by Sergeant First Class Lorrie Berkshire
Brown
For many of us, knowing how well we would like to play is
the easy part, getting there is the hard part. We have to become our own
"personal trainer". Approaching practice as an athlete might
approach a workout. As we all know, "getting in shape" is easier
"said than done", and the best advice is to organize
any large task or goal into smaller, obtainable units. As many
a motivational speaker has shared, " If you leave a faucet dripping,
it's amazing how fast the tub will overflow!"
One step at a time is the most efficient way to reach any
destination, so here are some steps to "work, tone and strengthen",
specific elements in our playing, contributing to the desired whole.
Find a time each day that will be your
practice time. Treat it as an appointment with yourself, even if
it is just 10 or 15 minutes! Include it with other activities you do everyday.
Many people have luck with the same time, first thing in the morning or
including a day off in their schedule. Sports Psychologists and counselors
suggest that it takes 21 days for a behavior to become a habit that you
will miss if you skip a day. Use this in your favor, and challenge yourself
to make it at least a day, then -a week, then another, then another. If
after 3 weeks you are not happy with the results of your new practice
habit, you can return to your old approach before you tried the new one.
Take a risk! Discipline is a skill you learn by doing.
Divide practice into specific things to
accomplish and allow a specific amount of time for each thing.
Break scales, exercises, etudes or music into basic elements such as time/rhythm,
wind, pitch, intervals and finger challenges and allow an amount of time
that day for each task. Stop when the time is up and move on. You can
always come back and work more. Remember "ONE STEP AT A TIME"
is more efficient, less stressful and more retainable It also allows you
to give it a rest and come back and refine your work.
Approach your oboe workout slow and steady. Accurate repetitions
are the key.
Practice slow enough that you can think and concentrate
on accuracy. That way you are always practicing to improve and build
confidence. If each repetition is slow and CORRECT, then each time
you REINFORCE that you CAN play it! Gradually increase tempos and challenges.
This way all energy is productive, you are not just going through the
motions, practicing inaccurate attempts or undermining your outcome with
speed and franticness. Be tough about this!
Create a schedule or notebook to follow.
Time organization helps us avoid procrastination and helps keep us focused.
Included are a few schedules that allow for different time restraints
and show obvious results. "So, get that oboe and give me 20!"
- WARM-UPS: It
is always best to warm up our brains and wind first. Try this for aerobic
benefit, endurance, control and intonation. Use this opportunity to
watch embouchure and fingers in a mirror to develop desired habits and
positions there as well. Think sub-divided time in your head as well.
- Endurance/control builder:
Place a watch on your stand so you can see the second hand. Breath
in as if you are going to "sigh". Have your oboe ready
as you are breathing out. When you feel as if you have "sighed
out" all your air, stick the reed/oboe in your mouth and continue
blowing (do not breath in, just keep blowing) as long and loud as
you can. Watch the second hand and keep track of the time. Do this
3 times and try to beat your previous time. Keep a log on your daily
schedule and keep trying for better times. You should feel all the
right "intercostal" muscles working, because they HAVE
TO, not because you are forcing them to. When you are done blowing,
you should feel a "great breath of air in". This exercise
teaches oboists how to approach long passages without hyperventilating
by EFFICIENTLY USING THE AIR we breath in and gauging how it is
exhaled.
- Long Tones scaling from ppp to
fff. Set your metronome at around 50.
Then subdividing 16ths in your head while you breath in and out,
begin at ppp and play up to fff and back to ppp. Think of levels
from 1-8 and back down. Each repetition is like turning the volume
knob up or down. Do this also watching a tuner to keep the needle
dead center and also with a tuner "sounding" the pitch
so you train your ear as well. Use long tones to practice vibrato
as well.
- Control and soft attacks.
The object is developing "control at pianissimo". With
your metronome on 45-50- attack notes on the 4th beat of each bar
as soft as possible, sub-dividing beats 1-3, breathing in and out
in time. Keep the wind at the tip of the reed. Do this first with
only "HOO" , the air only, and then with "TOO"
Try to have a clean attack with no noise and the air doing the work.
Do this also with a tuner sounding each tone and listen for accurate
pitch on each attack. Pick a comfortable range and gradually expand
to the full range of your instrument!
- TECHNIQUE TIME AND INTONATION:
- Tongue. Pick a "key
of the day"( G major for example). Use a metronome and keep
track of of your progress. Keep your tongue in the front of your
mouth, with the wind moving over the top to the tip of the reed.
