This week I tackled Eb and F on the oboe. Both of these notes, and particularly the transition between the two, are more complicated than I ever anticipated. When will a pattern start appearing in these fingerings? I am awaiting the day.

I have a guess as to why I’m struggling so much: the oboe is traditionally more of an orchestral instrument, less of a wind band instrument. Orchestras more commonly play in sharp keys, while wind bands are very often in flat keys. I’m learning from a beginner band book where they are teaching me Bb major, Eb major and F major, the main keys that concert bands play in, and they are all flat keys. My guess is that, like the violin, the sharp keys have more of a pattern that makes sense and the flat keys are more complicated. I will look into this.

Regarding the internet safety we learned in class this week: all of these videos I am including are on my YouTube account, which I honestly don’t know that much about. I know my YouTube account is linked to my Google account. I know I set all the videos to “unlisted,” which I think means that they can be seen by people I send a link to, but not found by the general public. The other setting I was considering is “private,” but I think that means only I can see them. This is something I should probably look into before I post more YouTube videos of myself. I’m not overly concerned if anyone finds my YouTube videos, because all I have uploaded on there is these oboe videos and some videos of various lessons I taught in my undergrad – nothing that I need to hide.

For your listening pleasure: Lightly Row.