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Re: Endurance issues?

Author: WoodwindOz
Date: 2015-09-07 15:35

I came from flute and found my endurance issues (as worked through with an oboe professor) were related to 2 key points - 1) reed strength and 2) breathing technique.

There is no such thing as a consistent 'medium strength' reed. They vary between makers, between individual pieces of cane. My husband is a clarinetist and I had dabbled on clarinet enough to teach beginners. The clarinet world, certainly in Australia, seems to have the 'harder is better' notion. It took me a long time to break that mindset in the oboe world. Harder is NOT better. Medium is not typical and no two players are likely to play on exactly the same strength reed. Once I started making my own reeds, I found that the way I do prefer them is as soft as I can get (admittedly short scrape, so this is still harder than most of my American friends) without sacrificing tone or support. My colleagues prefer their reeds a little harder to me.

My biggest issue for endurance was my ability to expel enough carbon dioxide before taking in enough oxygen. I had no idea simply how much I had to get rid of. If you don't, you will eventually hyperventilate and your muscles (particularly ones for fine motor, such as mouth) will tire. My own experience has made me realise the importance of teaching this skill as an absolute fundamental to successful oboe playing, and I introduce it and insist on it early on.

Good luck! My confidence to accept higher pressure gigs grew once I had sorted these issues out.

Rachel

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