oboeinsight

The recital is finished. I thought it went pretty well, but I also know I wasn’t perfect. Maybe next time …?!

Now that I can put that work away for a while (we will perform it at Stanford in April so I can’t retire it completely) I need to start working on Mahler 4, which I’m doing with San Jose Chamber Orchestra soon. There are just a few things in it that are a bit difficult (like going from the high F# to the high A on oboe? Ouch! I will have to figure out a fingering that will even work for high A!) and I mostly need to get reeds for both oboe and English horn.

Reeds.

What a dirty word. I should go wash my mouth out with soap!

Yes, I’ve written about this before. But here I go again ….

I posted a photo I took of a crazy looking flower on my pattyo blog the other day. When I saw it on one of my walks I was just astounded by it. I still am.

But here’s the (sad?) thing: I realized, in going over last year’s photos, that I had taken photos of it last summer! I just hadn’t really seen it clearly when I snapped the photos back then. Sometimes, with a camera in front of my face, I’m not really looking. It’s similar to how I read sometimes — I might read an entire page of words and realize I didn’t get the content at all. Sad, but true.

And so it goes with music. For me. For my students.

Sometimes after a student plays something I’ll ask, “What did you hear?” I can’t tell you the number of times a student will confess to not really hearing anything. We get so busy working on fingering, or breathing, or making the darn reed work or something else that takes our concentration that we forget to listen! When I get new students who have been taking oboe for quite some time they frequently have missed hearing “glitches” (notes between notes) the entire time they’ve played the instrument.

When we practice it is always a good idea to ask ourselves “What am I hearing?” on occasion. It may sound crazy, but we need to be reminded to listen.

Oh … and that crazy flower? Here you go:

This new and exciting photo hobby of mine is teaching me to see more, see more clearly, and see differently. It’s quite fun!

Oh, that was an oboe playing there, what a nice sound. i know that was an oboe cause i went to school before they started gutting education

You are at rehearsal. Break time has just been called. How long do you think it takes to swab and pack up an oboe? Think about it.

Now think about this: how long do you think it would take for someone to knock that instrument over if it’s not packed up?

Yep. Stuff happens. Pack your instruments up for break. It’s just safer. I confess I used to leave my oboe on my chair. But I will also confess I sat on my oboe once when I did that! (Fortunately I caught myself before my full weight was on the oboe.) I’ve seen people knock over an instrument that was seemingly “safe” on a chair, too. So no more chair-oboe for me. I would never leave it on the stand during breaks either. I see colleagues do that rather frequently. Call me paranoid, but it’s just too easy to knock the darn thing over (and we in California live in earthquake country, so there’s that too!).

The next time I hear a student blame another musician for breaking his or her instrument because the student didn’t pack it up I think I’m going to scream.

Or at least roll my eyes.

They all know how I feel about putting instruments away.

Oh … and put the reeds away too, please! Reeds are tiny little beasts that non-reed players often can’t see. They seem to be invisible to many other musicians. But you all know how they can break. And you all know how a cracked one can ruin a whole day. So just put the darn things in the reed case, and put the reed case somewhere safe (NOT on the stand!). Trust me, it’s worth the time it takes to do that. I know.

I also would strongly recommend you not ask a friend to hold your oboe or your reed for you as you run to do something else. I can’t tell you how many students come in saying a friend broke a reed or messed up an oboe. Again, I blame the oboist. I’m mean that way.

That is all. You’re welcome.

I do hope everyone knew I was joking when I wrote We don’t need no stinkin’ conductor!, but in case you thought I was serious I’m back to tell you I have great respect for good conductors. Bad ones? Not so much respect.

But I am most definitely not a conductor!

The other evening I coached the wind section of the UCSC orchestra. On music I didn’t know. At all.

It was not a pretty sight.

I “conducted”, so to speak, but I’m thankful no one but the wind section had to witness it. (I’m sorry they had to see me, though.) In my dreams I’d be a good conductor. Better than most, really. But the reality of it all? Sigh. Less than stellar.

