"3)Suck your lips in over your teeth, until if you looked in the mirror you wouldn't be able to see them any more. Then, place your reed on your bottom lip, and gently press down with your upper lip. Do not put too much of the reed in your mouth."

Should the tip of the reed to touch the lips, or does some of the tip portion of the reed need to be in the mouth cavity, & free to vibrate?

A few comments on these:

1) No matter what your instrument, play with correct posture. For oboe this means sitting all the way back in your chair, arching your back and keeping your head and chin up. To help with this, keep your stand at eye level.

Keep your back straight, like you are standing from the waist up.

2) Keep your instrument at a 45 degree angle from your body. The oboe is nice in that you can play it pointing in almost any direction, but this position works best and has the best tone. Most amateurs, usually coming from clarinet, ruin their sound by playing too close to their body.

Some people play at a degree of 60-80. It is how the tone comes out that is important. Experiment with angles until you find one that fits. Then look at it in the mirror and try to match it every time you play. after a while, it will become automatic.

3) To get proper embouchure, you must do something very different from saxophone or recorder. Suck your lips in over your teeth, until if you looked in the mirror you wouldn't be able to see them any more. Then, place your reed on your bottom lip, and gently press down with your upper lip. Do not put too much of the reed in your mouth.

Generally I give this tip to my students/other band or orch members/random oboists: Put your reed in your mouth only as far as you need to to get a good tone.

About lips. as long as you have a nice padding around the reed, it doesn't matter if you completely hide them in your mouth or not. It all depends on the thickness of your individual lips. People with thinner lips have to roll their lips in more, and people with thicker lips roll in less.

4) Articulate with the tongue. This is much faster and easier than with your breath. Go "tuh tuh" rather than "huh huh".
5) You should play with the pads of your fingers, not the tips. This allows more movement and better tone, because some keys require the finger to close a small hole. Always keep your fingers close to the keys. Beginners will tend stick their fingers up when not using them.

My teacher always says to keep my fingers glued to the keys. If you have ever had a one on one meeting with a professional, you will barely be able to see their fingers move. I have a story on this point.

Marcel Tabuteau's oboe was leaking. So he went into the repair shop, and sure enough, when he played for the repairman, there was a leak. The repairman spent a few days working on the oboe, and then called Marcel back to the shop. Mr. Tabuteau brought his oboe back to orchestra rehearsal, but came back to the repair shop a few minutes later. His oboe was still leaking! The repairman tried again, two more times. Then, exasperated, he made Marcel play in front of him. Then he was mildly suprised. He said, Maestro, you have to put the keys down all the way to seal your instrument!

This is true by the way. It gives you an idea of how little pressure you really need.

alex

For number four though..

I don't go " huh huh huh "

I go " Ta Ta Ta" I know how to tongue :P

I am getting an oboe teacher over the summer though..

I still don't see how the reed makes a noise.

I know that there is a little pipe at the end of the reed and that you put your tongue to articulate on the end of the pipe.

That's all I know so far though.

So how does the Oboe reed work?

I found out how the reed works...


Two reeds put together.

A pipe in between.

I got it...

Check out the following web pages on making a reeds.

http://www.yefchak.com/reed/process_page.htm

http://www.oboeinsight.com/stories/storyReader$71

I am just a beginner so I'll stick will the basic reed.