Skip to main content

IDRS Day One

IDRS Conference Day One:  Impressions

It took me forever to get here.  No, mostly it took me forever to leave home in the morning.  Zoe is so snuggly and so much wants me to just stay and play with her all day. 

My directions to Miami University were great (thanks, iPhone!) but the directions on campus were at first very confusing and resulted in a lot of needless hiking around in 102 degree weather.  This conference is not spectacularly well organized - my Monday afternoon program is actually wrongly listed as starting at different times in different venues in various places in the program.

Officially, now: I will perform at 4:45 on Monday in the Art Museum here at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. 

I got in later than I wanted to, but still attended three recitals and one amazing gala concert, made two brand new friends, met up with several old ones,  practiced for an hour, and generally wore myself totally out in the process.  Tomorrow my schedule looks packed from dawn til dusk, between recital attendance and piano rehearsals.  My biggest challenge, I think, will be to find the time to reflect on what I’m seeing and hearing.

Today the biggest thing I am noticing is individual differences in sound.  I have thoughts.  I’d love to put them down.  Personal oboe sound is something I’ve been thinking about a ton lately.  But tonight is not the night to try to pull my thoughts together.  I need to sleep and regroup for another day.

My main goal while I’m here is to attend masterclasses.  I have been searching for inspiration in my teaching, and am ready to hear some of what other people say.  This is going to be the Year of the Student for me, and I want lots of new ideas to kick me off in the fall. 

I love the oboe.  This morning when I was at home I wanted to stay there, but this week is the time for me to make the most of my surroundings.  Go, Double Reeds!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Blog has MOVED

 Have you been waiting ... and waiting ... and WAITING for a new Prone Oboe post?  Don't wait here anymore!  The blog has moved to https://jennetingle.com/prone-oboe/  and will not be updated here on Blogger anymore.  Please come and check me out there!  I love you all - stay safe out there!  Jennet

How Do You WISH You Could Describe Your Reeds?

In Reed Club last Monday, we took a moment before we started scraping to set some intentions.  We each said one word - an adjective to describe what we WANTED our reeds to be.  An aspirational adjective. Efficient was a word that came up, and Consistent . Dark and Mysterious . Mellow . Predictable .  Trustworthy .  Honest .  BIGGER . Reed affirmations actually felt helpful - both in the moment and in the results we found as we worked.  I don't know why that surprises me - I set intentions at the beginning of the year, at the beginning of the month, at the beginning of a run, in the morning before I work.  I love a good affirmation.  I love WORDS.  But I'd sort of forgotten about the possibility of applying one to the mundane work of reed-making.   You don't have to know exactly how to GET to that result.  But having clarity in your mind about what that result is?  Helps you to stop going down unhelpful rabbit holes...

Micro Rests

 For oboists, endurance is a huge problem.  We can play an endlessly long phrase, because of the way the instrument is constructed, but we can really only do that a few times in a row before our embouchure starts to get fatigued.  We develop a buildup of air that feels exhausting to hold onto, and the thought of sustaining that kind of energy over  an entire page of music, much less a 45 minute recital program, is intimidating.    There's almost always a lesson, a week or two before a jury or a recital, where my student comes in and says, "I just can't DO this! I can play every detail in my music, but I can't put the whole thing together!  My mouth comes right off the oboe when I try - I'm going to fall apart in front of the audience, and it's going to be terrible!"  Look, I'm putting this on my students now - but there's a moment a week or so before MY performances that feels exactly the same! I have not outgrown this moment of panic. And at that...