If they invent an oboe that can produce a tone without turning the performer the color of a young Beaujolais, I might pick the thing back up.
Here’s the subject header of a blog entry:
Exchange rate war is the United States government’s double reed hospital
Man, I really really like the idea of a double reed hospital! And I really really want a double reed doctor, too. Pretty please?
I’m still trying to work out another sentence:
And, again as a government department like the Ministry of Finance has withstood the pressure of both houses of Congress, but also with the Chinese government to back a good cry, in fact, but the U.S. government and Congress to play a double reed, the old so play continues, comedian to be unemployed.
Reading this:
Trying to get rid of my bad oboe habit which is lifting my finger when going from half covered to full.
Please oh please work on your half hole technique! Unless you are playing high C⒭&, your half hole finger is attached to the key. I move my half hole finger by pivoting it. Not everyone agrees with this, and I’m open to discussion about that. No matter what, don’t lift that finger to get on or off of the half hole. So many of my students begin by rocking it downward but, when recovering the half hole key, life the finger up. I suggest you pretend your finger is actually glued to the key and all you have is “wiggle room”.
The “half hole hop” is, in my little opinion, a great big no-no. We pivot, but we don’t hop!
That being said, I did have one student who, when she arrived at college, was told she had to move from pivoting (or rocking) to sliding. I prefer my method of pivoting, but as I told her, when she was with her new teacher she had to follow his rules. Not only that, but the video below suggests sliding as well.
So as you can see, this instructor does a fairly large slide. I guess I should figure out how to do videos and show you what my finger does instead. My reason for pivoting rather than sliding is to avoid having my other fingers or my wrist move. When you slide, the entire hand is more involved. When you pivot, only the index finger is involved. At least for me.
But no matter what no half hole hop! Period.
my oboe broke today
From my brother:
Hi Chamber Music Fans!
It’s time for another Willow Ensemble Concert. See all details below. Hope you can make it!
Time: 8PM
Dates: November 12 & 13
Place: Grace Church Chantry at 10th and BroadwayProgram Details
Mozart: Overture to Cosi Fan Tutte (arr. for Woodwind Quintet)
Brahms: Trio in E-flat for Horn, Violin, and Piano
Beethoven: Rondino for Woodwind Quintet
Mozart: Quintet in A for Clarinet and StringsWe’ll send out another announcement in a week or two.
Cheers!
Timothy Emerson
Artistic Director, Willow Ensemble
I’ll post all the info when he gets that to me. Timothy and I had fun this past summer playing the Così event … I’m hoping we’ll get to do something like that again soon.
There was a year or so, age 12, where I told people I could play the oboe. No idea why.
… but I don’t play clarinet.
Or. Um. Not. 😉
The New York Philharmonic took a step closer to filling a key position this weekend, offering its vacant principal clarinet job to Ricardo Morales, who holds the post at the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Yeah … but can he make a double reed. Huh? HUH?!
I love the (and I can’t guarantee I got this word-for-word correctly: “You always try for the best for the next time. You always try to make sure that the next time you play it is better. And hopefully it will be.” … that’s SO true. No matter how good it is, we are always thinking about “how can I make it even better?” Or at least I am.
So this weekend’s concerts were short & sweet for me, since I only play the Dohnanyi and it was first on the program. But what a fun time I had! I think I played well. (As I get further from the events I tend to think perhaps it was all my imagination.) But also … it felt good!
I was able to focus and play and feel as if I was making music. Saturday went well, so Sunday I thought, “What can I do differently?” So I tried to add just a bit more to some of the lines. I don’t know if it came across at all, but the goal is always to be better, and I think it’s a good approach. To try to “be the same as last night” would feel wrong to me. I love the carrot in front of the nose thing … knowing that, no matter what, it can always be better!
In case you didn’t get to the concert, here is the Dohnanyi (EH is in movements 2 (2:36 on first video — if you listen at about 4:13 you’ll hear the bass clarinet only; I DID play the low A♯ and skipped the following low B, which no one would miss since the bassoons have joined in by then) and 4 (at the start of second video) … and of course you aren’t hearing me or the Symphony Silicon Valley in these):
If you listened to these, you hear that the English horn begins and ends both movements 2 and 4. It sort of makes us feel important. We need that sometimes! 😉
So far the reviews have been very good:
Richard Scheinin, Mercury News
Beeri Moalem, San Jose Classical Music Examiner
