TED TALK
The theory behind effective practice
A must “listen” for all musicians seeking to improve their skill. Read more
Overview: Audition/Jury Prep
“Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training” – Navy Seal
Water Issues?
Are you frustrated by a tone hole that continually collects water no matter how many times you swab out your oboe and apply cigarette paper to dry the pad?
Sounds like you might need to retrain your oboe to stream condensation down the back of the bore (thumb-rest side). Perhaps you may also need to clean your tone holes. Read more
Reverse Practicing
From a young age we are conditioned to start at the beginning and go to the end. We learn our alphabet “a” through “z”. We read books from the first chapter to the last. We eat breakfast, then lunch, then dinner. Read more
Scraping to 80%
In order to avoid ulcers on the job, I decided early in my career that I needed a reed-making method I could absolutely count on. What follows is a series of scraping instructions that has worked for me for decades. Read more
Reed Talk
John Mack, former Principal Oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra and Richard Woodhams, Principal Oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra talk “reeds” in the following videos.
Clean Your Reed, Please!!!
Keeping your reed clean is easy and here’s a method that works. Your reed will last longer and your teacher will thank you. Advisory!!! If you have a queasy stomach, you may want to skip this post. Read more
Choosing Tube Cane
The first step in making an oboe reed from scratch is to acquire some 10-11 mm tube cane – available online through most double reed accessory businesses.
Cane can range in quality from very hard and dense to soft and pithy. Read more
Refine or Recycle Your Reed
What is the likelihood that the reed you are currently scraping will become a playable reed? Should you continue to scrape/refine your reed or should you recycle it (strip the cane off the tube and begin again) before you waste more time in a fruitless effort? Here is a chart that helps you decide. Read more