NMC Learning at Home: Saxophonist Tries the Oboe

Is there anything Evan the Educator isn't willing to play? The answer is no. In this episode, he dips his toes into a category of instruments that he's never tried until now: double reeds. Learn the difference between single and double reeds and why it's challenging for a single reed player to transition to a double reed. Watch a saxophonist (single reed) take on the oboe (double reed) and see how he does. Maybe you'll be inspired to pick up a new instrument yourself?
To try out the spectrogram in this video, go here: bit.ly/363KzOU
Special thanks to the Rozsa Foundation and Calgary Foundation for their support of the NMC Learning at Home series.
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0:00 Introduction
0:45 Day 1 - First Notes
1:11 Reed
1:52 Assembly
2:55 Sound
3:27 Day 2 - Fingers
4:25 Articulating
5:10 Day 3 - Timbre
6:28 Day 4 - Final Thoughts

[@nicstar1001]

me as an oboe player literally in SHOCK that he was able to play so well in the first few days. Congrats👏

[@er7586]

My son did about the same as this guy in 2 days with the Oboe. He went to get 1 lesson and the teacher told my son he was already 1 year ahead of anyone that starts the Oboe. He also plays piano, flute, Piccolo, alto flute and violin

[@averypark2210]

I know! Some people are just naturally good though 😅

[@nicstar1001]

@@er7586 damn! thats cool

[@jthev]

I'm not a he, I'm a she.

[@jthev]

​@@er7586 Well, that's not a surprise as the lower register fingerings for the flute pretty much match those of the oboe. All my pre-oboe instruments involved keyboards: started on the piano at age 4, accordion about age 9, then organ fairly soon after that. Plus I was super motivated-oboe was my dream instrument. Koodos to your son, E R. I'd call him a musical genius! I've been thinking of getting an ocarina or a violin. I eventually picked up a flute and dabbled with it a bit but that ocarina currently is calling my name louder than the violin.

[@musicianwren9248]

"I can safely say I have never mastered an instrument. Where my skill lies is playing many instruments kinda alright (not badly)." This is so relatable ....

[@PracticaProphetica]

I'm totally in that tribe also!

[@InternetUtopia]

Just a note: Unlike in other reed instruments, if the tune is a little off on your oboe, you do not move the reed, but you adjust your embouchure and how much of the reed you have in your mouth.

[@Svartr.HrafnSvartr]

Elementary school, grade 7 - after a couple years learning the recorder, we had to list three 'real' instruments to learn in order of preference. I listed Flute, Clarinet, and Oboe (I couldn't buzz for the life of me, so all brass instruments were out). I desperately wanted to play the Flute and was completely devastated when I was given The Sick Duck. I suffered for two years until I was allowed to switch to Flute in secondary school and kept Oboe as a secondary instrument. It was then my appreciation for it grew immensely. It IS one of the most beautiful, sorrowed voices in an orchestra when the player dedicates the time to master it. I love it now. I might even rent one just to get lost in some memories... and annoy the absolute fuzz-knuckles out of the neighbours!

[@AmiTVerma-to3vn]

This man is hilarious 🤣🤣 that desert island joke 🤣🤣🤣

[@b3thebee]

I play flute, oboe and alto saxophone in my schools ensembles currently and I have to say that he definitely seems like a fast learner since he was able to do better than most in just a few days

[@Aaron-Qman]

He's clearly a mad music scientist having figured out many other instruments prior to the oboe haha👨🏻‍🔬🎺🎹🎸🎻

[@jacoblmao]

as an alto sax that switched to oboe i’m very impressed, i couldn’t make a sound when i first started 😭😭

[@EllissDee4you4me]

The trick with the oboe is to roll the reed in a little and use your lips to ever so slightly cover/choke your sound. Kind like turning the volume down from 10 to about 8. This helps to tame the harsh overtones and the lowered volume gives you control over the sound. The oboe can be loud but it sounds best when played around the middle of its dynamic range.

