does tone come naturaly or with experience? thanks amanda

No. Tone will improve with experience, provided you have a band director and private teacher that are willing to work with you as a team to discover how your jaw structure and mouth will work best with the oboe. You`ll need these people to help you develop the ideal embouchure for your face and body type, and to teach you how to breathe properly. The rest is up to you--lots of practice on long tones will definitely help tone.

Many people claim that if you buy a high-quality oboe, that will give you a good tone. But I say to think of that idea like putting someone who`s never learned to drive behind the wheel of a Porsche. They`ll be able to drive it--but not very well. Same with the oboe--a beginner on a Loree is still a beginner. And without learning to "drive" your oboe first, you won`t get anywhere.

Amanda, I`ve noticed you`re asking a lot of questions on this board. Which is great--the most important thing to have when learning an instrument is enthusiasm! But many, many of these questions would be best addressed by a private oboe teacher. Ideally, you need weekly lessons to improve your skill and tone over the years--even professional players keep taking lessons! Ask your band director to help you find one.

It`s all about the air though..not just embouchure. Air is the key to expanding your sound and adding color and depth to it.

I don`t think you can learn the oboe without lessons. It`s a complicated instrument.

My daughter has also produced the most amazing quality of sound with various reeds. I`m starting to think it`s much less about the quality of the instrument (although that is also very important) and much more about the reed and embouchare (sp?).

It`s more about the air and the reed. You need a reed that can allow you play different dynamical ranges and everything so you can put in different amounts of color depending on the passage you are playing. The Embouchure is a good thing but it really is a refiner in tone wise. It`s hard to explain. A teacher could best explain.

Experience for sure. It may take up to a year for a beginner to produce a good sound. The best way is to study with a tutor. Using the diaphram is very important. The embachoure comes later. The reed is very important as well.