Author: Dutchy
Date: 2007-04-26 15:37
Well, no, I don't really like the "dark" sound that I'm making with these reeds, it isn't "oboe-y" enough for me, but unfortunately the reeds that I do have that are "oboe-y" enough for me, are also tiring to play, sometimes flat, and rather loud and piercing.
What brought this on:
I spent some time experimenting with the plastic reed over the last month.
And I also had an Embouchure Epiphany: I realized that I've been doing this for over two years now, and I still was having to stop every 16 bars or so and rest my mouth. Well, I thought, that can't be right, because the music level that was being suggested for third year oboists just doesn't allow for stopping every 16 bars to rest. There are seventh graders who can play an abridged version of a Sousa march without having to stop every 16 bars. And I'm 52, seems like I oughta be able to do this.
So, I thought, it must be me. I must be doing something wrong, to make my mouth muscles so tired all the time, to make it such an ordeal to get through 45 minutes' worth of practice.
So I tried blowing into a reed with the absolute minimum amount of mouth pressure, more like crowing it at the tip, and...it was quite a revelation. Apparently all this time I've had the reed clamped in a muscular death grip--not biting, because I've always been careful to drop my jaw so my teeth are apart--but still, exerting every scrap of energy to, I dunno, make sure the reed doesn't escape or something. I thought that's what the instructions meant, see? You gotta always have those mouth muscles flexed on the reed, gotta hang onto it. But, apparently not. Duh. [smacks self upside head]
So once I stopped using the death-grip on the reed and loosened up, and picked myself up off the floor, I rummaged out the Cassell, Singing Dog, Reedery, and Fox Artist reeds I bought last fall and couldn't play because they were too hard and stiff, and it was a revelation playing those with my new loosened embouchure. Gee, they actually sounded quite nice, and didn't exhaust me to play.
This all resulted in me spending an entire afternoon with my extensive factory and handmade reed collection, experimenting.
And I eventually came to the conclusion that my reeds can be neatly divided into two groups.
Group A is reeds (and there are both handmade and factory reeds in this group) that sound closer to what the plastic reed sounds like than Group B does, and that require me to work with the reed constantly in order to get it up to pitch, and to get a stable tone. With these reeds, I'm all the time feeling like I have to fight the reed, even with my new non-death-grip, and they're noticeably tiring to play on. These either don't have a visible spine, or have only a rudimentary spine. They're overall rather flat-looking, like the plastic reed, which looks like a morphed clarinet reed. However, these reeds, in common with the plastic reed, have that nasal, distinctive "oboe" sound, some more piercing than others.
Group B is handmade reeds that I can just stick in my mouth and play. No pitch or tone issues, no feeling that I have to fight the reed. These all have a prominent, sculpted spine. But--they don't have that nasal, distinctive "oboe" sound. They sound quite pleasant, like a flute or clarinet at points, but they don't honk at me, they don't have that nasal "bite", and I miss that.
I love the Evans sound, but it's so LOUD. I wish I had a reed that was 1/2 Evans and 1/2 Cassell. I'm not looking at needing to change reeds mid-performance, because my goal is to play along with the orchestra at church during hymns, and nobody can hear them over the piano and organ anyway. Dunno why they're there, exactly, especially since at the moment it's only a trumpet, a flute, and a clarinet, but it looks fairly cool, I guess. And there are part books for instruments that came with the hymnals.
Anyway, I guess I just keep experimenting with reeds from different makers until I find somebody who's producing that kind of reed.
So, flat reed, no spine = loud, nasal, oboe sound, and rounded reed, big spine = softer, clarinet-y sound.
Question: how do people playing on European scrape reeds get their oboes to not sound quite so piercing? Just lots of practice? Tremendous embouchure control?
Post Edited (2007-04-26 15:42)
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