[@Marley791]

As an oboe player( for 1 year) he did really well considering this is his first time!❤

[@dees3179]

He plays reeds already and a lot of the fingers are the same. I play all the woodwind, that’s possible because there are an insane amounts of transferable skills.

[@brookewilke2516]

You should start with the Bb scale it’s usually the first one you learn

[@evantheeducator4075]

Nice tip. Thanks!

[@megustapancafe]

Yup I’m learning that

[@Weavileiscool]

I started with D because the fingerings were more straightforward. It is harder though to play the low notes at first.

[@nick_culhane]

I recommend G major for the first week or so, it's the easiest scale of all of them

[@jthev]

My first day in high school, I walked into the band room and said I wanted to play the oboe...and...and...they rolled out the red carpet. No one ever willingly wanted to pay the oboe. But I did and loved it. It was my fourth instrument and my first that didn't involve a keyboard (the Melodica didn't count). I had always wanted to be an oboist, but my family could never afford to buy one, not even a "student" quality instrument. The school had loaner instruments, thank goodness, so my career as an oboist began.

[@Mallyjams]

dude i was gonna choose oboe but i went with mallet percussion instead, and as i already know everything about it as a piano player im so bored sometimes.. this year im going to try out the oboe and i appreciate the challenge, and that i get to suffer with the woodwinds + saxophones instead of just sitting there watching them suffer!

[@uncaiculated8437]

This is actually really good because I currently play the saxophone and I've been thinking of switching to the oboe

[@eemc28]

I play it, it’s pretty fun but the reeds can be pricy

[@guillaumec1636]

@@eemc28 that's why most players eventually learn how to craft the reeds themselves

[@eemc28]

@Guillaume C my mom said she would teach me over the summer but she forgot

[@lesliefranklin1870]

As a clarinet player who tried the oboe, the reed tickles my upper lip, and the air pressure is much higher.

[@eemc28]

@@lesliefranklin1870 yea it does tickle at first but then you get used to it

[@lulu_rau9323]

This is the best video I have seen of the process of playing oboe it’s so accurate and funny!

[@marcusdekker]

I think your video's are great!!! Great content, great deliverance. Well done!!

[@damianhei5555]

That's so amazing for a few days! That's about how well I did when I first started oboe (I've been playing for about half a year), and it's the hardest instrument I've learned so far. I started in clarinet, then moved to majoring oboe, then learned alto and soprano sax.

[@moonwalker_jackson5536]

he learned more than i learned in a year lol

[@thevosk15]

That is me right now, I come from playing soprano sax, now I am the only oboist in the concert band rn. Plus that's exactly the same model and the same brand of reed with the same green thread I had when I rented it at the music store before getting the oboe from the school.

[@artemi-music]

thanks for this experiment, it was fun to watch

[@jacobsmithjr]

You remind me of myself years ago when I started learning oboe as a sax player. lol I was in the military band and now I know how my fellow barack mates felt hearing me practice. lol

[@michaelshelley1289]

i LOVE the oboe!!! i have one but my octave key is sticking and i can't seem to fix it, so it sits in the closet while I play other instruments. Wish I could play it!

[@imemibb]

i played saxophone previously, but over the summer i decided i wanted to switch to oboe :)

[@wilhelmbeck8498]

Hilarious combination of really useful information - and humour. 10 stars out of 10. ( Still, at outro, it could be nice to hear the Oboe played by someone experienced - like fx. full orchestral versions of the melodies used in the video

[@jasonandrews8587]

LMAO I wish I had you as my music teacher growing up :) very funny and informative video

[@FlocksGaming]

But as an oboe player very amazed on how fast you learned it

[@NeilABliss]

For a breif period of time Conn made an oboe specifically for doubling....it was designed to use Saxophone fingering. Finding one would be hard...but.....a doubling saxophonist is a working saxophonist.

