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Re: Endurance issues?

Author: oboi
Date: 2015-09-06 08:10

Are your reeds too hard? Do you take breaks as often as you can? Even short little breaks will help. I can play for a long time as long as there are some breaks in the music and I put my oboe down any time that I can. Some of my reeds will cause me grief very quickly while others are free-blowing. If your embouchure is very tense, you may need to modify it. If you're feeling winded, are you breathing in/out enough? Learning how to breathe out was something that took me a while to get used to. Your instrument? Issues with the instrument may also cause issues.

There are possibly spots in the music where it is okay for you to skip an occasional note or two. Even pros do it. Even omitting a beat or two and giving yourself to relax and reset your embouchure will help. It is very easy to be hesitant to reform the embouchure and restart the airflow (due to wanting to stay in time or making a smooth note), but anytime you are tense will add up.

I haven't played in a band in years, but I do find that band music can be much more taxing than orchestral music, just because a lot of that music isn't really written optimally for oboe. Orchestral music less so and it is something you build up over time. I've been playing for many years many hours a day and I still need to work up endurance for very long slogs, especially very challenging etudes. EH also took a while to be very comfortable, so if you're somewhat new to it, it's normal.

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