 The Fingering Forum
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Author: Jake
Date: 2004-05-27 21:47
Hi, I have been playing clarinet for a couple years now and i am now trying to learn the oboe on top of the clarinet because we dont not have any players at my school. I have a question if anybody has any tips on getting the right sound. Right now my tone sounds very Indianish, like from India not north america. I was wondering if that is the right tone, and i dont believe it is. Thank You
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2004-05-28 22:46
By Indianish I assume you mean as in Indian snaker charmer, not actually an oboe player from an Indian orchestra. And if that is how it sounds, then no indeed that isn't quite the sound you should be going for. We like to think the modern oboe has evolved at least a little bit from it's shawm-like ancestry. (Though some might take issue with that claim.)
Getting the right sound on the oboe or any instrument for that matter is something you could write books about, and indeed there are some out there. First you have to determine what it actually is that is causing your sound to differ from what is ideal. If your playing is an ophidiophobic nightmare, then chances are you are having issues with pitch, dynamic range, and tone quality. Working on these three things would be a great place to start in trying to arrive at a more refined sound. So what should you do towards that end?
Well, there are three critically important issues you must address that will affect every aspect of your playing. The oboe starts to sound more in control when these three factors are all doing what they're supposed to be doing: 1) the air 2) the embouchure and 3) the reed.
<u>Embouchure</u>
As a beginning player who sounds like a snake charmer, I would say you're probably playing with too much reed in your mouth. If you're playing on a quasi-decent reed, I would bet money that you're also usually on the sharp side. Try taking some of the reed out of your mouth. This may require some experimentation on your part to find out exactly how much you should take in for your particular mouth and lip shape.
First however, you should understand how you would be holding the lips in the first place. The most important thing to remember is not to roll your lips to much over your teeth, if at all. Again this just depends on the thickness of your lips as to how much of you lips is covering your teeth. Jack Mack (a famous American oboist) said that the teeth should have nothing at all to do with the embouchure on the oboe; rather it is the lips which should be doing all the work. As a clarinet player, this may feel a little strange at first since you actually touch the top part of the mouthpiece with your teeth on that instrument. As a general rule though, you should think of your embouchure as being formed in front of your teeth, not over or between them.
With that in mind, remember not to bite on the reed. This will strangle the reed and not allow it to vibrate as freely as you need it to. It's analogous to trying to sing with someone squeezing your throat; it just won't sound very good. Conversely, you should remember not to drop your jaw and play with your mouth too open as well. I find when I'm playing that my teeth are about as far apart as when I place my pinky finger between them.
When you place the reed on the lips, you should pull your chin as flat as you can while keeping the corners of your mouth active and tight. This has the effect of keeping your lips out of the way of the vibrations, and yet providing enough lateral support on the reed (from the sides of your mouth via the tight corners) to keep the reed under your control instead of vibrating too wildly. This idea of lateral support I think is one of the most critical differences between an oboist with a good tone versus an oboist with a more unfocused tone.
For now just try to be mindful of keeping your chin flat, your corners tight, and no biting as you play. Playing some long tones on some notes in the middle register would help you tremendously on this point.
<u>Air</u>
If you are trying to blow through the oboe as you would a clarinet, then you're going to experience problems with your sound. The clarinet requires a much larger volume of air per minute than the oboe, and trying to force too much air through the oboe reed is going to result in an unfocused, harsh sound while simultaneously having deleterious effects on your intonation.
The oboe works on air speed and pressure, not air <i>volume</i>. You should keep your abdominal muscles activated the entire time your blowing through the oboe. This is where you should start developing the idea of "internal resistance" to your air stream. Imagine that you're taking in the air to be released, and as you start to blow down the oboe, you're holding on as tightly as you can with your stomach muscles to all the air so that only the fastest air can escape. If at first it feels like your head may burst from the pressure, then you're doing it right.
Building up an internal resistance to the air focuses the air stream and will provide the most control over the vibrations of the reed while simultaneously <i>blowing resonance into the tone</i>. This focusing of the air shouldn't just stop in the stomach however. You should imagine that the air is continuing to be focused all the way up through you throat and in the mouth, a lot like a high pressure hose forcing water out of a tiny nozzle. Then I find it helps me if I imagine that the air moving through my mouth is being aimed out between my eyebrows instead of down through the mouth (even though in actuality that is where it is really going of course).
