oboeinsight

Someone emailed me to ask about the videos I put up yesterday—she was wondering about the way the oboists appeared to be swallowing the reed. Good question!

I don’t do that. I take in very little reed, actually. A lot of us in the US take in less reed, although it does vary. So far the only oboists I’ve found on YouTube are from other parts of the world. I suspect it has a lot to do with copyright laws here; no one wants to get sued! But I’ll continue to look around and see if I can find some oboists who have what I thnk of as a more “American sound” and embouchure.

Meanwhile … enjoy a little jazz with jazz “oboman” Jean-Luc Fillon. You’ll see (and hear) him play other instruments as well … English horn and duduk. The cymbal player ain’t bad either! 😉
—–

I like YouTube. Really I do. But I also like following rules. And I like control of whatever I do and play in. So after reading Jessica Duchen’s article I did a search on Symphony Silicon Valley on YouTube. Did I find anything I’m in? Not a thing. But I did find the Video Games Live concert that the orchestra was hired for. (I didn’t get to play; they only used one oboe.) So there the group is. Interesting, eh?

So how do I feel about this? Hmmm. Hard to say. It’s illegal. So that ticks me off. It’s not something anyone could sell, so no one is making money off of my colleagues work. But still ….

Oh heck, I don’t know.

I am bugged that I didn’t get to play the gig, though. 😉