I've talked about this a bit in a previous blog post but it can never be said too many times.....
Its all about the details and it really is all about LISTENING!
There is so much to think about when playing music on any instrument and for us we have the added complication of the ever changing oboe reeds! When we are learning the oboe we can get so obsessed with getting the reed to work that we stop listening to ourselves.
YOU MUST ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOURSELF WHEN PLAYING!!
Listening to yourselves and really thinking about what you can hear is so important. Many of my students play to me in their lesson and make some mistakes that they could be trying to resolve before they come to their lesson. What a lot of students tend to do is just worry about the right notes and rhythms but beyond that there is sometimes not much thought. Right notes and rhythms are great and teachers do like to hear them but if we repeatedly hear more advanced students making mistakes that with some careful listening and thought they could solve on their own, we do tend to get a little frustrated.
Blips between notes, you know, those extra sounds you get between the notes we are supposed to hear, If we hear those what is it telling us? Chances are your fingers aren't quite coordinated and so we hear a little extra note as one finger goes down a little before another. If you hear this when you are practising don't ignore it and think,'oh my teacher will sort it out'. You are all more than able to start thinking about moving your fingers so they are more coordinated, just keep listening out for the tel tail signs. If you don't manage to solve the problem don't worry, the point is you have tried and this will be obvious to your teacher because there will probably be some improvement even if it is not yet perfect. Teachers don't actually mind if things aren't correct as generally it is obvious that you have tried.
There are many reasons to listen,
tuning
tone
coordination
dynamics
phrasing
breathing
It is also a skill hugely important when you are making music with other people, be it with a piano accompanist, in a chamber ensemble or an orchestra. If you aren't listening you are going to find it difficult to play well with other people. You will actually find it easier to play better in groups if you listen and follow all the other wonderful musicians around you.
Do you listen to others? I mean really listen, no background music!
Not only should you listen to yourself but you really should listen to others play as much as you can. You really can learn so much by just by listening. Now when I say listening I don't mean pop some oboe music on in the background while you chat on your phone to friends or play computer games. I mean really listen. This means not doing anything else and just listening, something that we don't do much of these days. The technology and the ease of finding music means there really is no excuse. I remember having to go to the local library, ordering the tape I wanted (yes... tape, not even a CD!), then a few days later going back to the collect it, heading back home and listening to it on the stereo in the corner of the room. So really students you have no excuses not to listen! Spotify, You Tube and all the others there are.... search them, find oboe music and LISTEN!
When we listen music making becomes more fun. If we are listening we can constantly strive to make a better sound, play things more in time and with better coordination, we get to enjoy the better sound we start making and the happiness of achieving the little details we once used to ignore.
Make your teachers happy, start really listening but remember listening has to be combined with thinking and analysing. When you start noticing the huge improvements you will really wonder why you didn't always do this!
I am including two music clips with this blog post. The first is the stunning oboist Francois Leleux playing a section of La Favourita by Pasculli. This looks like it was taken in a rehearsal and listen to how clear every single note is, he even starts strolling around the stage but there is no loss of control and this takes extreme talent and practice. Not one muffled or fuzzy note. Imagine trying to move your fingers this fast and with this amount of control and coordination!
This next clip is of the two oboists I grew up listening to, Maurice Bourgue and Heinz Holliger. Both are wonderful players. Listen carefully to how they bounce musical ideas from one part to the other. They will be listening so hard in this duet to keep it tidy and precise and so that they are playing so beautifully together. Also think about breathing, there aren't lots of long breaths so its going to be quite a tiring duet so to keep the energy throughout you have to ignore the developing tiredness, keep breathing properly and just enjoy the music!