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Amateur Oboists...

Author: GAWN
Date: 2011-08-05 10:51

Dear friends,

the oboe seems to be an instrument that demands a very high degree of commitment and time for daily practice and reed making. So much that you almost need to be a full time professional player and devote you whole day to it.
But what if you can't?

Having played various recorders during my childhood and a trombone in the schoolband I did have some basic musical knowledge when I started to learn the Oboe two years ago. I'm in my thirties and definitely to old to become a professional, but I'm nevertheless very devoted to the instrument. I have to live on another job and I have a family so it's difficult to spend much more than 1-1.5 hrs per day with my oboe. Now I'm about to do a grade 6 exam, but I keep struggling to improve my embouchure and breathing.

Above all, I keep dreaming about achieving 'the Oboe sound' that I hear in others' music. But will this ever be possible for an amateur? I am not talking about virtuosity, speed and the ability to play complex pieces instantly in recording quality - all this can probably only be achieved by full time professionals - but the sheer ability to play a simple, lyrical piece with a pleasurable, soft and smooth sound that a listener would enjoy instead of running away from it...

I'd love to be able to play some chamber music together with other amateurs some day, even risking an occasional public performance, but I'm a bit afraid of imposing my still quite piercing sound on others yet...

Are there any other amateurs around here? What are your experiences? Or are 'amateur' and 'Oboe' two things that simply don't go together?

Cheers,

Georg

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