But I had to do it so I did. At some points I’d see some of the players whisper and laugh. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were just astounded at my lack of ability. They are a nice bunch of students — last quarter I played with the group and I enjoyed that. I hope they realize that conducting is not something I’ve ever pursued. As I told them, I took conducting in college, but the group I worked with when I conducted Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was simply flawless. Because it was a recording! We didn’t have an opportunity to conduct an orchestra. Instead we used a record. I waved my arms. The recording played perfectly. It wasn’t a terribly helpful way to learn how to conduct, but I passed the class and that was my only goal. Now I wish I’d had an instructor who actually forced me to learn and do a better job. Ah well … there are a multitude of things I would do differently if I were in college now.

So anyway, I guess I survived the evening of coaching, and I hope the winds did as well. I’m sure they’ll be happy to have a real conductor back in front of them soon.

I neglected to celebrate, but I began blogging on January 17, 2003. Time flies …

With no formatting whatsoever, here are my first month’s posts from way back when. Since these early posts there have been losses and changes, and yet some things never change. For instance, Bill Trimble, whom I mention below, is no longer with us. AMTSJ is no more. But cell phones are still ringing at concerts and my writing skills haven’t exactly improved!

January 17, 2003
Putting it Together
Welcome to my oboe blog. At this site you will eventually find links to greensheets (for university students), links to interesting oboe sites, information about any upcoming concerts I am performing as well as other concerts I think are worth a mention, and any other news and information I feel like relaying to the world.
Please be patient … getting all of this together may take a while.
January 18, 2003
Meanwhile …
Tonight is opening night for AMTSJ’s Sound of Music.
I loved the movie as a child. I remember my family getting reserved seats at the nearly new Century Theater, and I remember the huge screen (they hadn’t yet split the theater in half or thirds) with Julie Andrews on the top of a beautiful green mountain as the camera swirled around her … or was she doing the swirling? Or perhaps both were swirling? I remember being thrilled. I remember wishing that I was “Sixteen going on Seventeen” (oh to be so old!). I remember my heart pounding as the family was attempting to leave their home in the dark and they were caught. I remember, too, feeling as if the Von Trapp family was cheated because they had to quickly escape rather than pick up their first place trophy.
The musical differs from the movie which was news to me; the last time I played it the director must have rearranged everything so that it matched the movie rather than the original staged version.
Some of the differences: In this version Maria sings “My Favorite Things” while in the Abbey, and Mother Superior even joins in. Rather different than singing it with the children to calm their fears during the thunder storm! And to calm the kids she sings “The Lonely Goatherd” so there’s no puppetry as there was in the movie. Or maybe there is! How would I know? I can’t see the stage.
Is this a favorite show of mine? Far from it! But I still find that there are certain lines … “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help” … or the simple song “Edelweiss” … that can make the emotions swell.
What is it about music that can cause that to happen? And why doesn’t it happen to everyone?
January 25, 2003
New updates!
You can see, to the left, that I’ve added a Students’ Corner. I’ve included not only links to pages for SCU, UCSC and my Private Students, but a list of my upcoming performances as well. Simply click on Performance Schedule and you should see what I’m up to these days.
I will continue to update my schedule as I get more information about what I’ll be doing.
Exciting news:
I will be performing Michael Touchi’s Tango Barroco on March 28th! I love playing this work and it’s great fun to listen to. The work is for soprano sax, English horn and strings. William Trimble will be playing the sax part. We’ll be playing with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Barbara Day Turner.
January 26, 2003
My resumé has been added to the site. Nothing big, but now people can see what I do in the exciting world of music!
January 27, 2003
And people think the soap operas are wild …
I’m playing Il Trovatore with Opera San Jose; opening night is this coming Saturday. I’ve played operas for years, but this is the first time I’ll do this particular Verdi work. I decided I really should read the synopsis to understand what is going on so I did a search online. You can read all about the plot at the the Met’s Il Trovatore synopsis page.
Anyone who ever jokes about the wild and crazy soap opera plots ought to read some opera synopses!
In the writing vein …
I have a new corner at the site. I put up some of my poetry. This is risky; readers may despise it, or I might shatter some notions you have about musicians.
But I’m not asking for critiques. (That’s a not-so-subtle hint!)
Now I wonder … will I need another corner to have a nice triangle, or perhaps two more to be the square sort?
Or maybe I’ll even need five corners. Quintets can be nice.
January 29, 2003
Thinking of auditioning?
Tonight at 9:00, KQED will be showing American Masters: Juilliard. I’ve not seen it, but I would suspect it would be a good thing for any serious music student to watch; if you are considering auditioning for a conservatory this might help you … or scare you away!
One of my oboe teachers gave me an article after I had decided I was going to go into the music profession (why after I’ll never know!). The main point of the article was that a person should attempt this profession only if it’s the only possible profession he or she could possibly imagine. That article was written back in the sixties I think; now it is even more difficult to succeed in this business. Just read the articles at the Arts Journal site and you’ll see how many orchestras are struggling.
Still, I don’t want to discourage students entirely … I just want people to go at this with eyes wide open.
January 30, 2003
Thinking of a performing career?
So you’ve decided the performing life is for you? You’ve weighed the pros and cons and you still know it’s all you’ve ever wanted and you know you simply can’t breathe without it?
Here are a few questions:
1) When did you last attend a live performance?
2) When is the last time you paid to attend a live performance?
Now consider these thoughts:
1) If you don’t attend live performances why do you expect anyone else to yours?
2) If no one pays to attend your performances why and how should you get paid?
So ponder. You can even argue with me! (I know that there are some somewhat “sane” arguments … I’ve come up with a few myself.)
I have more things you could ponder too, but I’ll save some of my thoughts so that I don’t run out entirely in only one post.
Sound of Music and Il Trovatore
What a contrast!
Having the two jobs overlap is wild, indeed. Everything about these two works is so different.
This is a part of my career that I truly love: I get to be in so many different worlds. I get to play such different styles. (I get to see such contrasting audiences!) I get happiness and heartbreak (yesterday, today and Saturday I get them both in one day).
Psst!
The woman playing Maria in Sound of Music is somewhere around 6 months pregnant. I love hearing her tell the Mother Superior that she is “ready to take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.” I feel like yelling out “Too late!”
So far I’ve resisted that temptation.
***Those annoying rings and beeps…
Prior to the AMTSJ show, an announcement comes on telling people to kindly shut off all cell phones and pagers during the performance. I’m always wondering just when during the performance people will turn them off. Some people must have decided to do so after they receive that all important phone call.

