MKL Reeds

I’ve been playing more English horn lately and it’s got me thinking about the importance of a good bocal.

Bocals can vary completely in sound, pitch, and stability, but finding the right combination for your horn and playing style can make a world of difference. Currently I’m playing a Laubin 3 and Hiniker 2 B11.

I really like how the Laubin sounds—covered and smooth, but sometimes it can feel small, and like I can’t really “romp and stomp” with it. The Hiniker is a lot bigger and more expansive, but I loose some of the subtleties I can get from the Laubin. I change between them to suit the situation, but ideally, I’d like a combination of the 2.

I’ve tried some Fox bocals I really liked and I’m curious about the new Ross bocals everyone’s talking about. Overall, I like a bocal that doesn’t let middle C sag, plays a “real” G#, and holds up the octaves.

If you’re interested in trying some new bocals, most oboe shops will let you have them on trial for a week or two.

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You know when you’re kind of in a slump? Not a reed slump or an oboe slump necessarily, but just feeling blah?

I’ve felt this way the last few days or so… nothing “wrong” per se, the weather’s been good and everything is really fine. Maybe it’s a momentary lack of motivation or just too much time in the car enduring the unsurpassable Chicago traffic. I don’t really know, but I try not to get upset about it because life has ups and downs and these times (as well as the really inspired times) pass too quickly.

I am always amazed at what transpires to affect the change from blah to not blah. (Anyway, hang on here, this DOES have to do with the oboe!)

So, the day was progressing busily today just as it always does, and suddenly I felt drawn to take out my oboe and play FOR FUN. I must admit, I haven’t done that for ages and like anything, it is never good to forget what you enjoy about something in the first place. I didn’t even think about reeds, I didn’t think about much, really. I got out some solo Bach and just played, sort of using the music as meditation.

Might sound funny, but that’s what it was. It was the opposite of practicing, at least for me, because I actually was able to use the medium of the oboe for what I was feeling about everything. This meditation session didn’t last long (with 2 little ones running around it never does) but it turned my day and my mood around.

So, here’s what we all already know that refreshed me today: music is a gift, and no matter how “good” you are, you can use your playing to deal with life in a way you cannot do with anything else.

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Playing two programs a week with Grant Park has had me thinking about how I prepare for a first rehearsal.

With only 2-3 rehearsals on a program before a concert, it’s imperative that every musician knows their part (and hopefully the piece) cold for the first rehearsal, so that rehearsal time can be devoted to interpretation, style, and ensemble.

Ideally, when I prepare a piece of music, the first thing I do is get a recording and listen to it while I’m making reeds or while I’m in the car to get an overall picture and feel for the work. Then I’ll listen to it with my music and a pencil and note specific tempos, solos, and touchy spots.

For a lot of the repertoire, there are traditional nuances that the printed music alone won’t clue you in on, so recordings are a great help. When I practice my part, besides getting the technical stuff down, I practice the style of the piece and interpret the printed markings appropriately.

At rehearsal, no matter how much you’ve practiced, the conductor or your colleagues will have new ideas—my teacher, Richard Killmer used to say “be prepared for anything,” meaning different tempos, articulations, anything.

As much as we prepare in the practice room, savvy musicianship and an open mind are imperative to a fluid first rehearsal. For the pieces without available recordings, this is especially true.

Expect the unexpected at a first rehearsal and be open to it, and you’ll discover that sometimes the best ideas are ones you never even thought of in the practice room.

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It’s not often that we toot our own horns, but someone once said, “If you don’t toot your own horn, there is no music.”

At any rate, in this case, I think it is more than warranted.

Please help us congratulate Anne Bach (co-owner of MKL Reeds) on winning the second oboe job in the Grant Park Music Festival.

For those of you outside of Chicago, the Grant Park Music Festival is the nation’s only remaining free, outdoor classical music series. It is a great orchestra and a great addition to Chicago’s long list of summer activities.

CONGRATS ANNE!

(If you like, send a quick email right to Anne. Her email address is anne at mklreeds.com.)

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After you’ve been playing the oboe for a while, you develop your own system for organizing your reeds. If I am preparing for a recital or some other solo, it is not unusual for me to put away those “really good reeds” as I make them so that I have a collection for the big day.

With this Bach Double performance in particular, I remember being surprised by the really good reed in my case. I had only made a few because my gouge was feeling pretty good, and I actually hadn’t put away many at all. It was the morning of the performance, and like I always do on the morning of an afternoon/evening performance, I got out every reed I was considering and lined them up in my reed case in order of how good they felt that day.

