BASICS AND WARMUPS FOR THE OBOE
BREATHING
- Take a few good breaths: engage the lower abdomen, sides, back.
- Do not lift shoulders, upper chest
- Inhale with both mouth and nose (this is a silent way to inhale
and also helps to get a deep breath.
- A few mental pictures that can help: think of yawning, a balloon
that inflates from bottom to top (not the other way around), make
a low sound when you inhale (as opposed to a high sound)
HAND POSITION
- Curve fingers, keep pads of fingers on pads of keys –
no straight, flat fingers
- Oboe should be a approximately a 45 degree angle
- Keep head up in a normal position – bring the oboe to
you
- Keep fingers close to keys, don’t let them “fly”
away
- "Ghost” scale and technical passages: finger passages
without playing, watch and listen for good connection and finger
motion
EMBOUCHURE
- Form the lips as when whistling
- Place reed about half way up fleshy part of lower lip (some
variation may be needed if lips are particularly thin or thick)
- Roll lips over teeth, keeping corners rounded and firm
- Chin should be down and flat
- Keep the jaws open to avoid biting. Try these tricks to maintain
the needed amount of openness:
Using the reed alone, make a tone using a normal
embouchure. While sustaining the sound, shift the reed from
it’s normal position to 90 degrees off, so that the flat
side of the reed is positioned vertically in your mouth. If
you have to open the mouth substantially to do this, you are
biting the reed. You can also do this while playing a note on
the oboe.
Turn your pinky finger so that the center of the nail is positioned
at 3 o’clock. Place the pinky in your mouth as though
it were a reed and round the lips and corners of the mouth around
your finger. You should feel a soft supporting cushion around
your finger with the teeth and jaws apart.
- The basic sensation should be one of a rounded cushion for the
reed
WARMUP ROUTINE
Do all these exercises first on the reed alone
- Long tones: hold at forte for as long as you can, without vibrato,
until tone is steady, even, and controlled. When you have good
control of the tone, add vibrato as normal. On the oboe, start
with some easy, stable notes such as A and half-hole D.
- Long tones of specific duration: i.e. 4, 2, 3, 1 (make up any
combination you like)
- Then add crescendos and diminuendos, - practice these on one
note and then articulate each beat:
1 – 3 – 1
1 – 5 – 1
1 – 7 – 1 etc.
GETTING THE TONE GOING
SCALES AND TECHNICAL WORK
Practice scales at quarter = 60 in the following manner::
- Half notes, one breath at top
- Quarter notes, in one breath
- Eighth notes, twice on one breath
- Triplets, twice on one breath
- 16th notes, twice on one breath
Increase speed up to quarter = 120 and higher
Do this for all major and minor scales
- Practice scales with a sounding pitch to refine intonation.
Start with the tonic sounding, then try playing with the dominant
or subdominant
- Vary rhythms, play rhythmic games with the scales so they beeome
automatic
Other scale practice patterns:
Continue to follow pattern through entire range
Other technical studies:
- Thirds
- Sixths
- Upper and lower neighbor scales (Snavely)
- Arpeggios (Gillet 20 Minutes d’Etude)
- Seven note trill study (Gillet 20 Minutes d’Etude)
- Half hole study (Gillet 20 Minutes d’Etude)
ARTICULATION
Legato tonguing (on the wind)
Repeat each measure until comfortable. Keep
air moving through the articulation.
Play notes as fast as possible to develop
“ricochet” feeling in tonguing.
VIBRATO
Use the following exercise to warmup your vibrato:
Triplets indicate vibrato pulses
Quarter = 100-120
Whistling is a good example of how to produce vibrato
See vibrato handout for more detailed explanation
MANAGING PRACTICE TIME
I suggest that you divide your practice time into sections
consisting of warmups/technical studies, etudes, and repertoire.
Doing a good warmup and working on scales and technical studies
should take about an hour. Make your next practice session
focus on etudes, than cover solo repertoire and excerpts in
a third session. Try to set up a routine and stick to it.
Schedule your practice time as you would a class. Most people
can’t play comfortably for much more than an hour, so
keep that in mind. It’s better to do more frequent,
shorter sessions, than try to cram everything in several hours.
If you find that your embouchure is tired, stop and come back
after a rest. Practicing when you are tired can lead to bad
habits. You may want to try keeping a practice journal to
see just how much time you are spending on what. Set up some
practicing goals for yourself and create smaller steps that
will help you reach them. Regarding amount of time to practice,
here are some guidelines. An hour of daily practice will maintain
your level. With two hours of practice you will see marked
improvement. More than two hours will bring quicker improvement.
Listen to performances, recordings, and attend master classes
of fine musicians (not just oboe players!) whenever you can
for inspiration and new ideas. Remember that ultimately, we
are all our own teachers!
Rebecca S. Nagel
School of Music
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
RNagel@mozart.sc.edu
Oboe Studio | Audition
Requirements | Oboe Basics | Photo
Gallery | Practice Tactics
Contact Information | Home
| School of Music | University
of South Carolina
|
