Oboe Secrets

75 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Oboist and English Horn Player

Jacqueline Leclair

Modeled on the brilliant approach first formulated by distinguished professor of music and master clarinetist Michele Gingras in Clarinet Secrets and More Clarinet Secrets (both available from Scarecrow Press), Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician: A Scarecrow Press Music Series is designed for instrumentalists, singers, conductors, composers, and other instructors and professionals seeking a quick set of pointers to improve their work as performers and producers of music. Easy to use and intended for the advanced musician, contributions to the Music Secrets series fill a niche for those who have moved beyond what beginners and intermediate practitioners need.

In Oboe Secrets: 75 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Oboist and English Horn Player, Jacqueline Leclair tackles the oboe’s reputation as an especially difficult instrument and illustrates how oboists and English horn players can overcome common challenges. Leclair draws on her experience as a performer and instructor, offering practical tips and sometimes revolutionary ideas for rethinking oboe pedagogy.

Leclair also looks at performance strategies in the areas of equipment maintenance and management, physical health, and performance technique. Her secrets focus on such matters as how to optimize practice sessions, build endurance, improve use of the body when playing, work with reeds, and apply extended techniques. Oboe Secrets provides oboists and English horn players a quick and efficient path to significant improvement—both technically and musically—in their playing.It is the perfect resource for advanced high school oboists, professional performers, music instructors, and avid amateur musicians.

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 166 • Trim: 7 x 10

978-0-8108-8620-9 • Paperback • October 2013 • $66.00 • (£51.00)

978-0-8108-8621-6 • eBook • October 2013 • $62.50 • (£48.00)

Series: Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician

Subjects: Music / Musical Instruments / Woodwinds, Music / Instruction & Study / Exercises, Music / Instruction & Study / Techniques

Oboe Secrets

75 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Oboist and English Horn Player

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Modeled on the brilliant approach first formulated by distinguished professor of music and master clarinetist Michele Gingras in Clarinet Secrets and More Clarinet Secrets (both available from Scarecrow Press), Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician: A Scarecrow Press Music Series is designed for instrumentalists, singers, conductors, composers, and other instructors and professionals seeking a quick set of pointers to improve their work as performers and producers of music. Easy to use and intended for the advanced musician, contributions to the Music Secrets series fill a niche for those who have moved beyond what beginners and intermediate practitioners need.

In Oboe Secrets: 75 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Oboist and English Horn Player, Jacqueline Leclair tackles the oboe’s reputation as an especially difficult instrument and illustrates how oboists and English horn players can overcome common challenges. Leclair draws on her experience as a performer and instructor, offering practical tips and sometimes revolutionary ideas for rethinking oboe pedagogy.

Leclair also looks at performance strategies in the areas of equipment maintenance and management, physical health, and performance technique. Her secrets focus on such matters as how to optimize practice sessions, build endurance, improve use of the body when playing, work with reeds, and apply extended techniques. Oboe Secrets provides oboists and English horn players a quick and efficient path to significant improvement—both technically and musically—in their playing.It is the perfect resource for advanced high school oboists, professional performers, music instructors, and avid amateur musicians.

Details

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 166 • Trim: 7 x 10

978-0-8108-8620-9 • Paperback • October 2013 • $66.00 • (£51.00)

978-0-8108-8621-6 • eBook • October 2013 • $62.50 • (£48.00)

Series: Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician

Subjects: Music / Musical Instruments / Woodwinds, Music / Instruction & Study / Exercises, Music / Instruction & Study / Techniques

Author

Jacqueline Leclair is a professor of oboe at McGill University and regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. The New York Times has hailed her performances as “astonishing” and the New Yorker has called her work “lively” and “wonderful.”

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

1 Practice Strategies
Secret 1: Accomplish a Challenging Task in Small, Gradual,
and Successful Steps
Secret 2: Practice for Good Intonation
Secret 3: Drones Are Your Friends
Secret 4: What Do You Want?
Secret 5: Intervals!
Secret 6: Rhythm First
Secret 7: If You Are Not Enjoying Yourself, Something Needs to Change
Secret 8: Beginning / Middle / End
Secret 9: Fingers?
Secret 10: Rhythm for Response
Secret 11: It’s Always about the Air
Secret 12: What Do You Mean by “Slow”?
Secret 13: An Entirely Different Kind of Slow
Secret 14: In the End Is the Beginning
Secret 15: Metronome on Second, Third, and Fourth Sixteenth Notes
Secret 16: Know How It Goes
Secret 17: Slurring: The Short Route to Mastery
Secret 18: Contemporary Music with Big Leaps
Secret 19: ()

