Author: Dutchy
Date: 2007-03-12 04:00
To play softer on the oboe, you keep up the same intensity of the pressure of the airstream, but you compress the reed with your embouchure in a certain way, that takes practice, so less sound comes out. You can't produce a pianissimo on an oboe by blowing softer, because as soon as you blow less hard, it goes flat. It requires a certain level of airspeed to make the reed sound properly.
"Some comments that were made", yeah. We all deal with the issue of kibitzers, people listening. You just have to understand, and you have to make them understand, that yes, the oboe is inherently a piercing, shrill instrument, only a couple of steps removed from the war shawm of the Middle Ages, and thus there is no way for a rank beginner to "try not to be so loud". You just have to find a time and place where you can make as much noise as is necessary without waking the baby or interfering with people's TV-watching or napping habits.
You can't spend all your practice periods focusing on playing softly, in order to accommodate other people's needs, because that's something that comes much later, after you've got the basics down pat. At the stage where you are now, you need to learn to direct that full airstream down the reed, so yeah, you're going to be quite loud--and probably a little flat--for a long time to come. Your nearest and dearest will just have to deal with it.
I always practice upstairs in my bedroom, and I knew I was making progress when my kids stopped going downstairs pointedly every time they heard Mom start up the oboe. ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
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