“We’re swallowed up only when we are willing for it to happen.”

-Nathalie Sarraute

The beginning of the school year is often the beginning of the work year as well for many oboists.

For the last few months, you may have had an outdoor concert or two, but nothing too serious. Now the phone is ringing off the hook with wedding jobs, teaching jobs, playing jobs, adjudicating jobs.

All at once everybody wants you!

It is often a satisfying feeling to our egos when this time rolls around and we feel so wanted… But try to separate your ego from what you are agreeing to do and make sure you aren’t getting in over your head with too much driving or too much stress with little reward.

I remember the first fall I lived in Chicago. It was a welcome change to have so many oboe opportunities, but I got swallowed up very fast.

There was one particular day where I drove in 3 states, fought traffic for several hours, and spent 14 hours away from home for very little money and very little reward.

It was nobody’s fault but my own, and I was indeed “willing” for it to happen.

I did learn what I could handle and vowed to never get that needy and “willing” again. It’s different for everyone, but set your “willingness meter” now!

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.

Playing the oboe can be hard… as long as it doesn’t sound that
way.

You can hear an example of a good “reed fit” by turning up your
speakers and visiting the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/5d3vf3

The piece is a Telemann Fantasie I recorded a few (10 years…
EEEKK!) years ago…

“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 never forget:

“Fear is not an appropriate color.”

It is a bizarre thing, because someone can play very well and still play fearfully. And someone else can play less well, missing notes here or there or whatever but be full of confidence.

Strive to remove any fear from your playing. If you detect any, ask yourself where it is coming from. Sometimes we just need to acknowledge it and move on instead of acting like everything is OK.

I remember my first solo recital after I had graduated and left school. I was a “professional,” but I didn’t feel like it. I had a really hard time being on my own at first because I realized it was all up to me, and that was very scary.

Luckily, I recorded the recital and literally could hear my own fear. It was then that I decided it was going to be confidence or bust from now on, because it just wasn’t worth it any other way.

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 send them down the mountain to our customers.

And that’s when it would happen…

KAPOW!

Dead oboe reed. [Death by altitude.]

But in June, just last month, we moved about 45 minutes from Flagstaff, to a little town called Cornville, AZ.

(Don’t worry if you laugh at the name… we did.)

The bottom line is, we’re out of the clouds and back in the desert of Arizona.

Cornville Elevation: Only 3,225 feet above sea level.

The good news?

We Can Sell Oboe Reeds Again!

Now ever since we stopped selling reeds (about a year ago), we’ve gotten at least 3 emails a week asking “When are you going to sell oboe reeds again?”

Well, TODAY is the day.

We’ve got oboe reeds.

Same great reeds as before… Same guarantee as before.

Here’s where you can get them:

Happy playing,

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 still really new to reedmaking.

Take a look at the list and tell me what your thoughts are.

Now soon after this lesson, I remember my teacher giving me an exercise to practice that really helped me.

The exercise was to make a reed on looks alone. That meant making a reed by working to get the reed looking perfect… without actually testing it.

Most of the times I tried this–once I got the reed looking right–it usually played pretty well.

The point of the exercise was to keep me from becoming my own worst enemy. You know those times where you notice a problem with the reed and start scraping… Then you notice another problem and start scraping somewhere else.

And pretty soon, you get yourself in trouble and the reed goes in the trash.

Now understand, this was just an exercise. A reed doesn’t have to look great to be a great reed.

You can click on the image to get a closeup view of the notebook page.

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), just click on the image.

This masterclass was on April 13, 1995… just a few months before I started at Eastman.

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 time… a pre-publication offer, which includes a 40% discount.

You can read about the whole thing by clicking on the link below:

Get the details…

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.