well, all things take time. and i think your progress would increase wiht a private teacher. so if you had lessons with a professional and you practiced frequently (something i fail to achieve) progress will be made in a few months. but to be come "fairly good" it might take a few years of hard work.

i`ve been playing oboe for a long time and i absolutely love it. sometimes though oboe can be annoying especially witha broken reed but you get used to it. i love oboe and it was hard to play and it still is. i actually switch everyday between oboe and tenor sax. try that thats really difficult!!!!!!

that`s awesome! I would love try tener sax as well but I dought my parents would let me have another instrument since I already have 4!
I have heard a lil improvement already since I started(like 2 weeks ago) The other oboe in my school is giving me lessons after school ( He recieved 1st in district preodds this year! with a score of 147 out of 150!) He is very excited about me playing oboe(and expects me to play in the spring concert!) thankyou for he info

Oboe is very difficult, but that doesn`t matter. What matters is how much fun it is!!! I have been playing for about 2 years, and i am in love. I go to double reeds camps, solo and ensemble all county etc. If you want to start playing oboe u need to be dedicated. I take private lessons from the best person around. Also oboe is a very expensive instrument to play. Not just the price of the instrument, but also the supplies it requires. Double reed instruments are awesome, you can learn how to make your own reeds, so they are perfect for you, not like clarinet or tenor sax (which I also play) If you are a High School student and are required (like me) to play an instrument in the marching band, i would suggest the tenor sax. Or being in pit percussion. Clarinet is one of the worst instruments to play when u play the oboe. your mouth gets totally screwed up! so go for it!! play the oboe but dont get down when u dont like the first sound you get out of it

I am a high school student and I am required to play an instument for marching band but I play the flute already(which by the way my flute needs to be totally redone or I need to get a new one...does anyone have any suggestions on what type of flute I should get?) I am going to put forth all of my effort to get as good as I can this year on oboe, but I cant get private lessons, besides the other oboe giving me lessons, until the summer because I already take 2 lessons for Flute and Piano as well as teaching myself guitar.
~*Dana*~
Singing=happiness(or any instument)

Oboe is a great instrument to play! I play the flute, alto and Baritone Sax, piano and drums as well as oboe. Try switching from one of the biggest woodwind mouthpiece to a small double reed every day! It gets very difficult, but you should never give up. Practice frequently and in a couple of years you should be pretty good. Not to mention oboe isnt a "run of the mill" instrument. So when college comes around, you may be very eligible for a scholorship. Good luck all you future oboists!

I am makeing progress with the oboe i am working on the chromatic scale. The other oboe in my school is going to brong me a book, hopefully he remembers soon Thanks for all the info everyone!

Playing the oboe is not easy, sometimes tricky, but it is not overly difficult.

You`ll need some time to get the hang of it, though. You`ll probably sound a bit weird during the first time, but with a proper instrument and good instruction from a teacher, it will be possible to overcome it soon (1 year at least).

To become perfect - well, this *is* hard. As with every other instrument. Keep practising, and success will come.

No, I don`t think so, the only really hard part was getting down the embouchore w/e then it was like any other instrumenyt i played the flute for two years, i am not sorry i switched over the oboe is so awesome!

I am 16 and I started playing oboe 6 years ago- it was my first instrument. It takes time and alot of private lessons to sound good and play well, but with hard work, oboe is a very promising instrument with a good chance of a full scholarship to colleges. Its different, and is known to be the most difficult instrument in a band to play because the sharpness or flatness of a note is caused by how you play the reed, not by your instrument. You have to open your throat to play sharper, and use more abs to play flatter. Its tough. Try it, and if you like it make sure to get a nice oboe (Loree, patricola -what i have- or Fox) and get nice reeds that will last a long time.

But for one thing, OBOE IS NOT A SECOND INSTRUMENT!!! You have to obsess over it to be good and make progress. The best oboists make it their first priority. Besides the oboe, I play mallets (xylo, Vibes, Marimba, Bells) in a college level drumline (check out www.weareripe.org to check us out) but I remember that oboe is what going to get me to college, and I need to focus on that more.

hey guys, ive been playing the clarinet since 7th grade, now im in 9th, and i want to switch to the oboe. but i told my best friend that i wanted to play the oboe next year in concert band (the lower band) and the clarinet in the symphonic band (more advanced band). but after i told her that, she goes, thats a good idea! i think i want to too! and she asked the teacher right away if she could and the teacher said yes. and it was my idea first. it made me mad. but i still want to do it. do you think it would be bad for me to ask to do it even though she already asked? or do you think 2 oboes would be too much for a band of about 30 people?

hey its me again. i also wanted to say if i cant do oboe.. should i do the english horn? it seems very interesting. and does anyone know if the oboe and english horn has the same fingerings?

I don`t think 2 oboes are to much. My band director jumped on the idea of a new oboe player after one of ours left. Though our band is bigger than 30 kids. I am in 9th grade too. I just switched to oboe. It`s been so much fun, although I just got my braces off so now I am pretty much back to sqare one. I think I won`t have much of a problem getting back to where I was.
(I just got a new intermediate flute for Christmas!)

You really shoudnt start with the English Horn. Orchestras try to hire an oboist with the knowledge to play the EH, and also most music passages dont even have an English Horn part written. So then orchestras would hire an oboist that doubles on the EH, so when a passage does come up with an English Horn part written for it, then u would be called upon to play the EH.So you should start on the oboe And also for the most part, the EH does have the same fingerings as the oboe, but requires more breath because it is a bigger instrument.