Author: Dutchy
Date: 2007-02-16 13:32
Elkwoman:
Dunno what you bought that was billed as a "chanter"--the term could mean that it's some kind of folk music reed pipe, or it could be the business end of a set of bagpipes from an assortment of ethnicities and folk music traditions--but whatever, it is most definitely NOT an oboe, nor would it ever produce an oboe sound. It may sound like a duck, yes, but oboes only sound like ducks when you are first getting started, and if you're paying attention and practice assiduously, it's really only the first week or two that you emit only squawking noises. After that, it sounds like a "harsh oboe", or a "flat oboe", but it's definitely an oboe. And it sounds less and less like a "duck" and more and more like an oboe as you go along.
A chanter is only a small pipe with a relatively unsophisticated bore (the hole through the middle). An oboe is a much larger pipe with a quite sophisticated and much more complex bore, and thus the sound an oboe makes is much more refined than the sound a chanter makes. To hear an oboe, go to Youtube and search for, simply, "Oboe". There are all kinds of videos posted of people playing their oboes, and some of them are darn good.
The #1 best way to find out if you wanna play the oboe is to find the local school band instrument rental place in your area (usually a small hole-in-the-wall music store at the unfashionable end of town), and rent an oboe for a month or two. This is MUCH cheaper than even buying a cheap used plastic oboe on Ebay, because if after a couple of months you realize you really don't like it, then you aren't stuck with a cheap used plastic oboe that you won't be able to sell on eBay for what you paid for it. Also, the road to buying good-quality used plastic oboes on eBAy is so fraught with peril, since you as a complete novice won't have the faintest idea what to look for, and merely providing brand names won't help, because unscrupulous people do pawn off their ailing good-quality instruments on unsuspecting newbies. Caveat emptor and all that.
The main huge ongoing expense, after the oboe itself, is the cost of reeds. Expect to pay $6 to $10 for each student (read: slightly-less-well-made) reed. Professional (read: serious and "nice") reeds can run from $12 to $25. Each reed will last from two weeks to a month, because saliva and the pressure of playing breaks down the wood fibers, and after a while the reed collapses and won't play any more. And you gotta have it. There are no substitutes. Right now, up in my "currently active" reed farm, I have about 30 reeds in action, in various stages of newness and "oh, this one's getting old", which translates into about $300 worth of reeds, more or less. That's pretty expensive for a hobby.
Sheet music is not a big expense. There are tons of used method books available on eBay--all of them are pretty much the same, in terms of showing you the basics. And of course the band instrument rental place will be able to sell you at least one method book, new. It'll be a while before you'll be ready to start working on solos, so don't worry about that just yet.
As far as teachers go, the price of lessons varies according to your area--that's if you can find an oboe teacher where you are. Probably the biggest complaint of people who come into this forum is that they're looking for an oboe teacher, do we have any suggestions for finding one where they live. Oboists are pretty thin on the ground, and oboists who have time to teach are even scarcer. A good place to start looking is at any college in your area that has a music department. Ask around. Usually oboe faculty members will give lessons, or sometimes undergraduates will, for a lower price. You can also contact the band director at your local high school and ask him/her about oboe teachers. Or ask at the band instrument rental music store (but not the guitars-and-drumkits rock music store, because they'll just give you a blank look.)
Post Edited (2007-02-16 13:42)
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