[@MakaiMauka]

Bravo

[@Weavileiscool]

The first time I played the oboe my brain told me it was a Bb instrument because it’s sound is so different from what I’m used to. Then I played it with strings and it sounded closer to the string players’ notes when I played an octave above them than in the same octave.

[@michaelg9344]

Funny. Oboe and saxophone can sound indistinguishable at a coinciding range. I bought a VENOVA by Yamaha. A synthesized sax for $99, Try one!

[@michaelg9344]

No. It's not electronic, synthetic by structure that gives a simulation of a ssx.

[@KittKatPawz]

I was a Flute player - was asked to try the oboe in HS; I couldn’t play it due to feeling like I was holding my breath when I tried to play. I was so used to using so much air with my flute that I couldn’t handle it unfortunately. 😢

[@bobjacobson858]

I enjoyed this video very much! This morning I won an eBay auction for a Larilee oboe that's listed as a "good fixerupper" for $70. I also play many other instruments, having started on clarinet decades ago, then bass clarinet and then double bass--but then a couple years ago I decided to take up brass, so now I have almost a dozen brass instruments of all sizes, and then have added a few other woodwinds, such as "contra-alto" clarinet and an Albert-system soprano clarinet. I obtained a flute last week, but I'm having trouble getting a good solid tone, and holding the instrument to my side seems very awkward, so I expect to get acclimated to the oboe more quickly. (I found getting used to brass instruments to be very easy.) Your initial playing reminded me of how I still sound when trying to play my Chinese suona, which uses a small double reed. I also have a hulusi (Chinese gourd flute) whose reed is internal. BTW I also have an old alto saxophone (my now-deceased mother's school instrument) that needs news pads, but which I would also like to learn to play.

[@PracticaProphetica]

We're very similar...must belong to the same tribe. I started with Accordion as a child, then went to Guitar (incl. Electric, then Acoustic, Classical, Twelve String), then to Mandolin, Octave Mandolin, Mandola, then to Recorders (something we learn in School), then other Renaissance instruments (Dulcian, Crumhorn, Rackett, Chalumeaux), dabbled with a small harp, plucked dulcimer, cello, then on to bagpipes (not Scottish, just smallpipes, cornamuse, etc.), and lately into the Chinese instruments (Hulusi, Bawu, Dizi, Xiao, Guanzi, ZhongRuan, Erhu), and now into band instruments (flute, picollo, clarinets of many keys, pocket trumpet). I'll never be a master of any of these (closest to being mastered would be guitar), but if I can play a few simple tunes, it is most satisfying!

[@bobjacobson858]

@@PracticaProphetica Yes, it's great to encounter another who shares similar interests. Since my original comment, I've gained a French horn, mellophonium (a rather short-lived brass instrument sold by Conn), an old valve trombone and then a bass trombone. Because many of my instruments are similar, I can switch from one to the other quite easily (and often play the same music on each, or occasionally different parts of the same music--and I've thought of learning how to "overlap" them). I also have my grandfather's Gibson mandolin somewhere which I'll eventually get around to playing. Years ago, I had thought of getting a sitar, but there are other instruments I would rather have, such as an alto clarinet and a bass clarinet, and possibly an Eb tuba (preferably 4-valved). You mentioned different pitches of clarinets--an Eb would be fun to play. I've thought the Gibson harp-guitar is an interesting instrument, but I'm not serious enough to buy one. One of my "ultimate" choices would be a contrabass or a subcontrabass saxophone, but they are quite rare and very expensive--and I would "feel guilty" spending that much money on one; at least I should learn to play the alto sax before even considering it! I have a good Chinese friend who plays erhu and have accompanied her on my clarinet, although she lives of the other side of the country which limits the opportunities. There's a recorder around the house that I believe my nephew had taken up at one point, but my sister claims she wants it. I also have a flutophone and a few "song flutes" and have found their range from low C up to high D actually allows one to play quite a few songs that aren't "for children"--such as the Chinese national anthem "Qi Lai" and the hymn "Nas Moradas Do Senhor"--if I could have played these pieces on the flutophone during my 3rd grade class, it would have made quite an impression. I hope you continue to have fun with your instruments, and I hope you can keep in touch!