2 Tone and Rhythm Strategies
Secret 20: Clap and Chat
Secret 21: Reed Alone
Secret 22: Find the Pre-tone
Secret 23: Use the Pre-tone
Secret 24: First Finger, Left Hand Agility
Secret 25: Rhythmic Virtuosity Is a Habit
Secret 26: Patterns
Secret 27: Vibrato Flexibility

3 Reed Strategies
Secret 28: There Is Only One Question
Secret 29: What Is Your Angle?
Secret 30: The Most Neglected Spot
Secret 31: Clip!
Secret 32: Crows, Not Squawks
Secret 33: It Is Not Mood Lighting
Secret 34: Don’t Try It; Play It
Secret 35: 100 Percent Consistent
Secret 36: Quality Control
Secret 37: Make the Back as the Final Step

4 Health and Strength Strategies
Secret 38: Are You Shouldering the Oboe?
Secret 39: Are You Forcing?
Secret 40: Oboe Yoga
Secret 41: To Play High, Go Low
Secret 42: Step Away from the Oboe!
Secret 43: Alexander Technique and Body Mapping
Secret 44: Scheduling Practice for Good Endurance
Secret 45: Think Your Way to Good Endurance
Secret 46: Embouchure Endurance Exercise
Secret 47: Pre-performance Breathing Exercise

5 Simplifying Strategies
Secret 48: Just Say No to Reed Drama
Secret 49: To Gouge or Not to Gouge
Secret 50: Wood Plaques
Secret 51: Leaving Blanks Unclipped
Secret 52: To Fake or Not to Fake?
Secret 53: The Mrs. Jones Test
Secret 54: Airtight?

6 Equipment Strategies
Secret 55: Adjustment Skills You Need to Know and Use
Secret 56: Clean Your Reeds
Secret 57: Clean Your Oboe
Secret 58: Clean Your Bocals
Secret 59: Crack Prevention

7 Sundry Strategies
Secret 60: Your Foot Does Not Know Best
Secret 61: No Reed Making
Secret 62: Is the Pulse a Plus?
Secret 63: Good Manners
Secret 64: Phrase as a Question
Secret 65: High Note Fingerings
Secret 66: Giving the Tuning A

8 English Horn Strategies
Secret 67: A Little Flat = In Tune
Secret 68: Avoiding Injury
Secret 69: Where Does the Embouchure Hold the Reed?
Secret 70: The English Horn Needs More

9 Expanded Techniques
Secret 71: Double Tonguing
Secret 72: Circular Breathing
Secret 73: Flutter Tonguing
Secret 74: Glissando
Secret 75: Whistle Tone

Further Resources
Index
About the Author

Reviews

This series sets forth a quick set of pointers to improve musicians' work as performers. Easy to use and intended for the advanced musician so the book states, these books 'fill a niche for those who have moved beyond what beginners and intermediate practitioners need'. This excellent book does it exactly what it says on the back cover. ... Oboe Secrets would be of use to oboists of almost any level. . . . For the student or amateur it points the way to future development of playing, and better technique; it would be a most useful resource for teachers. For a professional such as myself I found it thought-provoking and very rewarding to read, encouraging us to re-evaluate what we do, how we do it and why. ... Oboe Secrets clearly represents a great deal of work in assembling the ideas, describing things clearly and setting them out in a logical and highly readable way, with sensible use of illustrations. May of the 'secrets' would be of use to players of other instruments too. Jacqueline Leclair has done a very fine piece of work for us all, and I highly commend it.
— Double Reed News

Leclair's descriptions and ideas of conquering them should be refreshing and often liberating. Being reminded of a 'lost technique' is quite helpful, and likewise reading solutions similar to your own can be reassuring. The resource list at the end of the book is extremely helpful in that Leclair has included a brief synopsis for each book listed. The variety of texts and suggested recordings lends insight into Leclair's reading tastes and habits. It is clear that she is committed to working towards healthy playing habits, enhancing and encouraging creativity, and opening her mind and body to discovery and invention. Oboe Secrets is written in clear, easy to comprehend language, should be a staple in the oboists' and English hornists' libraries, and I recommend it for students, teachers, amateurs and professionals alike.
— The Double Reed