Whether you are a student applying for All-State, an adult amateur, or a beginning oboist, you will need to make a recording of yourself at some point. Plus, recording yourself playing can be an amazing practice tool and reveal those things a private teacher or conductor might notice for you.  Plan ahead for your recording session:  Know the guidelines  This includes: total allowed length of recording, what repertoire is to be played, what order to play in, whether the record

We’re all so busy these days (students, and parents, and teachers), so today I’ll be sharing my top 3 strategies to make practice sessions really effective.  (These tips work for all musicians, not just oboists!)  Last week I challenged students to make a practice schedule, and be specific about the exact days and amount of time that they would dedicate to practicing, and write their practice schedule down.  If you're a student and you didn't write out your practice schedule

In April 2025 I played a run of “Turn of the Screw” by Benjamin Britten. If you’re not familiar with the opera, it’s a ghost story/psychological thriller with themes based upon a 12-tone row. Talk about fun and weird and spooky and hard! The orchestration is for a small orchestra, basically a string quintet (with bass), a woodwind quintet, harp, percussion, and piano/celeste. Although the show closed yesterday, I think I’ll have the melodies floating around in my head for the

Today’s quick tip is an answer to the question: Does it matter which blade of the reed is up?  The short answer is: Yes!  If you’re a longtime reader, you’ll know that I’m not happy with a short answer, so let’s get into it.  In reed making, we use a slightly rounded cutting block to clip the tips of most reeds.  Cutting block on my desk The subtly rounded top of the cutting block means that the reed is almost always held at a slight angle, making one of the blades ever so sl