 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: JRC
Date: 2012-12-21 18:47
I am looking for suggestions - how to make reeds that would play low C, very softly (PP), and allow repeated crisp soft tonguing as in 2nd oboe part of Mozart Piano Concerto No 21 slow movement (see attached).
Post Edited (2012-12-21 18:50)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-12-21 19:35
Scraping the base of the reed will help get an easy pp attack on the low notes, but it can make the reed play flat or make the top notes suffer if done too much.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: mjfoboe
Date: 2012-12-21 21:28
I would suggest slightly dusting the tip blend with special attention near the center of the inverted V. This for an American long scrape reed. Also make sure the tip is thin enough by the opening.
Mark
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Author: Wes
Date: 2012-12-21 22:05
Hi! I just played that Mozart piece on Wednesday and it is the work of a genius. There is no second player so we don't have to play the low Cs but the whole piece requires a reed that will play very softly and in tune. It makes me feel good to play the oboe part on that piece.
The top 2 mm of the tip can be scraped thin with the sharpest knife to get the low Cs out. The sides of the tip can also be thinned and the corners of the hump can be thinned, all without lowering the overall pitch of the reed. A teacher of mine, the late Salvatore Spano, also said to thin the outer edges of the hump very thin and to thin the area where the windows can lead into the outer edges of the hump, again without lowering the reed pitch.
Usually, I don't find this selective thinning of the reed to be really successful on a quite new reed. For me, the reed has to have been worked over for many days before it becomes a soft/loud and yet in tune reed.
Congratulations on playing a fine piece. Good luck!
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Author: JRC
Date: 2012-12-22 11:47
If you have such reed, try playing the passage.
to me, these standard remedies work in producing one pp note or occasional occurrence of the note. These do not help to produce soft and distinct, and repeated (relatively fast) attacks of the note. I guess it must be the instruments.
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Author: Oboehotty
Date: 2012-12-22 15:45
I suggest two things, in this order: This is assuming your reed is balanced in the scrape.
1) Lightly dust the top 2-3 millilmeters of the tip, off onto the plaque paying specific attention to the point of the defined tip. Often times on my reeds and all of my student reeds, this area is too thick to successfully attack (clearly) the low Db and C.
2) If this doesn't fix it, dig in a big at the very bottom of the reed where the scrape starts. Don't dig too much....one or two scrapes on either side of the spine at a time.
As always, not too much scraping at one time without first play testing.
Shawn
Professor of Oboe - Youngstown State University
Howland Local Schools - MS Dir. Of Bands/HS Asst. Dir (Marching, Symphonic)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-12-22 16:02
If you think at the time the concerto was written in the very late 1700s, the oboes back then had reeds that were reliant far more on breath and lip pressure than the instruments we have now which have 8ve keys to do the work for us and we use much harder reeds by comparison as we don't have to lip things up the 8ve anymore.
The reeds on Baroque and Classical era oboes are very sensitive and playing repeated low notes is much easier on them with that set-up. So we're fundamentally flawed in sacrificing the flexibility of the reed due to the advance of mechanical developments where the instrument is doing the hard work.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: JRC
Date: 2012-12-22 22:00
This probably is much more convincing explanation than do this and that with the reed as if a reed provides answer to all problems.
I was pretty much convinced that I could make a flabby reed to play those bars the way I am satisfied. But I know for sure that it would not be good for doing any thing else in other ranges. I was hoping if any one has a technique that I have not tried.
Post Edited (2012-12-22 22:02)
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2012-12-23 02:05
I suggest one thing -- order a "second oboe" reed from Robert Morgan at http://chicagoreedcompany.com/main/.
Mr. Morgan plays Oboe II/EH with the Chicago Lyric Opera. He makes (and sells) THE best, most responsive, in tune, dark-toned, luscious oboe reeds I have ever played.
And I also think his EH reeds are the very best.
Susan
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Author: jhoyla
Date: 2012-12-23 09:54
YMMV, but I would do the following, in this order:
1. check your instrument. The tiniest leak in the top joint can translate to poor response in low C. Check that the F#/G# connection is not preventing your RH first finger key from sealing fully.
Check the forked-F vent and the F# tone-hole (the tiny key between RH 1 and RH 2) close fully. Check that your C#/D# connection is not preventing the C key from closing fully.
<phew> Now we can look at the reed issue.
2. response, all over, is improved by having extremely thin tip-edges and sides, but DON'T overdo it!
3. Ease of response for bottom notes can be improved by dusting the base of the scrape - four light scrapes, one in each quadrant, and try again. No improvement? four more light scrapes ..
Good luck!
J.
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