www.makingoboereeds.com

Hi
Ihave been having good luck over the past few years buying from MMI.  I usually get  Loree or Alliaud, 10-10.5 mm diameter, gouged only, RDG gouge and I use an RDG No 1 shaper tip.

Thanks Joe..it looks like my login is now activated.
Jackie

Hello,
   I have enjoyed this site very much so far, I see many of you are experienced players,may I ask non-reed making, oboe based questions also?
   I'm almost 55, and I see that others have come to take up oboe at a later life season, it must be a maturity, finally have reached my sences type of thing. I've played music all my life, dixieland banjo, rock bass and guitar, mandolin and cello-and can read well on bass and mandolin and fair on cello if I gear up for it (and slowly on pipes)-but mostly strings and mostly from chord charts or from ear. I play cello and mandolin in church regularly and can best be described as a "trained street musician" though I did play string bass in school orchestra and concert band.
   I have always wanted to play oboe and have looked at oboes on line. Last month the bass player in the Slovenien polka band I play in came in with a case, he said "Jon I bought this on ebay, fixed it and I want you to have it!". Awesome, it's an oldish Larilee-wood, the upper piece was broken in two places, but so far so good. I come to oboe from the Irish whistle and Scottish Highland pipes angle of "wind instruments (what a welcome relief to have access to every note)-so far I can read slowly in C, D and G, picking up notes daily. What a fun instrument-one is happy just playing whole notes. I need help with tone, we were listening to a classical piece and I spoke up and said "there, the oboe" and my wife said "why doesn't yours sound like that?"
Well I've only been playing a week but having a wonderful time, thanks for reading.
Jon Miller

Hello - I don't think the site www.oboecane.com is in existance any longer. They don't answer either by phone or e-mail. Wouldn't it be great if it were possible to find really good cane?

best wishes,
HL

Hello Joe and Chris,
Thanks really a lot for your responses. In hoping to continue the dialogue – for one about “flat reeds” – Joe, you’re right on. Letting the reed do the work. It’s not impossible that the process of shaping the cane is a big factor here; I’ve tried your suggestion of cutting gradually on each side until you reach the metal, but usually I end up taking chunks out, so maybe 20 percent of the pieces end up in the trash (getting the razor blade or breakable cutter blade sharp enough is not at all obvious). The difficulty for me is that about 40 per cent of the time I can get the reed to crow at c# with a decent sound; if I clip the tip too much the reed becomes “thuddy” and (if it’s a decent piece of cane) the singing quality, which for me is all-important, becomes lost. I need to add here that your suggestion, Chris, about letting the embouchure be a function of whistling is a big help. I need to continue working with that; but really take the time to whistle! when I begin to sense the vice in the periphery. I would be very interested to know what kind of equipment you are both using, shaper tips, gouge (also your ideas about thickness towards the sides!). What’s currently for me a big bugaboo is the way that the pads cover; on a gross level, if one were to do a “smoke test” you wouldn’t see any at all, however I’m convinced that the way that the pads cover – how the balance exists, that mysterious dynamic that I need to understand better(particularly in the top joint) effects dramatically the resonance of the sound. There are no repairmen sensitive enough here, that I know of, with whom you can broach such questions. I’ve tried to do some of the adjusting myself, but not infrequently with that sinking sensation that I shouldn’t even have begun.

Chris, you said something to the effect that it would be helpful to hear my sound. To try to zero in on this a bit I can say that when I was a “youngster” I was very influenced by John de Lancy’s  and Al Genovese’s playing, particularly by de Lancy’s incredible ensemble playing with the Phily Quintet, his pianos that blended so beautifully with the other instruments, I was amazed that an oboe could sound like that. I got to the point that I could sound pretty close to the way he sounded. Then there was my years of study with Marc Lifschey when I lived in SF. He never had the slightest interest that I play with the same sound as he, but rather that the sound that I did have be living. I must say that for me this is still a quest; I find that something of your suggestion of “whistling” is a help in this direction. I’ve made a couple of cd’s over the years and would be happy to send some excerpts if I can figure out how (record in WAV and compress to MP3??). There’s one more question that I would like to ask: If  possible, could you tell me how you prepare your breath before playing a long tone? Is your attack a combination of air, tongue in that order of importance?

