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Re: Am I supposed to be holding onto the instrument with my left thumb?

Author: Schell
Date: 2007-10-21 16:57

Don't worry- either the author of the book is competely wrong in their instruction of how the thumb should be held or the only intended you to keep your thumb in mid air during those selected measures.

Your thumb ABSOLUTELY should rest on the back of the oboe when not playing with the octave key. It would be crazy to try to play otherwise.

I believe what the suggestion in you book intended to say was that because your jumping so often and quickly from notes that require the octave key and those that do not you should leave your thumb in the air while not on the octave key for that passage only. However, while I don't know whether the eighth notes are slured or not, if the are, the use of how one returns the thumb from the octave key to the back of the oboe (as opposed to keeping it in the air between notes that require the octave key) can be very helpful in such achieving difficult slurs. Downward slurs are often rather challenging- one of the things I do to help accomplish them is to slide my finger from the octave key to the back of the oboe (skipping the jump from octave key to air to back of oboe). Something about this slide really helps achieve difficult downward slurs.

Also I would suggest that you begin working out of Barret or Ferling they are widely accepted as the most standard etude books and really adress every aspect of your playing. In a lesson with John Mack we worked on Barret nearly the entire time and only 10 or 15 minutes on my solo piece.

hope this helps

ashle

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