I know a few musicians (oboists and non-oboists) that take betas on a regular basis for a variety of reasons and situations. One takes them for auditions only, one takes them everyday for heart palpitations, and several take them for scary performances.

I’ve never tried them for a few reasons, on which I invite discussion:
1. The addiction factor: A person can start taking them just for auditions, then for performances, then get so addicted that they “need” them even for rehearsals.
2. The chemical factor: As a person with very low blood pressure, I’m scared to take any drugs that are going to slow things down even more.
3. The physical factor: I feel like by working out, I can keep my resting heart rate low enough to keep the lid on most nerves.
4. Aren’t a little nerves a good thing? I think negating nerves can almost negate the emotional response of the player to the music,

Having never tried betas, I can’t argue the flip side–I’d love to hear some beta-takers’ thoughts!

I certainly don’t profess to know everything about reedmaking….in fact, I kind of like being presented with the odd reed problem now and then. It challenges me to do some investigating and create a solution for a specific reed issue. In the end, I learn a lot and my reeds get better…

I do have a lot of reedmaking experience, however, owning a reed business and all. This leads me to the most recent addition to our newest oboe venture:

In case you haven’t checked out our new site, it’s Oboe:Space

Meet the Reed Guru, our newest “employee” in cyberspace. Ask the Reed Guru any and all reedmaking questions, and an answer will be posted to your question on the site. Next time you have a reed problem, you can come and search through all of the past questions for an answer. The Reed Guru will quickly become a great resource for your reedmaking.

This cool service is free to anyone who wants to submit a question. While we can’t promise we know the answer to everything, we do promise we will get as close to a solution as possible by doing some research or presenting you with some ideas or thoughts that might set you on the right path.

So, ask away!

You can check it out here.

I had the pleasure of playing Tombeau for the first time a couple weeks ago. I played second oboe/English horn and it was a really fun part, though there are some really quick switches.

Due to some past wrist problems, I play both oboe and English horn with a neckstrap now, and fast switches always offer a sort of conundrum for me:

Is it better to wear 2 different neckstraps and set heights for each instruments, or wear one and adjust accordingly? I’ve tried both, but for Tombeau opted for the 2-strap option and sometimes just went without the oboe one for faster trade-offs.

Last week, I managed to fall on a hard linoleum floor and ended up with a lovely goose egg on the back of my head. Playing the oboe with a goose-egg is much like playing with a head-cold — the pressure is painful and every reed feels too hard. Ouch.

To counterbalance the pressure, I made all my reeds really light and easy to play without really blowing. Now that I’m healed, they feel like toothpicks!

Light reeds are easy in that they don’t require you to blow, but when you want to blow, they actually seem harder than beefier reeds. Back to the reed table!

In the freelancing world, there is often a lot of the same work; pick-up orchestras for the Messiah, or maybe church wedding gigs. So, I always get a little excited when something comes along that is really different, and more importantly, really fun to do.

Not that long ago, I got the chance to play with a professional vocal ensemble, and was thrilled to discover a piece for choir and oboe that I had never even heard of. I assumed that it was just some oboe accompaniment, as a lot of choral pieces are. Imagine my shock and excitement in finding out that Effinger wrote a piece (4 Pastorales) that is almost like oboe solo with choral interjections.

I totally fell in love with this piece, and had such a blast playing it. There is something so great about occasionally being the only instrumentalist. The sound of one oboe against voices is so cool, and I found there was so much I wanted to do with the music in terms of color and mood and sound. All 4 movements are really neat, but here’s the first one:

You can listen to one of the movements here