I think that’s about it for now,
Sincere best wishes to you both, and thanks again for your replies,

Herb

Hi Herbert,

You have certainly touched upon many of the frustrations of trying to rein in this inanimate object!

I won't give you advice on reedmaking, but long tones are my friend.  You mention so many facets that can affect the sound one gets through the oboe that the task seems daunting.  We're all limited by not having heard what sort of tone you produce, but I sense that you have not settled in on a tone you like yet.  Perhaps that would be the place to start.  Once that is better grounded, manipulate the reed to accommodate it.

One of the most helpful suggestions I've had for working on tone is to relax your embouchure as if you were whistling.  It is next to impossible to "bite" the reed or "work it" with that approach.  As was noted in the preceding post - let the reed do the work.

It is revealing to give an honest "toot" and see just where a note registers on a tuner.  Ideally the result would land square on zero.  Trying this would certainly let you know how much your current embouchure is affecting the tone, however, and give you an idea of just how hard you may have had to work the reed in the past.

A second suggestion:  record yourself in some different environments ... your practice studio,  a classroom, church sanctuary, etc. that have different acoustic characteristics.  Take that as a "baseline" comparison of your own playing at a given time.  Then occasionally (weekly?) record and compare your tone, assuming you're using the long tones .  Periodically record yourself again in those locations and compare the result to your baseline - or establish a new baseline.

Imagery certainly helps athletes to focus ... with something as physical as an embouchure, the same may be useful here.  Listen to recordings of oboists whose sound you like, and at the same time imagine yourself playing like that - with a new relaxed embouchure.  This doesn't work for everyone, but it may be worth a try.

Listening to oboists over the years talk about reedmaking, etc., I have come to the conclusion that there are so many variables to contend with that the task can be overwhelming.  As with taking on  any large task, the best results come from focusing on one component in particular and varying that alone.  I've suggested you focus on tone because the combination of "forming your embouchure/ hearing your sound" is one that you carry around all the time.

These ideas won't bring immediate success, but they will focus your thoughts on tone, if that would help.  Again - I sense that there are so many variables here that a caution to focus might be in order.  Hope that helps.

-Chris 

Hi Herbert,

Well, I finally did read all of your post, and found it very interesting. For the past 2 and a half months, my orchestra had been on a concert tour in the US. 48 concerts in as many cities during this time. Also in as many different halls from fantastic ones to really awfull ones. Add to that having to make reeds in different hotels. What a drag. I did learn a thing or two though.

The first thing is that it sounds a bit like your reeds may be a bit on the flat side, especially if you feel "dead" by the end of the concert. Clip your reeds so that when the reed is in your mouth with a playing position, it should crow a C. When the reed is crowed holding it down past the thread, it should actually crow a C#.

One other thing you can do is to make sure your reeds feel a bit resistant and focused, even a bit dull in the room in which you are making them. It is better to adjust them on stage with a bit of a nip and tuck. I like to make my windows in the upper back at the end as an adjustent. don't do it too soon.

All of the longtones are great only if you are not using flat unstable reeds. Remember to let the reed do all of the work. You should not have to manipulate it at all for a good sound. Look for response, stability and pitch level and make sure these things are correct above all else.

Hope this helps and sorry for the delay in responding.

All the best,

Joe

Hellooo out there –
This is my first experience of manifestation at this wonderful site- or at any site for that matter- that has been created with so much kindness and generosity for us oboe-players(I feel a bit like someone shipwrecked on an island whose only hope is to  put a message in the very last empty beer bottle and  to throw it into the vast sea hoping beyond hope that someone might read the message).