[@suzyinstitches273]

I’m very similar. I play lots of instruments, none of them particularly well.😊

[@chachaman4980]

What a riot! 😂

[@OfficialCreepers]

As an oboe prodigy, i can confirm that he is on the same path

[@Joodster]

I played clarinet but wanted to play oboe. I asked the band director about it and....I came home with a bassoon. Not exactly what I had in mind. But going from a single reed to a double wasn't that hard on a bassoon-sized reed.

[@arthurfunk3104]

"Remember kids, don't run while you oboe." That would explain the lack of oboes in marching bands, and why the sarrousaphone never caught on.

[@FlocksGaming]

I have played the oboe for 3 years

[@paulperez2005]

Hey, how do you know about El chavo del ocho? Don't think that I didn't hear that opening song

[@ethanroggendorff6992]

I’m sure that if the reed was just the one he got from the instrument store it’s probably not a good one

[@allanjmcpherson]

Yeah, that looks like an Emerald. They're the cheapest of the cheap.

[@DrQuizzler]

Interesting to watch a sax guy try an oboe. Clearly you've been successfully trying and learning instruments, so you have the learning methodology down. Your rental Selmer was student model, because it lacked a low B flat, a key which extends to the bell. Ideally the reed should "crow" a high C, which yours did on a few tries. You played a middle D with your left index finger off the key. It's actually played with the "half-hole" uncovered but the finger still on the key. Rental student horns usually have substandard sound quality. I had a Selmer Signet model, which had every key except the left hand F. I started one summer studying the sax, but I sounded like Lucy Ricardo. Out of curiosity, I switched mid-summer to the oboe, and that was a much better fit, I got pretty good at it. My oboe era quite a few summers behind me nowadays, I have my EWI set to oboe fingerings.

[@tristan3141]

Interesting. I’m an oboe player who had to switch to EWI after 30 years when I developed an allergy to the reeds (now back on oboe on Legere plastic reeds - highly recommended). I couldn’t cope with the oboe fingering on the EWI as the slight differences messed with my brain (forked F every time? No thanks). I much preferred the EWI standard fingerings as I could just switch my brain into EWI mode and it seemed to cope much better (once I’d worked out the C/Eb swap on RH little finger). I play middle D as he did with finger off - it sounds better than half hole on my oboe. Regarding the video, I get how someone could learn the fingerings in 4 days, especially if already proficient on sax, but it was seriously impressive to have an even halfway decent tone in such a short time. I did notice that the reed looked like it wasn’t pushed in far enough, certainly on day 1; fixing that might improve the tone even more.

[@emmanuelsanchez9532]

Congratulations 🎉you did very well!! The oboe is one of those instruments, that needs a good quality instrument, at least a wooden bore, for it to achieve the beautiful characteristic sound of the instrument, or at least close to it. Otherwise even with a good reed, it’s going to sound plastic.

[@loralou-djflowerdove]

If Woody Allen, Bob Denver, and Tom Servo had a baby...❤ Love this guy.

[@therealericrazdik]

The fact that he could actually play relatively well (albeit not very in tune at all) by the fourth day was genuinely surprising. Also god no literally never pull your reed out of the instrument. Its all about embouchure on the oboe.

[@zenitzoo7307]

Funny, I have that exact reed, exact case, exact oboe, exact whatever but it’s just the same model

[@mantistoboggan2676]

The trouble with woodwinds is usually in producing the nice tones.

[@AnthropogenicInversion]

I love your vids

[@codyxz7685]

how in tarnation can he play that 6:11

[@ianboard544]

Would make a decent duck call.

