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.
New Book, New Reed Business Deal!
Wednesday January 07 2009
Well, I don’t usually advertise stuff very often. But I am gladly offering a reed deal as a celebration of my sister’s new children’s book which is coming out soon!
So, buy her book (which is only $12 preorder here at Barnes and Noble) and for every reed you purchase, I’ll send you two! This will be limited to 4 reeds/person.
If you do purchase her book, forward me the online receipt and order and share in the joy of our family as we celebrate our first author! This offer expires January 20th.
Interesting Topic: Different types of crows?
Thursday December 04 2008
So my website template design has run out, so I was looking at other reedmaker’s websites for ideas. I was looking at Meg Cassell’s reedmaking business website and noticed she had a blog. It had an interesting topic about different kinds of crows.
Do you know that there are two basic styles of American oboe reeds? Question is, is it an oboe reed style or an embouchure style? Kind of a ‘chicken or the egg’ thing.
The two styles of reeds can be categorized, at least in part, as to where the reed is crowed. For those of you who don’t know what the “crow” might be, that is the term we use to check the vibration of the reed we are playing or making.
Many of you may already know all about this, but to me, it is a relatively new way to look at it. Do you crow the oboe reed near the bottom of the thread, with a very passive embouchure, or do you crow it at the bottom of the scrape at the top of the thread, with more of a normal embouchure (slightly looser)? Both kinds of crowing should be a double octave C but where and how the crow is executed seems to reflect an embouchure style. The two styles of reeds/embouchures are NOT… compatible with each other, by and large.
The next blog entry will talk about oboe embouchure styles as they relate to the placement of the crow. Meanwhile, you can experiment with it. Knowing what kind of crow you do and being able to execute both (to distinguish one from the other) may help you determine what kind of reed will work best for you, may help you in your reed making and reed adjusting, and may also help you with your students. If you have any thoughts about this topic yourself, please feel free to email me.
Anyways, I thought this was worth thinking about, and am trying to make sense out of it.
Meanwhile, I’m hoping to have a new website up by next January/February!
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.
Life, School, and a whole lot more…
Thursday November 20 2008
Life has been extremely busy for me, particularly since the end of the school trimester is coming to a close which means concerts! My quintet played on a recital last week, a program which we performed the Sweelinck Variations on a Folk Song (this youtube is not us) and the Muczynski Quintet. Last weekend, the Wind Ensemble also performed Holst Suite no. 1, and the West Side Story Synphonic Dances, an arrangement which just came out a month ago and was created to be as close to the original parts as possible. Let me just say that piece was perhaps the hardest piece in Wind Ensemble I’ve ever played. After playing for 27 minutes, you get to play a ppp solo which starts on high Bb, and just goes high, hanging out on high Db, Eb, and finally ending with a decrescendo up to high F! Yeah— Right— Glory me.
This Sunday we’re doing Death and Transfiguration and Corgliano’s Gazebo Dances. I’m just playing English Horn on the Strauss, but that piece goes onand on and on and on— What a chop killer!
For my “Oral Traditions in Music” class, I’ve been researching for my final project which will be on the topic of Korean Pansori. It’s a musical storytelling artform originally taught orally, but nowadays with technology, it’s been written down, notated, taught with textbooks, CDs, and video. I’m not only writing about what it is, but the current state of transmission of pansori, and how using technology has helped or hindered the artform. Tuesday, I presented the topic for about 45 minutes, and when I get back, I need to complete my 30 page paper, due December 12th.
The project comes at a good time since Monday, I’ll be leaving for Korea for a week and a half for my brother-in-law’s wedding. The wedding itself is a bit tough, since I’ll get back December 3rd, just in time to take my finals and play my jury, but such is life.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to get all of my ducks in line, and reed orders on the way before I leave. My wife left Wednesday morning to spend some extra time with her family, and I’m looking forward to seeing them soon enough.