Reed mgt

So much for blogging more frequently! I have had a lot of thoughts about playing, but writing them down has been beyond me. 

Reed management - I had a really panicky couple of days in the middle of the last show, because I felt like none of my oboe reeds were functioning! This flew in the face of my perception that I had gotten a better handle on making reeds that work for me. After some frantic Reed making things settled down- But I want to have a more structured approach so I don’t end up in that position again.

Right now I’m thinking I need six great reads that will just play in my main box. You could argue that all the reason the main Box should always play, but that has not been the case. 

Then I should have a box of reeds that are blanks, And maybe a separate box for day 1/day 2 reeds- right now, they are in two different boxes But maybe I need to make that process more streamlined. 

Then I also have a box of past their prime reeds that still might be usable. Actually, I have a couple boxes of those - one is called the Reed graveyard. But honestly, there are way too many reads that I probably need to just recycle.

Break from the Path and Phrygian scales

I have finished another session of the Oboe Path, and I am going to take a break for the rest of the summer. This group has been so helpful to me and I do feel like I have made huge strides in the last year. It is so fun to play things and realize how easy it is to articulate quietly, or play so in tune with the trumpet player, or adjust my reed for what I need to do for me in the moment. But I think taking a little time away will be like summer vacation in a way I can focus on different things and come back all ready to go with new goals in mind.

One of the goals is to be more mindful of writing down my insights in this blog. There are so many things I want to talk about and leave a post so I remember what I was thinking- but the months just flyby and I seem to rarely write anything down. Today I will just mention that I played all the phrygian scales- first the major then dropping the second and the sixth. They definitely feel really weird and I think it was helpful to go through all 12 steps. I am playing a show this summer with lots of “Egyptian” sounding licks, and I finally figured out they are just Phrygian scales! I think these will also be great to do long tones just to get it in my ear.