Tongue independently of the jaw and interrupt the wind with your
tongue. Expand to double and triple tonguing. (TK-KT and TkKtT work
pretty well) The idea is to not be able to tell what kind of tonguing
you are using (clean) and work toward the following
tempos as long term goals.
Double tonguing sixteenth-notes to at least
quarter-note=140.
Triple-tonguing eighth-note triplets to
quarter-note=190.
These tempos will get you through most musical demands. Start SLOW
and use repetition. You will see results! You can practice this
without your oboe as well!
- Scales. After learning key
signatures pick a "key of the day". Thinking clean, relaxed,
curved fingers, and directional, continuous wind. Using a metronome
and keeping track of tempos, play each scale so that you are "absolutely"
accurate; slurred, then tongued, and in different patterns. Many
books are available to help with this, but it is better to be creative
and do this in your head. Eventually, cycle through all major, minor,
modal, whole tone and pentatonic, diminished and chromatic scales.
Again start so slow you cannot possibly make a mistake, use repetitions,
keeping tally marks of "successful" times through. Gradually
increase tempos and set challenges for yourself (Time trials). Put
your tuner on the tonic of each scale and listen to intervals while
you are developing this skill! Put the metronome on "off beats",
2 and 4 in addition to I and 3! This will force you to internalize
time and sub-divisions!
- Time and rhythm. Isolate
this and read different rhythmic things very slowly. Also, do this
without your oboe! Just conduct and clap and subdivide. Start with
very easy things to reinforce rhythmic confidence. There are books
that focus on just this, or you can use any music you can find.
This will greatly improve sight-reading ability.
- MUSIC, ETUDES, ENSEMBLE PARTS:
- Slow and accurate.
Approach technical passages as a game: always slow and accurate,
gradually increasing your demands. You will accomplish more with
this discipline. One would not run 26 miles as fast as they can
on day one, training for a marathon. One must build strength, control
and confidence! Use a metronome! The following approaches work well:
- Isolate passages and use repetition! Starting
slowly do it 10 or 20 times at that tempo, then again a bit
faster. If it gets sloppy, go back. Only count accurate rep's
After you have played it 20 or 100 times "right",
10- 20 times at each tempo over the course of days or weeks,
you will not be nervous about performing it!
- Start at the end and work backwards of a piece.
Then as you go through it, it becomes more familiar.
- Use different patterns, and groupings that bring
out the phrase and isolate problems.
- Sing the piece without your oboe so you know
what it is you are trying to play and communicate. If you can
sing it, you most likely will be able to play it!
- Use a tape recorder or disc recorder. Know what
you are doing and what you want to do. Listen for pitch, time,
rhythm, music and sound.
- Reward yourself for your discipline!
O.K. OBOISTS .... LET'S GET OUT THERE AND DO IT!
SAMPLE PRACTICE SCHEDULES
70 minute oboe workout: You can even set a timer
and when the time is up, stop and move on!
35 minute warm-up and technique builder:
- 3+ minutes-wind/endurance
- 2+ minutes-long tones ppp-fff
- 5 minutes-control
- 5 minutes-tongue work-out
- 15 minutes-scales
- 5 minutes-time/rhythm (chop break-brain builder)
35 minute music drill
- 10 Etude/technical study
- 15 solo repertoire
- 10 orchestra/band music
The time spent on basics in the first section will reflect
in improvement in the second section! Remember, the point is a "sustainable
objective", a way to work-out consistently without procrastination!
What seems like not enough time, will actually compound itself with
daily attention, ultimately rendering a better overall result, than
sporadic doses of longer time. Obviously, one needs to tailor this to
their own needs. It often works well to add a second session for focus
on music alone.
30 minute oboe workout: This is an effective initiation
for younger students or amateurs.
- 2 minutes-wind/endurance
- I minute-long tones
- 2 minutes-tongue
- 5 minutes-scales
- 10 minutes-etude or technical study
- 5 minutes-solo repertoire
- 5 minutes-band music/orchestra music
These are just suggested examples. They are tried and true!
Time and commitment are relative to how competitive and serious the player
is trying to be. An obtainable, basic, solid structure will lend results.
As the oboist reaps the benefit of each step by step increment, it will
become easier and easier to maintain the habit of practicing. Opportunities
that will follow an increase in skills only reinforce the positive long-term
outcome of the short-term effort required to get in shape on the oboe.
LET'S GET TOUGH AND SHOW 'EM HOW IT'S
DONE OBOISTS!
|