Re: Philosophical thoughts


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Posted by one oboists opinion on December 20, 2001 at 22:19:51:

In Reply to: Philosophical thoughts posted by N. Dwyer on December 19, 2001 at 15:35:38:

What comes to mind for me as an oboist and teacher is the following:
Every instrument, due to it's own particular "quirks" may be better suited to people with personality traits that "fit" that instrument. I don't think it's purely a case of, for example, neurotic, anal-retentive wierdos picking the oboe (remember, I play the oboe) or airheads picking the flute, etc etc...
What I think happens is when you pair the quirks of an instrument with the quirks of a person, they begin to sort each other out. For example, lets stick with oboe: the biggest quirks of the oboe are the darned reeds, the small bore, and the unique fingerings (lots of forked fingerings, four octave mechanisms for two and a half octaves of range - including the half hole thing)
What these quirks do to the people who play them is kind of a chicken and the egg thing. Does the oboe make you crazy, or do crazy people tend to find success with the oboe?
First the reeds: They make you nuts, and you have to BE nuts to cope with them. think about it as a mouthpiece that is never the same twice, changes as you play it, changes depending on what room you're in, and may be of dubious quality to begin with. If you don't have the personality traits to deal with the elusive search for the perfect reed, and to endlessly deal with NOT the perfect reed you're not going far with an oboe in your hand.
Second, the small bore: It makes intonation really interesting, makes it very easy to get water in your keys, and requires you to take persnickity care of the darned thing so it won't crack. Once again, if you don't do well with these situations, you may find yourself using you oboe for kindling, after carving it up with your reed knives...
Third, the fingering system: this is what I think slows up, and/or frustrates, a lot of beginning oboists. The first two octave are fairly straight forward, but the third octave is a study in wierd harmonics and baroque refugees - and each instrument may or may not work with different fingerings!
Couple this with the fact that oboists do not travel in packs, they play one on a part with rare exception from the very beginning. So you have to be fairly comfortable with playng alone, and especially in the beginning, sounding not so hot in front of your colleagues. There is not a 7 piece 3rd oboe section to hide in if you don't have it together yet...
So, my theory is that if you can cope with these things, you're probably a potential oboist.

What this teacher may be getting at is the boy is becoming frustrated by the idiot-sycrocies of the oboe, and would be better off with a different set of wierd problems; or maybe he/she thinks the student doesn't have the patience for reeds, or for picky instrument maintenance. Or maybe the teacher is way off base and is stereotyping instrumentalists for some random reason that has nothing to do with the student's actual performance. The best bet is to see if the kid likes playing the instrument, is making some type of (forward) progress, and that the instrument is still in one piece. What more could you want?


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