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Re: most difficult key to play in?

Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2017-06-29 04:07

Hi Beatrice. The Oboe's natural key is D major. One of the best set of tutor books that I have are the Rubank books (Intermediate and Advanced books 1 and 2) and they give you a good steady approach to learning all the keys up to 5 flats and sharps. And they are cheap to buy compared to other tutor books. Then after you manage to systematically work your way through them you can go on to Rubank Selected Studies book which takes you up to 6 flats and sharps in all Major and minor keys but the studies themselves are 'heavy going' as it's obvious that this book is simply the Saxophone book that's just been given an Oboe cover. This is because the Oboe and Saxophone have identical compasses (written range)
It all takes time to master the Oboe in all these keys. Slow and steady systematic practice is the only way to go. I've mastered all of them on a far more simpler Oboe than what most are using these days Both my Oboes are Thumbplates. One is a Bundy with covered tone holes and the other is a old Howarth S2 with open (ring) tone holes. These are much lighter in weight and are very reed friendly. A bit of 'key sliding' is often needed in these types of Oboes but if you look closely at the mechanism it's designed to enable you to easily do this.
Note. In the more remote keys from 4 sharps and flats you must look well ahead (at least a measure ahead) to see the appropriate fingering needed and it's a good idea to mark in soft pencil the notation as to where you need to use the F natural 'fork' fingering and also where to use either the LH or RH Eb key.

Skyfacer

Post Edited (2017-06-29 04:12)

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