The reed I ended up choosing to play had NEVER been played on, but had somehow “morphed” into just the right reed for that day and hopefully, for that performance. I didn’t even need to scrape it. It responded just the right way and felt just right for what I knew the acoustics required. (The recital was given at Church of the Holy Trinity, Episcopal, in NYC)

I don’t usually make a fuss about reeds generally, but I normally do scrape on them a bit or refine them just one last time before a performance. This reed didn’t need anything, and I was not only surprised but a little skeptical. But, compared to others I was considering, it was far superior.

I never like to oversoak my reeds, even hours before a performance, so after coming to all these conclusions in a few minutes, I put it away for the concert later. And it came to pass it was a really good reed in the moment of truth (as my teacher used to say), and that is all that matters. It turned out to be one of those performances where you actually play the music and don’t think about the reed.

What fun…

You can listen to a movement from the live performance here.

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Playing the oboe is not easy. I think back to when I started and I marvel at how much practice and dedication it takes just to get a nice sound out of that little piece of wood.

That said, I am always surprised at what good can come from taking a break from the oboe and giving it an extended nap in its case. You would think that not playing the oboe would not be cause for much improvement, but, over the years, I have found otherwise.

Without fail, everytime I take a vacation from the oboe, I come back with better perspective, a better ear and more appreciation for what I do.

Let’s take these one at a time:

• Better Perspective – In the words of Charlie Parker,
  

  “Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.”

  Think about it, music is life. Your life is what makes your music interesting.

• Better Ear – It is said that your body’s muscles grow when they aren’t in use. And so it seems to be with your ear… When you take a break from music and then come back to it, you hear things differently. And for a musician, that’s a good thing.
• More Appreciation – This kind of goes without saying. It is pretty much a rule that you never truly appreciate something until you are without it. Same thing applies here. Everything just sounds better when you come back to it.

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I was cleaning out my desk the other day and came across my whole collection of Monumental Reed Notes. The collection is actually just a stack of Post-It-Notes from my years of study with Richard Killmer at Eastman.

I thought I would share some of them with you.

• Don’t worry about the detail… at first. Get the reed playing. Make it a stable, functioning reed and then worry about putting on the decorations.
• Learn to make reeds quickly. Don’t caress the cane. Just get the job done… Make a reed and play it.
• Reeds don’t play the oboe, you do. Having a great reed isn’t the end, it is just the beginning. The reed is a tool, you are the musician. You are responsible for what you sound like.

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It’s always fun to travel to festivals and gigs out of town, but it can make for unpredictable reeds. Planning ahead for multiple scenarios with a case full of gorgeous reeds is the ideal situation, but how realistic is it to make a reed in one city and expect it to be the same somewhere else? I’m back in Chicago now after spending 5 days in Nashville and am headed to Northern Wisconsin next week for the Midsummer Music Festival. My traveling reed plan for a week away is usually to leave with about 6 blanks, a few rough-scraped reeds, and a couple cushy old reeds (the old reeds give me some wiggle room to have a selection of reeds to play for a day or two while I make up a batch of reeds (around 5 or 6) when I arrive. You can never fully plan for what you’ll encounter in a new place, but I’ve found that traveling with a selection of new and old reeds and blanks to work with keeps my options open!

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A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have a week long gig with the American Ballet Theatre when they came through Chicago. The ballet was Giselle and it was beautiful. Or so I was told, you can’t see much from the pit. But you can read a review of the production by the Chicago Sun Times.

The really special part about all of this is that I got to spend the week playing next to a person who is one of my best friends and very close “oboe family,” Anne Bach (co-owner of MKL Reeds).

What’s so great about playing with good friends? Here are just a few things:

• No one is right (don’t you just hate when you sit next to someone who is always right?) and the finished product is always much greater than the sum of its parts.
• Fear takes a backseat to making music. As my teacher, Richard Killmer always used to say, “Fear is not an appropriate color.” It is so much easier to get caught up in the energy of the moment when you are surrounded by those you trust and admire.
• It just works. No trying, no tuning, just playing.

Stuff like this really makes you love what you do.

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I’m in Nashville playing Heldenleben this week. It’s a hectic time for the Symphony since Kenneth Schermerhorn, their music director of 22 years, recently passed away. The oboe section here is Bobby Taylor, Ellen Menking, and Rodger Weismeyer. The season after next, the Symphony will move into their brand new hall, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

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