Author: Loliver
Date: 2012-05-21 10:02
Hmmm...
I should probably point out that there was a slight overlap between me taking up oboe and doing grade 8 clarinet, but only for about 2 months, and I was advised by my clarinet teacher, who also teaches oboe (and sax, piano, flute, harp and recorder) to stop until I had done my grade 8 exam, as the week after I first got an oboe, she could instantly tell something was different about my clarinet playing, and not for the better.
I would agree that if you are going to get any tuition it should be on the oboe, as by grade 6/7 on clarinet all the learning is done, you may just need a bit of help with top G, and perhaps A (you don't need this note for grade 8, but a piece I for the exam did had the note in it...) as these do require an embouchure like a vice, while the oboe embouhure is much more delicate, and biting too hard is much more disastrous than it is on clarinet. I left for university only a couple of months after taking up the oboe, so have been wholly self taught, and it is VERY hard to do, but if you can play it in bands or orchestras, you can advance much faster than just by solo practice, as you can listen to other oboists, and see what they are doing, and even ask them what reeds or books they recommend.
I still maintain that if you want to become a professional musician, that you perhaps dabble in oboe, but stick with clarinet until grade 8 is done, and then move onto oboe. And don't worry about taking up the oboe 'too late', many people on this board took it up later than I did (18) and use it in their day-to-day job. Even some world-renowned professionals took it up 'late', I think Evelyn Rothwell/Barborilli was 17 or 18 before she took it up. And teachers understand that tastes change- I hated the sound of the oboe, perhaps because it had always been played by people who didn't like it either, and now I love the sound it makes, but now sitting in the oboe section in orchestra makes me hate the sound of the clarinet.
I don't know about the school system in Singapore, but if its like the UK (as the UK used to control Singapore, the school system may have survived from that time, I know it has in Hong Kong) after your exams, you must have a decent period of time before you restart school (September?) so use the 2-3 months of holiday to practice the clarinet like mad and get up to grade 8, like atleast getting all the scales done and the piece from list C (the solo one) up to standard.
What you must understand is that each person takes to different musical instruments at different speeds. It took me 10 years to get to grade 3 on piano (a record if I'm not mistaken), the usual 8 years in school to grade 8 on clarinet, and its been about 2 years on oboe and I'm doing grade 8 now. If it has taken you 4 years to get to ABRSM grade 6/7 on clarinet, then it should only take you about 8 or 9 months to do gade 8 clarinet.
What sound promising in your favour is that you seem to have taken such a keen interest in an instrument that is undersubscribed, atleast here in the UK, where it was number 3 on the 'Endangered instruments list' made by the government 6 or 7 years ago, after bassoon and french horn. By consulting the professional oboist will save you a lot of time with learning the instrument, such as if it is English, French or German system. I doubt very much that Singapore uses German system, but I don't know if it, like most of the Commonwealth, except Canada, uses the English 'Thumbplate System' or the French 'Conservatoire system', but your professional should be able to help you.
In relation to your other issues listed in your first post, noting from experience, fingering will not be a problem once you get over having an octave key that actually raises the pitch by an octave, not a twelfth, and having 2 (or 3) of them. Reeds will be your main quandary, but perhaps your professional oboist makes them for students.
Perhaps one potential route is finishing grade 8 clarinet, and going to university to study music on that, and taking up oboe at university. I'm not a music student, but in the UK I know that at most universities you have to be able to perform on 2 instruments by the end of your 3 year course, and you will have ample opportunity to pratice and get tuition in both of them equally. In fact I know someone who went in on clarinet and now spends more time on oboe than he does on clarinet now, such is the high demand for the instrument. I'm not sure how music degrees are conducted at universities outside fo the UK, and Ireland, but I can't imagine that it is hugely different, but some are more performance based, and the UK ones, many based around the teaching recieved from ABRSM, are much more theory based than 'Performance' degrees in the USA.
Another thought- have you done grade 5 theory? You noted that you are doing ABRSM, and to do grade 6,7 and 8 on any instrument you have to have done grade 5 theory, minimum. You say that you are grade 6/7 standard, but have you taken these exams? Sorry to sound so nitpicky, but if you haven't done grade 5 theory, then this could set you back at least 6 months while you do theory. Unfortunately, you can't just be grade 8 standard, people often want certified and accredited proof that you are grade 8, hence the ABRSM exams.
Looking to the future, I still maintain that getting grade 8 clarinet is the best step forward, BUT if you do not have grade 5 theory, then taking up oboe now may be a good idea, as you might aswell make the most of the time you have. And trust me, if conductors find out you play oboe, you will be pretty much instantly transferred from clarinet in bands, such is the need for the instrument.
Sorry for the long post :D If you need any more help just ask
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
