hi, I've played oboe since high school freshman year (3 years ago) and I just ran into a huge stumbling block that I hope people in this forum can help me with...

On number 14 of Ferling's 48 famous studies book, there is a measure that has notes below the staff and above the staff consecutively in a way like this; D below staff, C above staff, E bottom staff, C above staff, F# bottom staff, C above staff, D below staff again, C above staff. This is the second measure of the bottom line, for anyone that has the book handy.

When I play it, the notes on the bottom always come out octave higher, no matter what I do. My lesson teacher instructed me to keep the low-note embreshure (sp?) and push the reed in on the high Cs to keep them close to tune, but it dosen't seem to help. I have braces, is that is pertinent to this problem? Are there any other tips to playing the measure? Do I already know all the things I can do and just have to practice harder?

Thanks in advance.

Braces should not have any effect on one's playing, especially on double-reed instruments. But they always can affect one's playing, mainly on the single-reed ones. Your problem is something that can indeed be fixed with practice, like any other. The thing about the oboe and its registers is how the oboist must sometimes drop his/her jaw, and in other cases, move the reed further in and out of his/her mouth. Typically, on higher notes, one will need to move the reed in a little more. You've been playing longer than I have, by a year, so you should definitely understand the amount of trouble you must have gone through trying to get the high notes (i.e. high C# and up) out. As for lower notes, it's fairly obvious that one must drop his/her jaw a little in order to get the low notes to come out in the right octave. Here's a good exercise (chances are you've done it, but then again, maybe not): Just practice going up the C Ionian/Major scale in octaves. Start with low C to middle C, and go all the way up to middle C to high C. Once fluency has been developed going from one octave to the octave above, practice going down the same scale, this time going from the higher octave to the lower. The exercise requires the oboist to drop his/her jaw when going back down to the low notes. Eventually, it becomes second nature. Another exercise is going up the C Ionian and returning back to the low C after every each note (e.g. low C, low D, low C, low E, low C..., high A, low C, high B, low C, high C, low C).

Hope this helps.

James Dowdy Moose

With a good and wet enough reed and enough experience, switching between high and low notes shouldnt be a problem. Something that may help: when playing high notes put your reed a little further in your mouth, and put more pressure on your lips. When playing low notes, put your reed a little less in your mouth, and put less pressure on your lips. But remember that if you put less pressure on your lips the tone may become lower, up to even a half tone if you exaggerate it.

I noticed I left out something in my original post; they are 16th notes that must go around 100bpm so there is no time to adjust embreshure.

Thanks for the tips... it seems I just need to practice more

No time? With a bit of practice, you'll be able to do it. If you think changing embouchure for sixteenth notes is hard, you haven't seen the kinds of crazy things percussionist have to do in certain cases. My percussion instructor for marching band told me about times where he's had to switch to a different pair of mallets with only one sixteenth note of rest in between. He spent almost a whole day practicing that measure! That's just as much movement as adjusting one's embouchure. It's an extremely minute thing, though. One doesn't simply go from one extreme to the other. It's a small amount of movement--a small change; and everyone who plays double-reeds--especially we oboes--knows that small changes make huge differences.