Between playing some great music with Symphony Silicon Valley and then heading to Yosemite for a quick trip it was quite a wonderful weekend! I’ll post more later, but first I have a bit of work to do.

Many thanks to Bob Shomler for sending me this photo below. Pictured, left to right: Beth Zare, Meredith Brown, Pamela Hakl, and yours truly. We are playing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante K. 364 (for Violin, Viola and Orchestra).

If I get some time later on I’ll post a Yosemite photo or two. We’ll see!

Yep, changed the blog — hope you like the new look. If you don’t, I do apologize! It’s just time for something new, and I liked this template. If you visit my other blog, the pattyo, you’ll see that the two blogs have a similar look. I like the two to have some sort of connection. I’m silly that way.

I still have work to do to get everything up and running, and I also have to decide if I’m going to keep all the links to other blogs up (do any of you check those out?), but at least I’ve got it going now. I knew if I didn’t do it before I get back to symphony this week I’d probably not do it for a long time.

I’m also not going to be posting certain things every week as I have been. I know, I know, I’ve written that before. This time, though, I have no choice! I can’t find YouTube videos to fit certain categories (the OutsideMyWorld™ and WorldReeds™ are especially difficult). From here on out things will be posted if I find something to fit, but it’s sure not going to be every week. It’s time to let that obsession go.

FBQDs and TQODs can easily continue, though; people never cease to write things that I find humorous, annoying, or touching about the oboe! Go figure.

