences (scales, difficult note and rhythm combinations)
... and really concentrate, focus, on what your fingers are doing while reading the notes on paper to develop hand-eye coordination
... get some oboe recordings and listen to them passively lots of times, you'll find all kinds of things to notice later as your own playing progresses
Use your common sense too, don't overdo it today ... because you'll be less willing to get started tomorrow if you're too sore from overdoing things today
Be patient, persistent, persevering, practice-practice-practice
Happy obo'ing & keep in touch :-)
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