How Oboe Shaper Width Controls Your Reed’s Pitch, Opening, and Scrape I own a large collection of shaper tips, which has given me a lot of hands-on experience experimenting with different oboe shaper widths.. While I enjoy displaying them in my office, they also serve a practical purpose: I use many of them to help…
Oboe Reed Gouging: Understanding Side Thickness for Better Reeds
Oboe Reed Gouging: Understanding Side Thickness for Better Reeds When we find ourselves troubleshooting an oboe reed that leaks, runs flat, or collapses under pressure, our immediate instinct is usually to reach for the scraping knife. But the structural reality of a reed is determined long before we ever tie cane to a staple. It all…
Oboe Reed Scraping for Beginners: A Three-Line Method
Oboe Reed Scraping for Beginners: A Three-Line Method Learning to scrape an oboe reed is often the most intimidating part of becoming an oboist. Many students struggle with knowing where to remove cane and how deep to go. By visualizing the blank reed as a series of distinct, proportional sections, you can move away from…
The Art of the Perfect Wrap: A Step-by-Step Guide to Tying Oboe Reeds
The Art of the Perfect Wrap: A Step-by-Step Guide to Tying Oboe Reeds For every oboe player, the journey from musician to craftsman begins at the tying block. Tying—or binding—your own reeds can feel incredibly daunting at first. You are managing wet cane, high-tension nylon thread, a brass staple, and a mandrel, all while trying…
Reed Knife Sharpening, A Guide For Reed Makers
I am very grateful to be able to share this incredibly helpful sharpening guide with website visitors. Thank you to Daryl Caswell for writing this amazing little reed knife sharpening guide, the oboe community really appreciates you for sharing your great knowledge of sharpening with us. I am especially fortunate to have been given permission…
Review of the Fox-Laubin oboe
Two Great American Oboe Makers Into One; A Review Of The New Fox-Laubin Professional Oboe I recently had the opportunity to try a couple of the new Fox-Laubin oboes. I have been wondering about these instruments since I saw the release on the Fox website months ago. Being a long-time fan of everything Laubin since…
An Introduction To Breath Support For Oboists.
What is breath support/Air support? Recently, I had a brief interaction with a young oboist on the IDRS Facebook page about feeling discomfort while playing the oboe. The conversation went into the topic of breath support and how to breathe properly into the oboe. I spend a lot of time thinking about this topic since…
Avoid the double reed making rut
How to Escape a Reed Making Rut We oboists and double reed players, in general, must deal with temperamental reeds made from organic material. What works great one month may not work at all the next. These periods of frustration, commonly known to oboists as a reed making rut, are fairly natural but can be…
The Internal dimension of double reeds.
The Inside story of the double reed. Understanding how the internal dimensions of a double reed affects its playing qualities. An oboist recently wrote to me with some questions about shaper tip dimensions and what qualities different shapes affect. I watched my mind start chattering away about how the shaper tip affects different qualities of…
oboe reed intonation introduction.
Evaluating intonation in oboe reeds. The ability for a musician to play in tune with other instrumentalists is an important ability no matter what level they are at. While many instruments can be adjusted to play better in tune by changing either the length of the instrument, or string tension, the oboe must be tuned…
