When you’re looking for a good reed to play a solo performance, just remember this: Make sure you can play the reed out of your ear. That means the reed should be easy enough to get through your piece 2 or 3 times in a row without getting tired. So if your reed has you huffing and puffing after a bar or two, you’re going to get into hot water.…
“Fear has a smell, as love does.” -Margaret Atwood- I think the appropriate adaptation of this quote for oboists is “fear has a sound.” It does not matter how much you practice or how good or bad you think your reed is. Fear is obvious, and it is a sound that has no place in music. My very wise teacher had a saying along the same lines that I will…
It’s amazing what 4,000 feet will do to an oboe reed. 30 days ago, we moved out of the mountains of Flagstaff Arizona. Flagstaff Elevation: 7,200 feet above sea level. Now when you’re an oboe reed company, that type of elevation can be a real deal breaker. It was for us. So we stopped selling oboe reeds. We’d make them at the top of the mountain in Flagstaff, and then…
Who painted this picture of virtuoso oboist Johann Christian Fischer?
I remember this reed lesson pretty well. Even though it happened almost 15 years ago (eekkk…). The idea was to give myself a simple “cheat sheet” that I could refer back to as I made reeds. It was basically my profile of the “perfect reed.” I created a quick list of the major things I was looking for in a good reed. Mind you, this was 1993… so I was…
Here’s a page from my Oboe Notebook (one of them) back from a Masterclass I took with Richard Woodhams. It’s funny to look back at old things like this. It makes you realize how far you’ve come… and gives you the encouragement you need to go even farther. Take a look at the page, it’s still good advice from a master. To see the large version (that you can read),…
Over the years, we’ve collected a ton of excellent questions about oboe reeds, oboe playing and other oboe stuff. We’re finally going to answer them… some of them. (We have hundreds and hundreds of them.) But instead of just answering the question for the player who asked it, we’re publishing the answers for everyone. It’s called the BIG Book of Oboe Questions and Answers. And we’re trying something new this…
Got a question recently about how to tie your knots when you’re making an oboe reed. It’s hard to explain in words, so take a look at the video and see if it’s clear. This video is actually part of our reedmaking course, The Beginner’s Guide to Making Your First Playing Oboe Reed… In 9 Days or Less
Been a loooonnnnggg time. We’re living in Flagstaff now. At the top of a very tall mountain. This has nothing to do with the oboe, but I’d like to introduce you to some of our neighbors.
We’ve landed… About 1667 miles from where we started. In our new home: Flagstaff Arizona. It’s a whopping 7,300 feet above sea level. (If you’re wondering what high altitude does to oboe reeds, well we’re about to find out 🙂 But I’ll talk about that later. Right now, I want to tell you about something that might help you get through those oboe blahs we all go through now and…