Susan's Pithy Page

Theories, Fun Facts to Know & Tell

.....and some good information.

...at least I think so.

• Change is Inevitable - Your oboe was a tree.  It was a living, breathing, growing tree.  Your reed was, essentially, a plant.   A living, breathing, growing plant.  Most of the pads on your oboe are cork.  From a tree.  All of these natural substances are dynamic.  They are influenced by temperature, humidity, altitude, age, and many other variables that we oboists inflict upon them.  That means that things change.  Regular maintenance of your instrument helps keep it working properly.  Regular reedmaking helps to insure that you will have something in your reedcase that will get you through the rehearsal or concert.
• How long do reeds last? - Saliva is the first stage of digestion.  Keeping that in mind, wouldn't it be better to soak your reed in plain tap water instead?  There is no "rule of thumb" to gauge how long a reed will last.  There are just too many variables, such as cane hardness, how it is scraped, how long you play on it and the type of music that you play on it.  I do know that most reeds last longer if they are taken care of properly.  This is not to say that a well-cared for reed will not change; it is hand made from a natural substance and natural substances are affected by their environment.  But, you have a better chance of getting more out of a reed by taking care of it.  Keep it in a real reedcase, not a shipping container and NEVER one of those plastic tube things with the tip of the reed smashed into a teeny cotton ball at the end.  The tip of a reed is thinner than paper.  Try not to handle the reed by the cane - touch the cane as little as possible.  Keep cork grease close by so that if the reed is difficult to get in and out of the oboe, you can use the cork grease.  It works wonders on your tenon corks, too.  Don't let the reeds hit each other in the reedcase or slide forward so that the tip crunches into the top of the reedcase.  And don't chew on it while you aren't playing.  I can't count the number of students that I have had that chew on their reeds when they are just sitting there.  Weirdest thing I ever saw.  Also, many players are "biters."  Typically a "biter" will crush the opening with the strength of their embouchure while playing and then squeeze the reed open by the sides when it becomes too closed down.  I have read that the strongest muscle in your body is the jaw.  Reeds don't stand a chance with biters. Incidentally, having reeds that are lower in pitch encourage biting.   
• All I Need Is A Good Reed - Most reeds that oboists have to play on every day are just, for the most part, adequate.  Every oboist believes that every other oboist has better reeds than they do.  They usually don't.  Really great reeds come along every once in a while, like once or twice a year, if you are a persistent reedmaker.  Enjoy them when you have them, and don't accidentally bang them into your tooth.  In the meantime, learn to play well on whatever is in your reedcase.  Most of the time, you are the only person that can tell the difference.
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• Water Retention Problems or Why do I always get water in my oboe keys at the worst possible time? - I used to get water in my octave keys all the time.  Actually, I used to get water in a lot of keys. I swabbed at every opportunity,  I tried everything that anyone suggested - water tubes in my octave vents, spraying stuff onto a feather to put in the bore and/or toneholes, even not eating for hours before a concert to lessen the chance of water in a key in an inopportune moment.  It helped a little, but didn't solve the problem.  And I was hungry. If you want the horror stories, ask me sometime about a Vivaldi Gloria in Carnegie Hall....   I finally switched from a silk pull-through swab to a cotton non-pull-through swab.  Haven't had a problem since.  I still get water sometimes, but not an unmanageable amount.  The cotton swab takes 5 seconds longer to use than the silk swab.  Works for me.  Also - I would like to point out that many people, me included, when holding the oboe "at rest" during rehearsals and concerts, tip the oboe forward.  This encourages the track of water to go from the back of the bore around into the nearest tonehole.  And once the track leads to a tonehole, the only way to stop getting water in that same tonehole over and over again is to "erase" the water track.  With a cotton swab.
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• How do I choose an oboe? -  Well, don't buy an oboe without the help and guidance of an oboe teacher.  Your oboe teacher is an invaluable resource and would probably prefer to help you in your search, rather than not be able to tell you that the oboe that you went out and bought on your own was .... not that great.  Some people prefer to have a few oboes to choose from, others do not.  You should purchase the oboe that makes you want to take it out of the case and play it.  When I have come across an oboe that made it really and truly easier for me to play the way I want to than the one I had, I bought it  Of course, I played it for my teacher, too.
• Some thoughts on new oboes - There is something else about new instruments that I have been thinking about for quite a while, and have not yet tried to put it into words.  I do believe that you "put your own notes" into an instrument.  If sound is essentially vibration, and you "encourage" your instrument to vibrate a certain way by playing into it that way day after day, week after week, I think that the instrument will start to vibrate more readily that way each time.  I think that part of the "breaking in" process includes this vibrational encouragement to sound the way you would like it to - not just with timbre but with pitch center as well.  Most brand new oboes feel kind of "blank" or "empty" to me.  It seems like the breaking in process - long tones, intervals - is the way that you "place" those notes into the oboe. (I know, it sounds wacky...)  Perhaps this is why, when you let someone else play your instrument - it feels a little different for a little while when you first get it back.  And maybe this is why some people never let ANYONE else touch their oboe.  Who knows?
• Why do I have to break in an oboe? - Well, you don't if you don't want to, it is your oboe after all.  BUT - this is what I believe, and recommend.  Grenadilla wood comes mostly from Africa, in Mozambique, I think.  I have read that it takes between 70 and 200 years for the tree, called an Mpingo tree, to mature enough to be harvested to make oboes, clarinets, piccolos, furniture, etc.  It is sold in blocks, or billots, to the instrument manufacturers.  It is then aged to "stabilize" the wood - it was a tree, remember? You don't want the wood expanding and contracting too drastically after it is made into an oboe, as the mechanism on the oboe is quite complex, and too much moving would probably render it somewhat unplayable.  The aging process is somewhat drying to the wood, as I understand it. When you play an oboe, you are introducing warm moist air into the bore.  Things that are warm expand, things that are cold contract.  If you play too much too soon, the interior, or bore of the oboe is encouraged to expand, while the outside, the exterior, is not.  This can lead to a higher probability of cracking, since the bore is expanding at a faster rate than the outside.  One of the most likely places for an oboe to crack is between the trill keys, where the toneholes are drilled so close together.  I believe that if you introduce moisture into the bore gradually, allowing the wood to acclimate to it's playing environment, you will have a better chance of it not cracking.  Some oboes are just prone to cracking, they will crack no matter what - and can be repaired - unless the crack goes all the way through to the bore.  Some oboes never crack whether they were broken in or not.  It's your oboe.  You decide.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
• Your teacher is your most valuable resource.  Your oboe teacher is the person that works with you (or your child) regularly.  ASK THEM QUESTIONS!  THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE THERE FOR!!  If you have a question in between lessons, write it down.  Keep a notebook by your music so that you have it handy when you think of a question. Bring the notebook with you to your next lesson.  Then write down the answer.  It is amazing how much information we learn - and then forget - and learn again - and forget again...   you get the idea. 
•  Art is a process, not a product.  Remember, we all play the oboe because it is fun.  Sometimes it's hard to remember that.
• It's the journey, not the destination.  It's YOUR journey.  Make it a good one.