don`t worry about that last message, because it was (surely) the work of my unqualified and uneducated fellow students at horsham college. They`re just jealous that we talented people can play a difficult instrument like an oboe and they can`t! Keep playing! I know the oboe is pretty hard, as a veteran oboe player of two yearsm but the results are fantastic!

I learn oboe at school, with a teacher who doesn`t actually play, but she does play flute.
I started in yr7, basically bullied into playing, but now i`m in yr8 and totally enjoy playing my oboe. Although there are no reeds in Horsham (where i live), my teacher orders them in from Melbourne.
Last year i had my lessons with the flutes and now i have them alone, as there are no other oboe players in my year. There is a girl in yr12 who is oboe grade6 and she is really helpful to me and gives me lots of tips. There is also another player in year seven but she has given up, finding it too difficult. I admit that i did think of quitting halfway through last year, but decided against it. And now i am very glad i didn`t quit because i love my oboe and will keep playing forever!

The oboe is diffcult to master, not necessarily to play. I was in the army and my Director of Music made me change from the Flute to the Oboe as we had too many flutes and the oboist had just left. There are a lot of players (who sound like ducks!!), but it takes commitment to play the oboe properly. I agree after now playing the oboe for 13 years I would never go back to the flute full time (i have depped on occasions). The most important piece of advice I can give you which I learnt is "long note practice" and listen to the sound you are making!!! Go and listen to other oboists and ask yourself is that I sound I like, do I want to play like that. The long note practise helps your tone, which will mean that you won`t sound like a lot of other oboe players (ducks) that there are. Also remember making music is not a competition to see who can play the loudest as this can make your tone sound awful. Don`t try and beat the trumpet section, you never will, or if you do what do you really sound like. Is your Director of Music constantly asking you to play quieter, if the answer is yes, then you`ve guessed it, long note practice over dynamic ranges will help. However it is not the be all and end all to practice technique, but a very good place to start. Here`s looking to a Swan and not a Duck....Good Luck

Oboe is quite different from the flute. I played the flute for two years before i started on oboe. It took me the longest to get my emboucher to play oboe instead of flute, and for any oboe player, i reccomend chapstick
to help control the vibrations of the reed. I would also reccommend asking your school or the high school (if you dont go there yet) if they have one that no one is playing. Thats how i got started, and i absolutly love it. im going to play oboe in band next year, we already have 1 oboe, and our band is small, so we only need one. I also play bassoon, and thats what im playing for concert band. Marching band i play saxophone. Clarinet is kind of a side inatru,ent only. I would say out of the five, oboe is the second hardest next to bassoon.

In my experience, Oboe is not as hard to play as people say. I have been playing for about six years now. I haven`t really gone in depth in lessons and such, but when you start talking technique about any instrument, it gets tough. The hardest part is probably keep your tone sounding pretty and staying in tune all the time. PLaying Oboe is great for trainging your ear because you CONSTANTLY have to tune. It is definetely a blast to play, but don`t think that you can`t do it. If you play flute, well you are in luck because most of the fingers are really darn close. THe only big annoying thing is that your F is our F#. Other than that, you don`t really get the fingerings confused. Good luck with playing

but it is when it has been in its case 4 about 3 years then it kind of z hard but now itz in repair so i hope it get better but it could be that i havent developed mush muscle in my mouth b/c flutes dont need much muscle

I recently decided to take up the oboe but cannot produce a sound. I will be taking lessons as a class this semester but want to begin with some knowledge. I play flute (5 yrs) and piano (12 yrs) but never a reed instrument. Any suggestions on just making a noise?

I`d been playing the clarinet for 3 years then decided to pick up the sax over the summer in order to try out for stage the following year. So I did, and learnt it in about a week. A year`s past and I`m about to start the oboe in a couple weeks... I`m extremely excited by also fairly nervous about how well I`ll be able to play. I play five instruments as it is right now, so I`ll hopefully be able to pick up it nicely. But to other single reed players... how different is the oboe from a clarinet or sax?

J: I`ve only played the oboe once so far, but I do play clarinet. Just make sure your lips and emboucher are very tight and firm to get a solid sound... I do know that that`s a big mistake even beginner clarinet players have.

ive been playing to oboe for 8 yrs...i dont understnad why everyone always says that the oboe is hard to play...is the same as anyother instrument...it has its difficult parts but generally its not very hard. but anyways...if anyone has questions or wants help/tips feel free to contact me..my AIM is Chrystie4067 and email(only if necessary) is Chrystie4067@yahoo.com...id love to chat with anyone!..peace

Chrystie

the oboe is very different from the sax and the clarinet. first the obvious is that the oboe is a double-reeded instrument and the sax and the clarinet are both single-reeded instruments. from what other people have said and from my own experience, generally the oboe is harder to produce sound out of. But to me all instruments are equal in how hard they are. if you have any further questions you can talk to me via email.

Hello everyone! I`ve been playing the alto sax for about 4 years,the baritone sax for a few months, and the flute(as a side instrument) for a year, and now I`m thinking of playing the oboe. It sounds like the oboe is difficult to play, but my opinion is that every instrument is hard in some way. I`d like to know what some of the key points to playing the oboe are, and if anyone can suggest another instrument to play. Also, how different is the oboe from the sax and flute?

I play both flute and sax... and somewhat brass instruments (*collective gasp from forum* ... yes. I play brass and oboe.) I learned flute first, then sax. The fingerings on the three are fairly similar. Though eumbichure is a different story. The sax, is quite loose, and when compared to oboe (like if you play one for a while, then switch to the next - to practice i mean) then it will feel weird. You just have to learn to adjust. Oh, and like for bari sax, there is a lot more air required for that than for oboe. Like, if you have good lungs for bari sax then switch to oboe, you will probably find that you have too much air for things, and will get dizy from having too much air instead of too little.
ok I`m done.

Would it make a difference if i started to play the english horn first, or should i stick with the oboe? The oboe has a great sound, but how do you play it? All I see is a double-reed, so do you just put your mouth on the reeds and blow? By the way, thanks for returning my post!

Does anyone here know the difference between a student instrument and a non-student one?