Woohoo! It’s alive!!!!

Wednesday September 12 2007

My new reed business website. Still working on some things— But here it is:

http://www.cooperwrightreeds.com/

Correction/Clarification/Apology

Tuesday September 11 2007

My watchdog eye contacted me this morning that I was way out of line in my recent post regarding guidelines. And looking back, she was right. It was both 1. Arrogant and 2. incomplete. The irony is that they were in response to the same attitude I portrayed.

Before I go further, I’ll try to state it the best of my ability, through the eyes of another music grad student.

Our guidelines were set after her lowdown of basically reintroducing me to the “Music School World”, a land where many think they’re “up and coming” and “God’s gift to music”. I hated this when I was at NEC…, specifically because I knew just how good those guys at Curtis and Juilliard were, many of whom I went to the Interlochen Arts Academy with and were my stand partners. I hated the same attitude at Michigan State University, because it seemed that much more ridiculous at a public university. And now, my friend was telling me about this same attitude that pervades in even the University of Oregon. Perhaps this attitude is just universal and can be found at any music school? In any case, I know I used to be part of the problem at NEC…, and even Michigan State before I realized that 1. I wasn’t and 2. this behavior is purely destructive; self destructive and destructive to relationships around. And so, the guideline #1 was more of an emphasis upon the fact that a lot of players, particularly younger, aren’t always willing to work with others around them, which I find is the joy of chamber music, and I don’t want to work with others who aren’t willing to work as a team. Hence the term “small ensemble“. Unfortunately my post portrayed me as having this very attitude!

The second guideline was grossly simplified, and it was so clear in my head (isn’t it always the way?) Some local players are a lot of fun and enjoy collaborating with others and sharing the gift of music. Others don’t have the time, or aren’t interested, or have absolutely no desire to play with lowly Grad students. Helena kind of ran down a list of local players that I’ve known for 10+ years and her experiences of trying to work with them, some successfully and others unsuccessfully. Therefore, as I previously stated, I’d be overjoyed to play with other local players who would enjoy sharing the gift of music with me, but I wouldn’t want to play music with someone I’d have to beg and plead and bribe to play with. In fact I would refuse to. So, clarification #2.

The third guideline was my own stubbornness. It comes from the fact that my Junior year I was playing on very large reeds, developed a rip-roaring case of TMJ…, and was forced to stop playing for 6 months. I no longer can really bite. It’s dangerous to my health (if my TMJ… gets serious enough, I would need big surgery) and to my career. If a group wants to start at 442, then be my guest! As long as you give me enough time to make a reed up to that pitch. But Helena was complaining about pitch problems starting at 440, and spiking as high as 444! Yikes! All I could think about was the screaming pain in my jaw. Oh yes, and did you know once the disc has slipped from your TMJ…, it never pops back into place? That’s what surgery is for.

One final note is this: for the record, and I suppose this is the first time I’ve admitted this publicly, I don’t believe I am going to be a concert oboist in a full-time orchestra. I don’t think I have the talent (nor ever will), and I don’t think I have the “practice room passion”. I’d love to play in a part-time orchestra, and I’d like to play chamber music. But I’d really rather just hide away in an oboe shoppe, making reeds and repairing oboes. I’d love to teach some students here and there, but the instrument’s technical aspects are what really intrigue me the most. That’s why I’ve started my reed business NOW… instead of later.

If you made it to the bottom of this lengthy explanation, I pat you on the back.

Prepping…

Tuesday September 11 2007

— gouging machines and tube cane to go see Mr. Hurd on Thursday. I’ll spend some time sitting there making English Horn reeds and seeing which EHorn will work best for me since Fred (R.I.P.) is too sharp. Meanwhile, he’ll play around with my gouging machines and pregouged cane, to find a good type of cane for him, and a machine that works best for him as well.

Read the Rest

A good chat…

Tuesday September 11 2007

—tonight with Helena Kopchick, a Bassoonist working on her DMA… and who is also a Graduate Teaching Fellowship recipient. We’ll be doing a lot of playing together. And it turns out, she literally lives across the street from me! We can even walk to school together.

It helps that we’ve known each other for so many years, although we lost touch for about years. I’ve blogged about her before, and I’m excited to be working with such an established player. She just finished up her final year on a Contrabassoon fellowship at Aspen this summer, and is looking forward to diving into schoolwork with me. We started looking at music, giggling about what programs we might be able to put together.

I also laid down some ground rules.

1. I don’t mind carrying musicians who aren’t as creative in their phrasing, as long as they’re willing to work with us to get better.
2. I would be overjoyed to work with certain local players, and refuse to play with others.
3. I will absolutely not bite to raise the pitch, so if she or the clarinet player decides to spike the pitch up to 442, she’s going solo because I’m not following!

I think Helena and I are kind of on the same wave. Hopefully, together we can really pull together a tight group. I can’t wait.

The correct embouchure

Tuesday September 11 2007

I’ve been having several conversations with several people recently about correct embouchure, so I thought I’d post my thoughts on the website.

Now I know different people have different mouths, different embouchures, and are capable of different embouchures. However, when people discuss embouchure with me, it’s usually because we’re discussing what’s the best embouchure to get the maximum out of my reeds.

I think the best embouchure for my reeds is a flat chin with corners pulled outward, as if you pulled a drawstring in one of the corners of your lips and they pulled together. Some people refer to this as a “pucker”. Now I believe Mr. Weber would disagree with me on this concept. He pulls his corners way back like he’s smiling, and his theory is to get the lips further away so there’s less cover on the reed, so that it can vibrate more. This might be true, and might work better, and maybe in a couple years I might even be saying the same thing. But for now, I believe my embouchure fits me and fits the reed. I pucker a bit, roll my lower lip in slightly more with the reed, and bring the top lip down and place it on top while NOT… rolling it in. This is perhaps because I have a bigger lower lip than an upper lip.

I definitely think you shouldn’t use a round chin on my reeds, which encourages players to take in too much lip, and bite down on the reed. It also prevents players from rolling in and out to adjust the pitch.

Above: Correct Embouchure Pictures

Above: Incorrect Embouchure Photos