Author: Craig Matovich
Date: 2007-07-26 21:57
Hey,
I see your ISP is in Gaithersburg, MD.
I went to Gaithersburg H.S. myself a bunch of years ago... graduated 1973.
For your pitch question, depending on how long you've played and the reed situation you face, you might consider a few exercises that improve intonation across the oboe at various volumes.
I will sound like a broken record to some on these points, but seriously, they are good for early players and remain a daily habit for me 30+ oboe years later.
Warm up with long tones. Start with half-hole notes and move up a few half steps and down a few half steps.
Long tone = 12 - 15 seconds of duration.
Start MF and play a steady sound, concentrate on the initial release of the sound ( get the pitch, volume and tone you desire.... hold it and release it gracefully ( with slight decresc. taper to your sound). So, do c#, d, d#, e...
then, e-flat, d, d-flat. Repeat.
Then do the same routine adding dynamic contrast. Start mp and cresc to F and decresc. back to mp for each note in turn.
After a couple weeks add the following:
Articulated drives, meaning tongue the cresc. and decresc. using say a quarter note each at mm quarter = 80-90 beats per minute.
After a couple weeks, following the warm up above continue drives moving chromatically downward from 2nd octave c... go as far as you can. Take breaths as needed and see if you can work down to low b-flat.
After a couple weeks, follow the above and add return chromatically back up from low b-flat to 2nd octave c.
Sounds boring, eh? But a wealth of oboe control, insight, pitch stability, confidence in response await you. And the demands this places on reeds will inform your 'pallette' about what makes for a good reed.
Give it a try...
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