Dan Schwartz

Oboe Pedagogy:
Strategies and concepts for dealing with beginning players

Reed placement/Embouchure:

 DEVELOP EMBOUCHURE FIRST. Then move on to other concepts. Have to

get embouchure first, or nothing else really matters.
 Developing the embouchure with beginning players:
Have students say “home.” Be sure there is enough lower lip cushion!
Have them visualize drinking a milkshake with a straw.
Step by step building:
1.) Cover the lower lip with the upper lip.
2.) Point chin down
Think “ooooh”
Walrus tusks are another good visual.
Make student whistle and freeze that embouchure.
 Don’t let beginning students play heavy reeds. This will force the chin and lower
lip to push up to close the reed.
 Instead, play a lighter reed that is smaller but balanced.
 Corners of the mouth in and collect the reed.
 Reed exercises can help. Play pitches (low, middle, high) to develop embouchure
strength. Good for students of all ages.
 Where you are on the reed is key. Cannot just say “play on the tip.” Reeds have
sweet spots- find them.
 Instead of fighting with reed placement in the mouth, experiment and say, “Let’s
just see how much resonance we can get!”
 Helpful to know which notes play the best with the right placement on the reed.
This should vary from oboe to oboe.
 Reed placement will shift when playing intervals. Cannot just hunker down and
force the intervals to fit your embouchure. To see this- play B to C and F to F#.
These are hard to play very well in tune, as true half-steps. Reed placement will
shift.
 Embouchure:
Is a place for the reed to sit
Controls and allows vibration
Allows for intonation
 As time goes by, embouchure develops to be very subjective
Breathing/Support:

 Take all you want, but use what you take

 Don’t take excessive breaths
 If you’re getting overly tired, take a deep breath. You are probably breathing too
shallow
 Support the air without pressing
 Character of the air counts (ex. Brahms Violin Concerto). Support with beauty.
 Long tone exercises:
Support with vibrato
Support without vibrato
Support with pressing- useful for high fast noodling.
 Circular breathing. Even without breaths, the music needs to breath.
 Don’t hold your air at the ends of phrases. Chest and throat should not be tight at
the end of a line. No giant/painful exhales at the end of phrases.
 Complete the phrase with your mouth, not choked air. This can be practiced in
the Strauss Concerto, mvmt 2. Play phrase by phrase. End one phrase without
choking the air. Breath in, and then move on to the next phrase.
 Concepts to examine with older students:
Where does the air go when you breathe in?
How does your body move?
Fill up like a science beaker. Narrow on top, fat on bottom.
 Be wary about tinkering with breathing in students. It is best to really only
address problems, like shallow breathing, or tightness in throat or chest.
 Do not say, “THIS IS HOW YOU BREATHE.” This will get students caught up
in the mechanics of a process that needs to be natural.
 How you use the air determines mood and tone
 Don’t use the same air all the time. Varied air = varied color! (Concept for older
students)
 Relate to students to solve these problems.
 Especially for young players, keep it EASY! Nothing technical.

Intervals/Pitch:

 Every single note matters.

 Taste the notes
 Do large intervals slowly and see what your face does. Learn how it feels.
 On warm-up, start with one note and every note that follows is an interval! Play
them in tune.
 Some students voice pitches naturally. Others do not.
 Tuner good to find single notes. Dartboard exercise (isolated pitches, hit a bull’s-
eye).
 The B-C exercise is amazing with intervals
  Sing it. Do throat to falsetto. Your throat changes to hold up high notes. Same
thing with the oboe.
 Test harmonics against real notes
 Everything you play with someone else is an interval. Don’t forget.

Barret Etudes:

 6th graders shouldn’t really own Barret. Only for very serious young players.
 Don’t get the Shuring edition
 Every serious player should own the Vade Mecum.
 No. 1- Downbeat of measure 2 is the arrival. Even after the dim.
Diminuendos in Barret mean “don’t drive through.” Does not necessarily
apply to dynamics.
Measure 3- play a looong line
Have space before ‘F.’ It’s special.
The eighth notes of measure 1 can be grouped 1 and 3
High ‘A’ is bigger. Bigger leap.
Use all passing notes as dolce
Use slurrings as written.
Quick grace notes, wait for them.
Don’t bump first note
Don’t bombard early players by being too fussy. Let them play.
 No. 2- This is the perfect place to introduce the notion of ( + - ). Stressing the
first note and softening the second in note groups of two notes. No. 3 also is great
for this
 No. 4- You can either lead the first note or play and lift. In measure 4, accent on
beat 2 means lift beat 1.
 No. 5- We have lift again on quarter note for accented beat 2. Gradual
diminuendos, not fp.
 No. 11- Don’t be mechanical. Play the pickups to bar 2 late. Save them to play
them quicker. Make a moment! Has great opportunities for character changing in
this etude. Good to teach character shifting.
 No. 12- Go ACROSS bar line with legato into bar 3.
 No. 15- Lift on dotted eighth on beat 2 and all dotted eighth sixteenth note
groupings. Error in part- play C# in bar 4
 No. 17- The staccato in the last note of the slur is a release, not a tongued note
 No. 34- be mysterious. Play music not notes.