<u>The Reed</u>
What kind of crap do they have you playing on? As a beginner, there's no way you can know of course exactly how good of a reed you have, but chances are you've been given something less than idea (to put it nicely) to work with. The best thing you can do about reeds right now is try to find a professional oboist in your area who sells the reeds that he makes. If you're serious about wanting to learn to play the oboe, then storebought reeds simply are not going to be good enough. Besides the fact that simply aren't made very well, they might encourage you to develop bad habits which will only have to be ameliorated later once you finally get your hands on a real reed.
Better yet, you can find yourself an oboe teacher (which you should do anyway) and start learning to make your own from him.
Unfortunately, learning to be a good oboe player also means learning to make good reeds. If you are indeed playing on some horrific reed proxy, then you will probably be surprised just how much of that snake charmer-like sound is due to the inadequacies of your reed.
At any rate, let us know if you have any more questions. Good luck.
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Author: Jake
Date: 2004-05-29 01:15
Wow! Thx for all the help. Ya i got some pretty bad reeds. Store bought, rip-off too. I read pdf file about oboe reeds and what they should look like. I looked at my reeds and they are terrible. The two reeds overlap each other and the opening is quite small compared to the ideal opening i saw in the diagram. Once again, thx for your help. I will try all those things you mentioned.
Jake
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Author: Jake
Date: 2004-05-29 01:38
I was wondering if websites like:
http://www.singindog.com
and
http://www.mklreeds.com/reeds/
make good reeds? If so i was thinking of getting some online because my local store charged the same for their reeds. Thanks again
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Author: pinkoboe
Date: 2004-05-29 15:55
The best place I've ever gotten store-bought reeds online is www.forrestsmusic.com. They are a double reed specialist store and everything they make/sell is of really nice quality, as nice as handmade quality, but good nonetheless.
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Author: amanda
Date: 2004-05-29 22:59
back to your sound problem i've always been told i sound like a dying duck when playing the oboe i don't know if this helps but maybe you should listen to a recording of the oboe or maybe take your oboe to a music store where someone could play it for you and you could get some tips from someone who can see exactly what your doing wrong hope this helps
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2004-06-02 21:16
Yeah let me just echo what Amanda said. It's critically important as a beginning oboist that you begin to form in your mind a good concept of what an oboe should sound like, not just in terms of sheer tone quality, but what good articulation, dynamic contrast, tone color variation in phrases, attacks, and releases should sound like, among other things.
Where exactly in North America are you? If you're in the US, then you need to be listening to <i>American</i> oboists and using their sound to formulate this sound concept in your mind. This is very important; I don't know if you can hear it so much now, but oboists sound <i>very</i> different from country to country, and the last thing you need is to be listening to oboists from the Vienna Philharmonic for example, in order to understand what an American concept of good tone is. That is unless you want to sound like Viennese oboists, which I suppose is your perogative.
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Author: Jake
Date: 2004-06-06 21:32
Yes, I am in the USA. I think i am just gonna go out and buy a cd with American oboe music because i have downloaded music but i dont know if it is an american oboeist. is Antonio Vivaldi an american oboeist?
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Author: TorusTubarius
Date: 2004-06-08 04:26
Umm nope Antonio Vivaldi was a Italian Baroque composer.  However, allow me to recommend some orchestras and oboists for you before you go out to buy CD's. (And yes I've noticed most stuff you can download is <i>not</i> in fact American orchestras.)
You should definitely check out:
Kathryn Greenbank, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (a must)
Richard Woodhams, Philadelphia Orchestra
Peter Bowman, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
Elaine Douvas, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Alex Klein, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
and these oboists who are retired or passed on:
John Mack, formerly of the Cleveland Orchestra (a must)
John de Lancie, formerly of the Philadelphia Orchestra (another must)
That should be good enough to get you started.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2004-06-10 07:39
Hi!
Mr. Tubarius really knows what he is talking about and gives excellent advice.
Without commenting much, I would say:
play on the very tip of the reed,
try to get a soft, covered sound on a low C and think of that,
try to get a stable reed, one who's crows at various points on the reed play an unvarying C from soft to loud.
Good Luck,
Wes Brown
Redondo Beach, CA
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Author: Jake
Date: 2004-06-10 16:31
Thx Wes. My cousins live in Redondo beach (and Torrance-I just thought I would add that :-D)
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Author: Jake
Date: 2004-07-14 03:52
I checked out forrest's music and i noticed that they are the same company that makes the oboe i borrowed from my school. What is the difference in the hand made reeds that have the different color label? Thanks again
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