Hereâs some encouragement for my fellow musicians, specifically oboes but it applies to everyone I guess. This post is long, so Iâm sorry! I hope this is worth your time. Read it, skim it, absorb it, whatever.
My dearest friends and fellow oboes, clarinets, bassoons, saxes, horns, trumpets, trombones, tubas, strings, vocalists, etc.
There will be days where you feel like you have no musical talent whatsoever and you will want to quit. Do. Not. Give. Up.
My loves, you may just be starting out on your instrument, or you may have been playing for what seems like a lifetime. And you know what? Each and every one of you is an amazing musician.
There will be days where you feel like your reeds hate you and that your knives just wonât sharpen, or that none of your cane is up to your standards. Youâve got to make do with what you have and play on what youâve got. This applies to everyone.
Oboes, I promise you that if you play as musically as you can, no one will notice if your reeds arenât as dark as you want them to be, or if you accidentally chopped half the tip off, or if you are just having an awful time getting it to respond. Musicality is essential in these times (I mean itâs even more essential than ever).Â
My ducklings (hehe), if you are self-conscious that your reeds are bright and you play with a teeny sound, you will not sound good. However, you will sound amazing if you play with as much confidence as you do when youâve got the worldâs best reed. Breathe. Resonate. Vibrate. Use every ounce of colour that youâve got in your gorgeous instrument, be it a student model Fox or the LoreĂŠ Royale.Â
PRACTISE TIPS FOR EVERYONE:
Play as if youâre performing.
NEVER use what my teacher calls âpractise room sound.â At my university, our practise rooms are about ten feet by ten feet with (awful) soundproofing on the walls. It is the worst place possible for practise. Take that image in your mind and think of the sound that goes with it. Teeny, sad, and not very good.Â
Now, when youâre in those practise rooms or in your bedroom or wherever, pretend youâre playing all alone on the stage where the Berlin Philharmonic plays. The hall is empty, and your sound resonates off of every surface. Play with that sound. You are the soloist playing for a thousand imaginary people.
If you want, go somewhere where there is no carpets and practise. Your sound will resonate and you will naturally play with a fuller, more open sound. You will be able to hear yourself better than from within a tiny practise room where the sound is sucked up by the soundproofing.
Do not be afraid that people will hear you.
My friend once told me, âI play quietly because I donât want people to hear me.â I asked him, âWell, then why are you a musician?âÂ
We are musicians because we want to be heard. We were MEANT to be heard. Thatâs the point of playing music. If you insist on playing so quietly that you canât even hear yourself, you will never find the place where your tone resonates so beautifully. You will never reach that point where you finish a passage and say, âWow. That was exhilarating.âÂ
So get your diaphragms and bow arms in gear and play your heart out. Play as loudly as you possibly can. It doesnât matter what you sound like at first. As you continue to practise like that, you will learn to control the sound and you will sound twelve million times better.Â
I suggested to my friend, who has severe performance anxiety, to practise down near the band room late at night when the custodial staff are doing their thing. There is a balcony above the rehearsal room that leads to where the practise rooms are, and the sound is amplified tenfold. Itâs actually a lovely practise space.Â
If you start practising where people can hear you (as long as youâre not disturbing anyoneâŚ), you will eventually become desensitised to them being there, and when you get in front of people to perform, you wonât have as much anxiety. I promise, it works.
When you start to lose focus, take a break.
As a person with A.D.D., I have trouble focusing sometimes. Practising oboe is one of those instances. I can only go for 15 minutes to a half hour before I start to lose focus and start making mistakes. When you start making more mistakes and start getting frustrated, step back for a few minutes and do something else before regrouping and coming back.
Sometimes Iâll play for a bit and then stop practising for a few hours before coming back with a refreshed mind.
Focus is everything. As a musician, thereâs a lot to focus on when weâre playing. Weâve got hand positions, breathing techniques, tonguing / bowing techniques, phrasing, articulation, dynamics, you name it. We all know the struggle.Â
DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED IF YOU CANNOT PRACTISE FOR A LONG TIME BEFORE LOSING YOUR FOCUS. Itâs okay!! We all learn at different rates and we all have different styles of learning.Â
I love you all dearly and I am so excited for us to be the next generation of fabulous musicians.Â
Now get in the practise room! :)
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