First of all, sincere thanks to those of you with good experience who have so graciously shared your knowledge and experiments with the rest of us. I’ve been playing the oboe considerably longer than I would like to admit and have even squeezed though the door of playing professionally. However my reed-making skills (I won’t use a vulgar expression) are worse than mediocre. I don’t have much hope of ever making too much better reeds than those that I already make; I admit that someone who knows how to make really good reeds could teach me a lot, but I don’t live any longer in the USofA(by the way, Ive read David Weber’s book, etc.). At a certain point in time I took a lesson with Elaine Duvas and at the end she gave me a reed that she had made. Now that was a reed! Since then I’ve been trying to make a reed that will do everything. But again dead end because (I think) it’s impossible to find good enough quality of cane today. One of the things that I think is important for a good reed is the G-octave test: to play more or less octave G’s without any particular kind of embouchure. When the G is almost already there in pitch I can deal with it, however when it’s not I can’t say that I know what to do to turn a quack into a G or to bring the higher G up to pitch. (Maybe I need to have a more precise understanding of how to use the “windows?”). I should add at some point that the advice that someone at this site gave about scraping the tip sides like the movement of a wind-shield wiper has been the most useful help that I’ve gotten in yonks. Thanks really a lot!

 To give some more precise information about what I’m using:
Dan Ross gouge( another problem is that I don’t know enough about gouging machines to know what kind of curve I need. When I ordered the machine I mentioned some of the oboists whose playing I like – Marc Lifschey, Dick Woodhams, Elaine Duvas)
Adam Caleb -2 and sometimes Caleb -1, though I’ve been through the gamut  of Brannon X, Robinson-Barre, and Samson 1, and to be sure Gilbert -1(?), and John Mack.
Now the cane I’m using is Alliot 10 – 10.5

The worst thing about the reeds that I make is that when I go to play a concert – the phenomenon of going from where I practice to the acoustical situation of a concert hall or church- they almost always sound really lousy, edgy, weird response, to put it lightly I’m almost always in pain whenever I have to play something. (For anyone who reads this, his first reaction probably would be that I should see a shrink above all). I’m coming around to be convinced that I need to find a way to develop a much more sensitive embouchure. In the past I studied some years with Marc Lifschey . He had a great embouchure and for him good playing consisted of a combination of embouchure and breath support, and of course a free listening mind. Whenever I tried to play his reeds all I got was edge; he was able, however, with his embouchure to use the edge to project and center the sound. Since the period that I studied with him, I have wished to be able to do this too, or at least go in this direction. I would be very grateful for some advice from anyone who has had any success at all in developing an embouchure that can help transform an edgy quality into something beautiful. I’m finding it difficult to really express in words what I’m searching for, maybe as I continue writing this note –

What’s directly related to this question of embouchure is that of the practice of Long Tones.
I truly believe that the correct practice of long tones is the key to fine oboe playing. I’ve been practicing long tones for years now, usually with a metronome set at 52, pretty much the way that Tabuteau indicates on his teaching record and I can sincerely say now that I don’t know to the slightest degree how to practice them correctly. I have the intimation that there is an essential relation to a sensitive embouchure as well as the living breath  being  directly in contact with the reed, to never begin the sound with the tongue but with a kind of hah or huh impulse(Lifschey told me this) that comes from the breath. The ideal for me is to start the sound as a good violinist would, starting the movement of the bow before it touches the string, starting from zero. However the practice of beginning the note from nothing and ending it into silence, for me, at any rate, is next to impossible, particularly with the least weirdness in the reed  or the slightest maladjustment of the instrument. Probably only us oboe players know how difficult this is and I personally would be very grateful for any comments from anyone else who senses the essential importance of this approach to the instrument. How to start the note with only the tensions in the body that are necessary; how can the embouchure help to produce this? This is precisely the question in front of which I find myself today. I need to add that it’s probably necessary also to find a way of minimizing the constrictions that develop in the throat.

Thanks once again for the site and to anyone who has had the courage to read all of this.

I use Serafil 20 from Amann. Always has - always will. The thickness and strength is just perfect.

http://www.amann.com/engl/docs/produkte/naehgarn/produkte/serafil.htm

Regards
Thomas

Can you give some guidelines on the affects of shape on the performance of the reed? I am using a Caleb-1 but thought of experimenting a little with different shapes. What is the effect of a slightly wider (or narrower) tip? Does a wider belly  produce a generally flatter pitch? What should I look for if I amtrying to improve the reed to stay closed all the way to the tip? (I understand something of the fulcrum idea). I know this is a very complicated subject but perhaps you could give me some general guidelines, pewrhaps with specific name of shapers that would illustrate the points you might make.
Joboe