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Re: Reed Flexibility

Author: Oboe Craig
Date: 2014-01-29 02:43

Ok, good.

Flexible tone is a good topic and probably aligns well with the flexible articulation topics as well.

So, the reed is vibrating and just doing its thing while you blow.

Changes to tone are a function of multiple things ala embouchure, the vowel formed inside you mouth, etc.

I try to avoid vowel changes and stick with an 'Oh' very open mouth chamber and in order to keep the throat and full air column as open as possible. Anything other than an Oh' vowel closes down or chokes off the air column and robs something from the potential in the sound.

Naturally the tongue or your double-tongue method affects the length of the note provided the reed and your air column supports the life of the note.

So, the embouchure for me has the majority of control over changes in tone.

For a heavy or stuffy non-responsive reed there is not much that can be done to introduce the variety of control you seem to describe and desire.

A reed can be made to play lighter (brighter) or heavier (darker) by subtle manipulations of embouchure provided its natural place is somewhere in the middle area of the spectrum.

A couple things I do to get there are to seek a good double crow with a slight predominance of the lower c. It has to be right on a good c pitch and when I crow near the thread I do 'Tee - AH', expecting the Tee syllable to produce the upper c and the lower 'C' to drop in when the jaw drops to the 'AH' vowel position. That AH position is how I actually play while opening up the throat to an 'Oh' (slightly more open position.

I can add depth to the sound by slightly lowering the oboe in my face, or bright it by slightly raising it. In effect the higher position has less lip flesh on the reed, and filters out fewer vibrations (in turn overtones) and the tone is a little brighter.

That position can be useful for fast short note passages while playing.

In addition to lowering the oboe slightly, I angle the oboe to the right putting more lip on the reed and the extra filtering of the sound creates a thicker (or darker) sound.

Try that from the start of a passage rather than trying to move to it from another embouchure position.

Assuming the reed requires no biting, these techniques are very useful for me.
I wish I'd known them well 25 years ago. Oboe life would have been much sweeter.

So, lips are filters. If you don't know much about EQ (equalization), it is a matter of filtering to limit or increase relative energy in low - mid - high content in the sound.

It is a great metaphor for whet we are really doing with our lips when we play oboe.

A good daily exercise is to play drives. Start soft and play to loud and back to soft over 8 beats. Move it to 8 up and 8 back down as you get control. Try a slight legato tongue with each note.

Learn to consider this a requirement for the reed to pass muster. It becomes a demand. Demand it of the reed. You will be surprised how quickly this simple daily ritual starts to influence good things in your reeds as well as to benefit your control of your line while phrasing.

Whew....

Good luck with it.

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