Yikes … some singer (a tenor I’ve never heard of but according to his site is quite famous) has been tweeting some rather horrible things. To protect those he is dissing I’ll remove names (including his). Why would someone do this, though? It’s a billboard to the world.

First tweet:
I love [famous opera company] and [famous opera company] but can categorically confirm that they do mic some artists using acoustic enhancing boundary mics.

Second tweet:
[famous opera company] has a full time sound dept comprising of 4 sound technicians.
3 Jan

Third tweet:
I was in turco in Italia with [famous soprano as above] and she was amplified.
3 Jan

Fourth tweet:
Artists I know have been mic’d are [same famous soprano as above] and the dreadful [famous tenor].
3 Jan

Fifth tweet:
I think [popera star's name] is a bit if a [word I can't put on my blog], but his allegations of opera houses using mics are true.
3 Jan

Now, I’m not at all surprised by mics. I’ve heard it before from people in the know. I’m not bugged by it, either. (You can start throwing darts at me now, if you’d like.) But for a tenor who is in the business to say all of this on Twitter is rather astounding to me. Maybe I’m clueless, but I would think this could cause a loss of work, and I sure wonder why someone in the biz would publicly bash big name singers and opera companies.

Then again, another twitterer said “On the other hand, one doesn’t have to love all the singers or musicians and one should have the possibility to say that. IMHO” … so perhaps she thought his harshness was just fine.

Thoughts?

Some readers know I have another blog called the pattyo. It’s mostly something that my family reads (if they even manage to get to it!). These days it is primarily my “day of gratitude” blog. Each day I post a photo of something that makes me grateful. Sometimes it’s a person or a place or a thing that I have a direct connection with … sometimes it’s just something beautiful I found and snapped a shot of.

Today a Facebook friend put up a video and it immediately went up on my other blog, but I think you all might enjoy it as well. It speaks about gratitude so much better than I ever could!

May I be grateful for every day I am given. No, I take that back! May I be grateful for every minute of every day.

“Open your eyes. Look at that.”

I received a Nook Simple Touch (thanks Dan!) for Christmas. I already had an iPad (yes, I have far too many gadgets), but I was finding that reading books on the iPad was making my eyes go bonkers. Of course the first thing I did after setting up my Nook was look for some free books. Even spending a wee bit bugged me. I wanted free, thank you very much!

Then I thought about it.

Hmm. I have a writing friend who thinks all recorded music should be free. He thinks burning CDs for friends should be allowed. While conversing once I suggested that I should just copy books and send them to friends so they didn’t have to buy them. He replied, “That’s different.”

I think I’ll buy some books. Because I’m not sure it’s any different.

BUT, that being said (or written, really), I also found out I can borrow books from our local public library for free. Just as we can borrow CDs from them. The books get “returned” in a certain number of days. I’m not sure how that works. Do they just disappear off the Nook? Guess I’ll find out since I just borrowed one. At the library’s site we are informed that we are not to copy CDs. I’m going to guess my writing friend would go ahead and copy them no matter if he decided he liked what he heard. Burning a CD is much easier than copying a book. So far. (I’m guessing someone will figure out a way to copy a downloaded book before it gets “returned” to the cyber-library in the sky.)

The world is changing. The internet, our computers, digital readers — it’s changed so much — the way we see things, what we value enough to purchase, even the size (not literally, mind you!) of the world. I know things are going to change regarding recorded music and videos. As many already know, I want to be able to view and hear groups I’m in on YouTube and rarely can that happen. I’d love to get a copy (even a snippet) of works I’ve played so I can share a few minutes of that on my blog. Right now, for the most part, I’m unable to do that. Maybe in the next few years that will be different. I hope so.

… can you tell I’m just tossing all of this out without really editing … I really AM just pondering and trying to figure out what’s what …

And then there’s SOPA.

