Hibernate

 It is so cold. Like -4 F cold. That -20 C if anyone cares. I guess fortunately I have not had any gigs this week, although I did turn down one in Great Falls, Montana, where the temperature is even colder. It was actually kind of a difficult thing for me to say no, but it is six hours away, I would have to spend three nights there (home stay), and the pay was only $50/service. They did have a small per diem and $300 for travel, but that is only half of the standard mileage for how far I would be driving. Usually, I would not quibble about money since I am in the fortunate position of having an engineer husband, but that just seemed excessive. 

On the upside, I then got a call to Sub for the big symphony, just one night, but I will be playing for a conducting workshop! They split the orchestra the night. I will be there so I will play first without a second Oboe. And they’re just doing some little things, Schubert‘s unfinished, Strauss Die Fleidermaus and Tchaikovsky 5. Yikes. Just a lot lot of music to be prepared for. 

And the next weekend, I’m playing with the farther Bigish Symphony (About three hours away, but my brother lives there so usually a fun Family visit occurs). That should be fun, but there is also a lot of music for that. It’s a movie night pops concert and I’m playing second which should be fun. 

My baroque Trio has a performance at the end of this month- I’m really trying to elevate my level of playing, Even though I could get away with doing far less. Same with my little symphony, it is frustrating, but I have decided it gives me a good place to practice my soft articulation and prep for other gigs. One of my best friends in the symphony of more than 20 years, has decided to step down from her principal position next year. Although I have thought about it many times, I don’t think it is my time yet. 

Finally, I reached out to people about playing in a quintet, and of course, two of the people want to do afternoons, and two of the people only will do evenings. Ugh, I know I will end up being the quintet bitch (Organizer and Procurer of music) and I really don’t want to do another evening thing. I’m considering reaching out to the evening people and saying I will participate, but one of them will have to take the lead if they want to do something, guessing that will lead to nothing. But hopefully we can find a couple other people to do an afternoon thing! Scheduling is always the hardest.

Come to me…

 Just participated in Jennet Ingle’s The Oboe Is Not Your Friend workshop- it was great! And a couple of tips - but the one that really resonated was bringing the oboe to me (not leaning in to the oboe). 

This is not new advice to me, but it really impacted my playing yesterday- I think between using more embouchure to articulate and my Alexander Technique body awareness I found a really good place to be. I still find myself falling into a more tight and contorted position, but being aware is helpful. 

Lexapro

So today, I am starting on a very low dose of Lexapro to see what it does to my anxiety. 

Earlier this year, I came to the shocking to me conclusion that I am an anxious person! I think after Jim’s Health issues last summer when things were getting back to normal, I realized all the things I felt were classic anxiety feelings. It seemed helpful to me to own that, rather than just feeling overwhelmed a lot of the time. 

I mentioned it to my GP last December and he recommended a therapist. I was really thinking I could just whine about my troubles for a while and maybe do some meditation, but she was super focused on prescribing drugs. Not sure how I feel about that, but reflecting on the way home, I decided I have been to therapists and whined about my feelings for my whole life, and I certainly have had the opportunity to incorporate meditation and yoga, but I have not taken advantage of that. For the most part anyway. 

I’m going to try this, and it seems like an exit strategy is not too difficult. Supposedly, I should see some results within two weeks, the thing that my therapist mentioned that make the most impact on me was that it would “quiet my thoughts a bit”. I often feel like everything is in a whirlwind in my brain, hoping this will help. 

Stupid tuning note

 So today after almost a year of really concentrating on making my note entrances more gentle - I feel like I’ve had another breakthrough. I noticed I haven’t posted for a long time and I will have to do better at keeping track, but today’s aha moment was embouchure. I just need to use so much more to get the control that I want. It seems so obvious, but it was truly an exciting moment this morning when I finally figured that out. Huh  

Peeps

I decided since I am posting so much about the exercise I do starting the note with no tongue, I should probably record myself. Not my favorite thing to do so please don’t be judgy! 

This is an a which, of course we all have to play 1 billion times as oboists- And it has been the bane of my existence because I always get a catch at the beginning of the note. Since I’ve been doing my peep exercises, it has improved so much, especially in the low range. I’m not sure if it is stored up trauma, but the A is still difficult for me. 

Typically, I start on the A with an equal temperament drone in the background, and then I proceed chromatically down to Bb. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/9XwT9JV5P3I?si=-eVQXNRVE6nQsoKt

Articulations

 The Oboe Path has caused me to take a closer look at many aspects of my playing - mostly because I'm just taking the time to consider! Just having face time has been good of course, but because I'm trying to come up with ideas for my warmup, I have focused on articulations. I mentioned the "peeping" where I start the sound without my tongue at all - this has been a total game changer! I have always done that on the clarinet (super easy and intuitive) but I had always assumed it was IMPOSSIBLE on the oboe. Apparently with the right reed (must respond easily) and removal of tension I can do it just fine on the oboe. So amazing.

But now I'm looking at repeated notes with the tongue. First I was just articulating the scales (repeat tonic 8x, up to +1, back down and repeat tonic 8x = 32 tongues and trad long tone at the end) That was useful and I got much smoother with practice, but then Erin pointed out short tonguing and super long tonguing feels VERY different. Intellectually I thought I could do it, but in practice I was all over the place! So now I'm trying each scale with three different articulations - it is helpful to have to switch since I'm bad at that! Already seeing a difference.

Got a call to sub (last minute) for the local college symphony (EWU) - would just be 2nd oboe no big thing. 2 rehearsals (that day and day of concert, which was 2 days out) and concert. Turns out they were doing some concertos, a student composition (lovely) and Brahms Variations (!!!!!) which is on every 2nd oboe audition! I have played the excerpt but never the actual piece. Low notes (especially repeated) have always been the bane of my playing, and I was so happy that rehearsal went GREAT! I have been working on exactly these things and the Oboe Path made what would have been a anxiety inducing nightmare and actual pleasure! Actually looking forward to the concert tomorrow. Yay.

Warm up

 One of the concepts of the Oboe Path is creating your own curated warm up, tailored to your current needs. I believe the idea is to change it up pretty regularly. My current warmup is

Peeps - starting each note (using a drone for tuning) 9 times, going from piano - forte- piano, then the last peep is a traditional long tone. I do this on the 12 pitches in the lowest range (A-Bb) going down. Seems best to work from the middle of the range down. Perhaps at some point I'll work on the upper notes, but my trouble area has been the low range so for now this works.

Pitch matching and articulated scales - On each tone (A-Bb) I put on the just tuning and work especially octaves and fifths. I was doing thirds but that seemed too much for general work right now. After I've got my pitch centered in all the octaves (up to ledger line high G) I articulate 16ths (at mm80 for now), 8 of the tonic, 8 up to the octave +1 and back down and 8 more on the tonic, ending with a traditional long tone. Only one octave presently. Have been doing major and then harmonic minor, trying to make sure the articulations are all clear throughout.

I think the idea is to take problem bits from pieces I might be working on and make them into little exercises, but at this point Ive had so many gigs I'm just plowing through. Hoping to work on bits of Secret Garden (a few nasty runs) this general work has been keeping me busy! 

After that I suppose you could practice actual pieces, but mostly Ive been happy if I do the warmup and then I usually have a rehearsal or gig so I'm playing a fair bit every day. About to start a little break in reharsals (2 weeks maybe) but Palmer is coming so I'm not wanting to spend hours practicing then. My goal will be to get through the warmup every day and anything else is bonus!