My Long Tone Meditation today is on Gratitude. Feel free to join me in playing a note after each statement. If you don’t have any long tones to play – ifContinue readingGratitude
Harder Isn’t Better
Harder doesn’t mean better. It is not the case that 12-year-olds need a certain EASY kind of reed, that high-schoolers should step up to MEDIUM, that adults all play onContinue readingHarder Isn’t Better
What if it was EASY?
What if the oboe was easy? I speak about this constantly. We spend a lot of time in The Invincible Oboist class talking about strategies to keep our air low, conversational, easy, so we don’tContinue readingWhat if it was EASY?
The AIR is the Sound
It’s never wrong to go back to basics. I was working with a college freshman and she was struggling with two-bar phrases. She kept getting stuck halfway through. I talkedContinue readingThe AIR is the Sound
You are the Music
You ARE the music. YOU are the music. It’s not the oboe. It’s YOU. Too many oboists live RIGHT up against the resistance of the oboe, blowing straight into theContinue readingYou are the Music
Separating it Out
Last semester, my student came in with the Hoedown from Copland’s Rodeo. Let me guess, I said – the low tonguing passage? Of course she assumed that she had aContinue readingSeparating it Out
Keeping My AIR to Myself
I was out running this morning and I crossed the street to avoid a perfectly nice lady walking her perfectly nice dog. We smiled and waved at each other –Continue readingKeeping My AIR to Myself
Open Arms
Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash In rehearsal last night, the concertmaster suggested to the strings that they play with a more open bow arm. I don’t know precisely whatContinue readingOpen Arms
The Magic of Words
After my concerto performance last June, I was chatting with a lovely woman from the audience. “It’s not like you’re blowing through the oboe,” she said. People are always interestedContinue readingThe Magic of Words
A is for Abs
I’ve had five different concerts in a row this past four weeks, and for three of them I was not playing principal. Which meant that I got to sit backContinue readingA is for Abs