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Re: Playing Angle ...

Author: oboeidaho
Date: 2007-09-02 22:05

I have seen oboists play with the oboe at the same angle as if they just put the reed in their mouth - and then just added the oboe (does that make sense?). This is (I think!) the practice in Europe. It would seem to be the "natural" position for the oboe, but for me you just get too bright a sound.

On my reeds (Am scrape), to get a darker sound I angle the oboe down a bit (so the bell is between my legs when sitting). This allows for more lip coverage on the reed itself due to the angle. You can hear a big difference if you lift the instrument so the reed comes out closer to 45 degrees (or higher). One of my collegues used to play that way and we called him "Lasertone" - which was mean (but true).

Squishing your elbows in is a bad idea, and of course bad posture won't help your playing! If you slouch AND hold the oboe down the reed ends up having the minimal lip coverage it would have if you used good posture and held the oboe way up (like a trumpet). But my opinion is that if you have good posture and can breathe in a relaxed manner (Alexander Technique all the way), you can hold the oboe however it works best for you. I sometimes make my students move their instruments around while they play, just so they can see they don't need to be rigid - even playing while lying on the floor is an eye-opening experience!

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