Ok so the 5th graders in my town just started band and there is one boy who is playing the oboe. My band instructor told me to meet with him and help him learn how to play it because she doesn't know anything about double reed instruments. I just met with him yesterday and it went pretty well, except I am having trouble helping him understand how to have the correct embouchure. He can't quite figure out how to do it without pinching down on the reed. He also tends to put his mouth all the way down to the threads when he plays. He also is having some difficulties playing some notes, like 4th line d and up, low f, and low e flat. He is able to play the forked f but can't play the regular or it will just squeak. He can get the high d sometimes, but when he tries to play e flat above that, all that happens is a loud squeak! could something be wrong with his instrument? I don't know what brand it is but it looks very old. All I know about it is that it is a student model. I don't want him to get discouraged and want to quit!

Also, he got these really weird reeds along with his instrument. They are store bought reeds and they are medium-soft, but they are scraped really weird and have a wire! I'm not sure what brand they are either! Is there any good brand of store-baught reed that he could try instead? Could this be causing some of his diffuculties? Any help would be appreciated!

Have him order some from online. I think I know what reeds ur talking about, my friend and fellow oboist had some with the weirdest scrape. Edmund Neilson Woodwinds make nice homemade beginners reeds for a little over 10 dollars.

This video might help with the embouchure:
http://reedmaker.com/Embouchure/Embouchure.mov

Tell him to think of keeping it like an "o" so he doesn't pinch the reed.

hope this helps a little!

You could always try out his oboe to see if his plays. No offence to your group, but it seems really improper for your instructor to ask for you to teach

Yeah, well I am the only one within about 100 miles who even plays the oboe, so it would be better for me to help him than to have him learn on his own. I think I am going to try out the oboe that he got and see if it works right.

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Oh and that video should help! Thanks iloveoboe!

I met with him again today and we worked on embouchure, and he can get it now! I also tried out his oboe and found that only like 3 notes would play, so he is going to see if he can get it fixed. I let him try mine, and then he could play the notes!