Most oboists know that Martin Schuring has corrected the Barret Oboe Method. I still like the old one I own, just because of how it looks, but if you want to be able to easily read the thing you are best off purchasing Martin’s edition.
Now I’ve been informed that he has a new book out. Very cool, and you can bet I’ll be buying a copy!
Here are the other books he has out:
Barret — Complete Oboe Method:
Forty Progressive Melodies:
Sixteen Grand Studies for Oboe:
If you’ve ever been around a peacock you’ll know what this is about. The music starts out so sweetly, with the peahen and the babies in view. But then …?
Yes. They make that sound.
Music is by David Ocker, and you can read more about it here.
When I was a kid I really loved the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I’ve not seen it since, but I’m guessing I’d not be as thrilled with it. That’s kind of the way it goes isn’t it? CCBB starred Dick Van Dyke, and I always loved him. So when I landed at the video below I had to “bless” all of you with it. That song is one that can really get stuck in one’s head. Funny thing: I thought the lyrics were “Our fine four feathered friend” (regarding the car) when I was a kid! (It’s really “four fendered friend”. Duh.) When Van Dyke sings “chitty chitty” sometimes it comes across as another “itty” word. At least to my ears. I’m guessing it’s easy to fall into that!
Van Dyke is 84 now. Looks like he’s doing pretty well!
I loved The Dick Van Dyke show when I was a kid. And at the end of the following video you get some of his fun dancing:
Okay. Enough fun for today. I think I’ll take a nap. 😉
One time I would like to do like they do in figure skating. I want the audience to applaud every time I nail a difficult passage.
-Orli Shaham
Believe me, I understand that desire! At the same time, I don’t want people to actually do it. Just think it, please! I do get to see my colleagues do the “leg pat” thing or the foot shuffling (which is sometimes too noisy) when I do nail a solo. That’s nice, except that when i don’t nail it I don’t get that and of course then I think, “FAIL!” I used to play shows up in SF and the contractor would give me a thumbs up after every “sewer solo” I played. Except when it wasn’t quite “on”. I had to stop looking his direction (and he sat in front of me!) after the solo so I could avoid that deflating feeling when I knew it wasn’t just quite right. (And believe me, we know when we aren’t quite right. We don’t need a thumbs down or anything. Duh.)
I am bothered even at jazz shows when someone applauds a soloist because frequently it means I don’t hear the next person’s start of a solo.
And do note that she says “one time” …
Here’s a bit of Orli Shaham playing with her brother Gil:
… and here she is, comparing oboe to beef. Well. Sort of. 😉
I recently did, for lack of a better word, a classical piece for the arts council in my home town [Staten Island, N.Y.]. It was like a suite, with orchestra, you know, with strings and oboe and piano. I wrote the music on a keyboard I got at Best Buy and a friend of mine scored it for me. I was at the concert, I took a bow, I was like Franz Liszt. I would do it again, if it’s a commission like that, because then you know it’s gonna get played.
-David Johansen (of The New York Dolls)
I read it here.
lunch & oboe lesson @ USF. ugh. i hate lessons.
(Any readers here study oboe at University of Southern Florida?)