Baroque Ornaments:

 Fill in 3rds
 Add sequences
 Add mordents and inverted mordents
  Have an arsenal of gestures to choose from!
 When writing a cadenza, use definable rhythms. Don’t ornament out of time.
 Handel g minor and c minor sonatas are great first pieces, used as introductions.
Add a few ornaments but do not overdo it for young players. A little goes a long
way here.
 Musica Rare publishes the authentic Handel Oboe Sonatas: c minor, f minor, and
Bb major
 c minor is a great teaching tool to show playing across the bar line with no bumps.
 Listen to Baroque music! This helps you build a vocabulary of how gestures
work.
 Also listen to the cadenzas in Mozart Piano and Violin concertos.
 NEVER have the attitude “if it’s not in the part than I wont play it.”
 But don’t disregard and throw away the actual music either. Find the balance.
 In the Telemann Methodical Sonatas, he wrote the ornaments himself. Good to
use for reference.
 Seeing a “+” indicates trill or ornament.
 Play the ornaments like they’re new, not stodgy.

Other Strategies and Life Concepts:

 Build a community no matter where you end up as a professional.

 Get to know the cleaning staff in your school.
 Be friends with the secretaries and front desk employees (these are often the
people who make everything happen anyways!)

Pieces to Know:

 CONCERTOS:
o Mozart, write your own cadenzas
o Cimarosa (originally a piano piece)
o Marcello (originally in d minor, but now in c minor by Benedetto. C
minor is better key for modern oboe)
o Handel G minor
o Haydn Concerto (not necessarily written by Haydn)
o Vaughan-Williams
o Albinoni (avoid. Op. 7)
o Bellini
o Strauss
o Alwyn
o Malcom Arnold
o CPE Bach
o JC Bach in F
 o Bach Double, must be in c minor
o Corelli
o Corigliano
o Dittersdorf
o Goossens
o Foss
o Jacob concerto 1 and 2
o Telemann
o Vivaldi
o Zimmerman HARD
o Harbison
o Zwilich
o Martinu
o Ewazen
o Michael Hurd
o Lebrun
o Wolf-Ferrari concertino
o Hummel
o Donizetti EH concerto
o Piston Suite

 SONATAS:

o Saint-Saens
o Poulenc
o Hindemith
o Handel c minor, g minor, F major, Bb Major
o Telemann A minor
o JS Bach g minor
o Vivaldi c minor, g minor
o CPE Bach g minor
o Arnold Cooke
o Dutilluex
o Holliger
o Loeillet
o Telemann Partitas, Fantasies (don’t buy transposed versions)
o Durati 5 pieces and Duo Concertante
o Sammartini g min
o Grieg
o Stefan Wolpe sonata
o Howells
o Patterson Duologue
 o Nielsen
o Schumann Romances
o Jacob Sonata and Sonatina
o Paladillhe
o Britten Temporal Variations, Insect Pieces, and Six Metamorphoses
o William Grant Still Incantation and Dance
o Michael Head 3 Pieces
o Dring 3 Piece Suite
o Krebs Sonata with organ
o Koehlein Sonata
o Casterede.
o Krenek
o Berio Sequenza

 CHAMBER:

o Mozart Quartet
o Barber Summer Music
o Britten Fantasiquartet
o Francaix EH and trio
o Jacob Qaurtet
o Bach
o Bliss
o Finzi
o Reicha
o Boccherini
o JC Bach Quartet
o Ezra Laderman Quartet
o Yuri Weiner
o Takemitsu
o Mozart Serenades and Divertimenti
o Dvorak Serenade
o Gounod Petit Symphony
o Beethoven Octet
o Arnold Quintets
o Irving Fine Partita
o Francaix trio/quartet/quintet
o Poulenc Trio
o Hindemith
o Ligeti
o Janacek Melodi
o Loeffler Rhapsodies
o Ibert
o Nielsen
o Krommer
o Previn Trio
o Musgrave Duo and Trio
o Bach Trio Sonata
o Prokofiev Quintet
o Martinu Trio, Nonet
o Piston Divertimento
o Noel Galan Suite
o Villa-Lobos Quintet/Quartet
o Foerster Quintet