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Re: Isolated Beginner

Author: Bucky Badger
Date: 2003-11-22 18:08

When you pick up the oboe make sure the instrument is "set-up"; that is the music repair staff has looked it over and it does not leak air and have other problems. The rental pool instruments have been played and possibly abused by others. As far as make, who cares at this point; you get what they give you. You will have to blow in some money on reeds when you get started. Probably start with "soft" or "medium soft". I do play when I really don't care about excellent tone, on a fibercane reed. They are a plastic material when does last longer than wood. Unless you know what strength reed works for you, best not to buy 10 reeds at $10 a pop.
Oboe is the opposite playing characteristics than flute. With flute you use a lot of air. With oboe you use little air and you have to exhale the excess air out of you lungs or you will get dizzy. So breathing is very important as well as looking at the music in phrases and if needs put in breath marks in pencil.
For fingerings you can use a "google.com" search and find a number of fingering charts on the internet.
For starter books maybe you can bum one of the school system to get started (elementary or secondary). The more advanced you go with instruction books the more you get into technical exercises. Later on there might be a city band you can sit in on (not necessarily playing) but seeing the music being played and asking questions of the players.

It will take a while to get used to playing the instrument with fingerings that are different than flute.

Since oboe is in key of C you can also play and record guitar music and then play the oboe off the melody line of the guitar.

Once you have the fingerings under control, you can buy borrow oboe books or even sax books since the sax range of the instrument is the same as oboe..i.e. low Bb as with the sax up to high C or above also as a sax. You will not be able to play along with saxs since the sax plays in Bb key or Eb and the oboe is key of C.
You can play along with any flute (within the range of the oboe instrument), so duet flute books will work. If you have a university in the area you can stop in and say hi to the local oboe instructor and ask questions for free.

jim buchholz

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Isolated Beginner new

amicalola

2003-11-21 18:23