I`m a newbie.... and I find that my lips are exhausted after about 15 min of practice, and slowly they lose control (and saliva comes out... sounds terrible, hey?) Blowing high notes seems to be even more exhausting. Usually, I place about 1 cm of the reed in my mouth while leaving the bronze wire outside. Am I doing it correctly?

I notice that my notes tend to be flat unless I exert more force on the reeds... is it right? ... this makes my lips even more exhausted...

Jimmy

Don`t practice in long periods of time. Practice in 30 minutes than take a break and than do another 30 and take a break. Wire?!?!? really you have wire on your reeds? When the pitch goes flat put more reed in your mouth or if the overall reed is flat increase the overlap between the two blades of cane. Also, (I know this sounds gross) but suck in the spit before you blow into the Oboe. I hope this helps! Keep Oboin!

CHRIS

aren`t all double reeds supposed to have wire on them? =/ i love my basson reed. it looks like a work of art. darn expensive tho... haha. don`t worry, as a beginner, you will always get exhausted. i remember when i started playing, i got exhausted after playing 1 minutes straight on my first piece. now i`m not really affected by it =)

Actually mostly English Horn reeds and Bassoon usually have the wire. In Europe and other places it might be a different situation but in the U.S. we don`t usually have the wire on our reeds. The reason I think might have to do with stability of the reeds or the specific sound you want out of your reeds.

that`s for clearing that up =)

I also have a wire on my reed (The Netherlands) but I once met somebody (also from the Netherlands) who didn`t had a wire...

We are SUPPOSED to have
wire on our reeds? I don`t
have any. I have strings.
I make my own reeds at my oboe
instructors home. He uses string ..
What`s the difference?
Also, is there anyway to get
any TOTALLY free oboe
music offline?
Anybody, plese email me!