Author: JMarzluf
Date: 2013-08-04 19:06
Some great advice here from Craig. He's absolutely right, in my opinion, that soft/student reeds do more harm than good. The biggest problem we face as oboists is reed consistency. Every piece of cane is different, so it's important to find a good reed maker who will minimize this variable as much as possible for you.
Again, the best option is to find a qualified instructor who makes their own reeds, and can finish/customize the reed for you on the spot (and who can help you to refresh your own reed making/adjusting skills!). If that's not possible for you, then find a reed maker locally or online who sells professional quality "American" scrape reeds (since you're here in the States). Beware of reeds sold in music stores, as most of them are extremely poor in quality, and many of them are not of the American (aka "long scrape") variety. No offense to our European cousins, but short/"U" scrape reeds make no sense for an American oboist, especially if you want to play with an ensemble someday.
As far as your instrument choice, it would be absolutely impossible to tell you which oboe is better without playing and inspecting them in person. Why not take both of them to Mark Chudnow (since you know him), or to a good teacher in your area, and ask for their hands-on assessment?
Jonathan
http://www.marzlufreeds.com/
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
