A great survey.
Saturday February 21 2009
So as you can probably tell, I’ve had a “survey” tab attached to my website. The main purpose of this is to provide a list of questions for new reed ordering people so that I can see approximately what they’re looking for in their orders.
My good friend gave me a laugh the other day. This is pretty much the survey I always wished I would get.
Entry Date: 2009-02-20 03:29 PM
Attachments: 0
Form Name: survey
Name: Joe Schmoe
Email:
sound type: Actually, I think I like reeds to be bright, screetchy and just downright nasty. Think Holiger swallowing a box of razor blades, and your’ there. I like to think of this as the “middle of the atlantic” school.(i.e. fish bones caught in the oboe) 
Previous Teachers: Joe the janitor at Orchestra hall, has had a great influence on my playing. He has shown me the wisdom of playing on reeds rescued from the garbage, and using shavings to plug leaks.
blow resistance: more free-blowing
opening size: somewhere in between
more or less reed: less reed
shape width: medium shapes (Brannen X-Narrow, RDG… 1)
length of reed tip: Don’t care. just make it work!
pressure: I use the “slobber technique” where I stick the reed all the way in my mouth and blow till I pass out. Makes a lovely sound.
flat chin: not sure
music type: Heavy metal oboe, and a bit of Sir Mix Alot
upcoming special music: I will be playing the Greatest hits of Andrew lloyd Webber as a concerto with the Orchestra of the Great Unwashed. I need something that really warbles.
model of oboe: bundy×the finest oboe on the planet
Oboe Feeling: the same
oboe blown out?: It’s plastic dude. I’m not sure that they blow out. Anyway, it make a fine baseball bat.
oboe sealing?: no
oboe oddities: It is missing most of the keys, but hey, it’s a bundy. This actually makes it play better
weather: Swampy and continually raining.
humidity: 100%
altitude: Is this a Zen Koan?
reedmaking experience: I prefer the high quality reeds from the Jones company!!!!!! Can you do that?
other comments: Hey Cooper, Just having some fun at your expense. Give us a call sometime, and let me know when your recital is scheduled for.
Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival DVD/CD: The First Ten Years…
Thursday November 20 2008
At the IDRS… convention this past summer, Laila Storch gave my mentor David Weber a DVD… of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival‘s Commemorative 10 year anniversary DVD…/CD. Mr. Weber watched the DVD… that night and told me that I should buy it immediately, which I did when I got back.
Well, I had some terrible luck with shipping. The first one that was sent got lost, never to be found again. The second one got sent out, without my apartment number, and was returned to the sender. Fortunately, they were kind enough to send it back out, and I’m glad they did.
There’s some great clips on this DVD… which tells the tale of how it got started. Aloysia Friedmann is the artistic director and her husband, Jon Kimura Parker is the Artistic Advisor of this chamber music, which likes like a lot of fun. It tells the story of Aloysia’s parents, Oboist Laila Storch and Martin Friedmann raising her in a musical family and building the love for chamber music.
The DVD… has a lot of great clips for oboists. There are sections where Robert Atherholt of Rice University and Aloysia play the Loeffler Deux Rhapsodies with Kimura Parker, and several sections with Laila play with others.
Perhaps the greatest gem for oboists falls under the “Bonus Chapters” which shows a 10 minute section of John Mack making a reed. Mr. Weber told me that “everyone can learn a thing or two” by watching this section. While the section goes by fast, and fast forwards through some steps, everyone can gleam a thing or two about how he listens and judges the reed by the crow. The $25 CD/DVD is well worth the price just for this 10 minute section.
6 Things about me…
Wednesday November 05 2008
A while back Patty tagged me on this and I never responded, so here it goes!
- I love strategy games! When I was in high school, my friends and I joined the chess team. We had a great “friendly competitive” atmosphere which pushed us to study and get better together. By my junior year, the team won 7th in the USA… finals, and my senior year they won 3rd. This probably comes from my father, who raised us playing card games and board games, from monopoly to cribbage. I still love a good card game, or a long game of risk on a winter’s night.
- I am the youngest of 4 children. I have THREE… older sisters, who used to do unspeakable things to me. We are now all happily married, and 3 of us have now moved back to the Pacific Northwest which has made our parents very happy (but we still have to call and ask permission in order to stop by the old house!)
- My passions in life other than oboe include hockey, hockey and hockey! Living in Michigan for 4 years, you can’t help but catch the hockey bug. I didn’t discover it until around my junior year of college, and have loved it ever since. When I was at Michigan State, we were #1 in the country while Michigan was #2. Ryan Miller (of the Buffalo Sabres) was our starting goalie and won the Hobey Baker award. I’m a die-hard Red Wings fan.
- Three greatest “oboe excerpts” composers = Barber, Brahms, and Ravel
- I get on these weird snack streaks. I discover something and start eating it like a chipmunk for months until I get sick of it. Past snack streaks include Chinese Ginger candy, David Sunflower Seeds, and Yogurt Covered Raisons.
- As I child I used to have asthma problems chronically. I’d get plugged up to this nebulizer (which now have nice designs, but in my day it was an ugly brown box) twice a day and sit there for five minutes inhaling this misting medicine. Once I hit 6th grade and began playing oboe, it cleared up all Asthma symptoms I ever had, and the last time I went to my Asthma/Allergist, I was told I have 200% average lung capacity.
That’s me!
Hiniker Oboe
Thursday October 09 2008
Yes, I have it. Yes, it’s gorgeous in every way. Yes, I will write a full review of it when I have time.
Interesting Ebay…
Thursday October 09 2008
I peruse ebay quite often to see what junk people are selling, and sometimes I just wonder what goes through people’s minds.
Like this guy who’s been selling this Laubin for a month now, and every week it goes down $100. (It’s now the LAST… HOUR… and I see that it gets marked 10% off to a bargain basement price of $4400! Still $800 or so overpriced.)
Or this guy, who thinks a 80 year old ring-system loree in a ghetto looking case is worth $2700. Yeah. Right. (Meanwhile, you can get this oboe which is a few years older that the other one, with closed holes, and looking in better condition for $2000 cheaper.)
There’s even this guy who’s willing to repad your instrument for $350! ($400 for cork pads.) A great deal if he does good work! Who knows if he does good work though.
And then there’s this guy who sells terrible cane. I bought some a year or so ago, and it was like swiss cheese; every time I made a round, the flake (notice I don’t use the word “curl”) came out with gigantic holes in it and was stringy. Couldn’t do anything with it. (If you’re looking for cheap cane, go with the Bargain Bin cane from RDG…).
I guess the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” applies here. In any case, with the Dow dropping the way it is, it’s going to be hard to sell just about anything.
By the way, anyone interesting in purchasing an XL?