[@desamansamarasinghe1280]

Is oboe blowing harder than saxophone and Clarinet please tell me ???

[@LegoCityFilms]

YES IT IS

[@sharlottedevere3009]

Much more pressure, but less volume of air will 'fit' through the opening of the reed and the bore of the instrument - so it is "harder" but actually uses less air.

[@melanieelizalde4045]

Don’t run while you oboe!!!

[@ellooku]

If you did not laugh in the warm-ups, you need therapy time.

[@ivandasty277]

I put a blanket on myself each time I tried to play my first oboe for at least 3 mount ! Why ? Ask my family !

[@annoyingcorgi9864]

When you can’t march with oboe.... Oboist tried the saxophone

[@MrNewSkin]

The guy of the 8

[@elliotbryant3459]

hold up. Now what I really need to know is how I turn my microbrute into an accordion!

[@Skitdora2010]

Not a single sound byte of the beautiful playing the oboe produces was put into this video. If you listen to the most beautiful film scores and classical music you will hear the most heart breaking and angelic parts played by oboe soloists, sometimes by the English horn cousin. In Gabriel's Oboe from The Mission, for instance, they featured the oboe and a beautiful solo written just for the instrument by Ennio Morricone. That 3 and a half stars should be for your playing of the oboe, not for the instrument itself. kzbin.info/www/bejne/poXWmqeFabmLfJo

[@qwaqwa1960]

I have a baroque oboe for sale...just sayin'.

[@marklane8925]

Aint No way he put cork grease on the reed😆😆😆

[@lizzieburau9659]

No! You do do that so the cork doesn't dry out and your reed doesn't get stuck!!

[@untitledensemble]

3.5 stars?!??! Harsh!

[@Dmoll]

I played oboe, it just wasn't for me. Did it for 9 years, did my grade 8, etc. Beautiful instrument, but I couldn't stand the pressure to be outstanding- I also personally didn't enjoy playing it, so I took up saxophone instead. My primary instrument is now the soprano sax, and I love it with all my heart. Oboe is beautiful, just not for me!

[@kazielbonn]

I was born in 1984, and only now, after watching this video have I learned how to whistle. WTF?

[@Mending6770]

i think Bb major is the easiest on the oboe as a oboe player myself

[@katechambers3302]

Such a bad reed you have and the sound… oooh bad. But good PR for the oboe and teaching people about the oboe, so thanks! Take a lesson though. Double reeds are totally different and to get a good tone you really need a good handmade reed and some basic instruction.

[@kookie_dow2690]

I find it super easy to play double reeds, but for the life of me I can’t play a single reed.

[@squirtgun9290]

5 MINUTES?!?!?!!?😂😭

[@chrishickory7907]

Should of played all of Funkytown Why don't you take me to Funkytown!

[@deaths4241]

2:39 oboists dont breathe

[@FlocksGaming]

You not supposed to put cork grease on your reed cork

[@clinomanian]

Y’all rule one, never put cork grease on any type of reed.

[@Lindoten]

just 3,5 stars.... =[

[@spvcko]

NO NOT 5 MINUTES😭😭😭

[@emmareeves1853]

Dude did you not watch a video of someone putting together and oboe????? You are not supposed to put cork Greece on the reeds cork.

[@evantheeducator4075]

No I didn't. I was flying blind! What problems might it cause?

[@gabrieldietz5315]

Uh, yeah you are, but okay.

[@concept1248]

@@evantheeducator4075 trust me sometimes the reed needs a bit of grease, if it’s got bad cork on it it is way too difficult to get out

[@_beazus_]

you usually do- mostly if the cork is extremely dry (usually during the winter) or a new store bought reed, otherwise it’s extremely difficult to get it out. (i’m an oboe player)

[@_beazus_]

@@evantheeducator4075 it doesn’t usually, as long as you don’t use too much cork grease, it won’t cause any problems :) (from an oboe player)

[@lamaspacos]

Very Bad