Most (all?) of my friends and acquaintances who are online are opposed to SOPA. The union I belong to favors it (but many of its members do not). My family is definitely anti-SOPA. I’m still trying to figure the whole darn thing out, but I suspect I am with my family as wella as that majority (all?) of friends and acquaintances on this one. (I hope this doesn’t mean I get a spanking from my union or any colleagues in favor of SOPA, though!)

Oh and finally — since I’m in pattyramble™ mode — there’s that little issue with copying sheet music. Hmmm. Guess we won’t get into that for now. That’s a big can ‘o worms, I’m sure!

I’ve really been having a great time here in Hidden Valley Music country. Everyone has been so much fun to work with, and the opera The Gift of the Magi really appeals to me. Tomorrow we have our final performances, and then it’s back home to reality. Or something. I guess true “reality” won’t hit until 2012, when I’m back to teaching and performing.

Maybe I’ll try and get some photos up there tomorrow. Right now I’m hitting the hay. I can’t keep my eyes open any longer!

I finished up with the Symphony Silicon Valley concerts last night. It was quite the busy week, having a “Concital”, two regular symphony sets, and a Chinese oratorio concert (“Ode to the Big Wind” or “Song of the Big Wind” … I’m not sure which is right as I’ve seen it both ways). I have yet to figure out exactly what the Chinese choral concert was about, but it was fun to play, and I had a nice grieving sort of solo in one movement. I love to grieve and whine and all that ….

For me, though, the highlight was Jon Nakamatsu. That man! He’s just such a wonderful musician. And a nice guy. The way he plays astounds me. He is not showy. He doesn’t go for the glitz. He plays with refinement and beauty. There was a chord at the end of one encore that was so incredible and I wonder at how he can manage to get different timbres from the piano. He seems to have a magic touch, but of course we all know it’s more about hard work and talent than it is about magic. What a joy to hear him play.

Now of course I have to whine a wee bit … WHY OH WHY do people leave their phones on ring? Sure enough, at the end of the first encore yesterday someone’s phone went off. (But hey, maybe that’s why he blessed us with a second encore?) But I won’t harp on this for too long. It is what it is. There will always, I suppose, be phones going off now and then. I guess we have to learn to deal. (Grumble, grumble, sigh.)

I am going to post some photos here of the weekend’s work; I realized that rarely do audience members get to see what our backstage looks like, or what we see from where we sit. Sadly I can’t put the ones up that I was most happy with, including photos of some of the Chinese instruments that were played, and the costumes worn by some of the singers. I’m so frustrated: I downloaded all my photos into iPhoto, and they proceeded to get corrupted or disappear all together. I’m still attempting to get them back, but I’m not sure it will be possible. Still, here are a few of our lovely backstage and my view from the stage.

And looking up …

… and now I have ten full days with no rehearsals or performances. What will I do with myself?

Oh … yeah:
Clean the house
Work on reeds
Practice
Teach students
Catch up on errands
Cook a real dinner (much as I dislike doing so!)

And maybe I’ll finally figure out where the photos are that I lost. I think some of them would have been quite nice. Sigh.

The third to last opera is over ‘n out. During the quieter, more sensitive sections I managed to not cough. Only during the second act of Pagliacci did the cough suddenly decide to appear. It was quite awful, really, but it was during the louder sections when I wasn’t missed. Whew!

During the second intermission I met a blog reader. He’s a flutist and studies with a colleague of mine in Symphony Silicon Valley. So to that reader: What fun to meet you … so do drop me a line! And I apologize for not coming up to actually shake your hand, but you wouldn’t want to get near me at this point, what with my cold and all! I’m sorry, too, that I didn’t even really communicate with your friend. Where did my manners go? Ack! I blame the oboe. Or the reed. Or something like that.

Until Friday I pretty much put the oboe away and start preparing our Thanksgiving meal. (Well, I DO have one student tomorrow, which I do look forward to!) For our feast we will have vegan friendly food, vegetarian friendly food, and the traditional fixings as well. As I told a friend, we are “all food-faiths friendly”. ;-)

I’m so looking forward to family and friends on Thursday!