Posted by former oboist on December 21, 2001 at 12:35:14:
In Reply to: Re: Philosophical thoughts posted by one oboists opinion on December 20, 2001 at 22:19:51:
I agree with this!
While I had some success with oboe, it was trying to deal with reeds constantly! And when a reed really did bomb on me, I hated saying that it was the reed, because that is an excuse! With the tuba, there are no excuses, mouthpieces don't crack!
I didn't have the patience for reed making. The best I could ever do, as hard as my terrific teachers all tried, was to buy reeds, hack them up, retie them, and scrape them a little bit. It helped, but obviously not what it takes. With tuba, no worries about that. Sounding good on oboe could arguably be a lot harder than sounding good on tuba, but it makes one realize the little things that make the tuba difficult as well. I think I made the right choice.
I was too crazy for the oboe (: Although sometimes, I admit I miss it... But not for anything but fun.