The Oboe BBoard

oboe tuning

Author: Jim22  Date:   2013-12-01 01:48 I'm playing a Yamaha 241 student model and have only been playing a couple months. I have a general issue with intonation drifting all over the place, but I have a couple specific questions for the teachers and techs: Compared to B, C is very sharp. I think what might be happening is that the C vent and Bb keys (the little ones) may be opening too far when RH1 is pressed. This appears to be controlled by very thin corks under the tails of the A and G keys. I'm considering replacing those corks with thicker ones (or less worn and compressed ones anyway. Does this sound like a reasonable diagnosis and solution? Can anyone tell me what the venting on those four keys should be? I have Reg Thorpe's book, and he doesn't list them, but I could assume maybe 0.8mm which is what he suggests for the B key. The A and G do look considerably more open that it does. The other severe problem I have is that compared to G, A is incredibly unstable with respect to pitch. If I blow harder on G, it gets louder. If I blow harder on A, it gets sharper. If I don't blow much harder for A than for G, it barely makes it above G#. I will admit that G can be quite sharp, though. This I don't understand at all. I have checked the octave vents. The key openings there may be a bit too much, but the second octave key for the A looks reasonable. Neither is blocked completely. So far I have not been able to remove them. I think I'm going to buy the tool for unscrewing them so I can dunk them in vinegar and make sure they are not restricted. Does anyone know if the Yamaha 241 has two-piece octave vents or if the vent just unscrews directly from the body? Is this instability of the A, especially one space above the staff, typical? I have several reeds and they all behave that way. I have lots of other questions, and I am working on finding a teacher, but I think that's enough for now. Thanks for the help! I would really like to learn to play oboe well. I'm already promising myself that if I make some good progress, I'll upgrade to something with a few more keys, like the side F! The 241 doesn't even have an F-resonance key as far as I can tell. Getting a decent forked F out of it is miserable. Jim C. CT, USA

Topics	Author	Date
oboe tuning  new	Jim22	2013-12-01 01:48
Re: oboe tuning  new	mjfoboe	2013-12-01 02:12

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