Erin Teaches Music

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Category: EdTech Inquiry

Final Inquiry Project Post: Minuet

December 2, 2019 / / 0 Comments

It was at this point I realized I had bitten off a little more than I could chew. This is a great metaphor because my jaw genuinely hurts now after learning this piece.

I won’t lie: my performance here isn’t excellent. It is, however, the best I could do, so I’m still going to try to be proud of it. The patterns I talked about in a previous post make a lot of sense when you’re playing a scale, but they aren’t helpful when you’re playing an actual piece of music (especially one with eighth notes in it).

Despite its challenges, I’m really happy I chose to learn this instrument as part of my inquiry this semester. It is the only instrument that I haven’t immediately been able to figure out after picking it up, and I genuinely enjoyed the challenge. I went from having no knowledge of double reeds to being able to play three scales and everything in the first Standard of Excellence method book. That’s an achievement! I feel confident that I will now be able to help out any beginner oboe students that I may have in my future.

Farewell oboe, it’s been fun. For your final listening pleasure: Minuet.

 

 

Inquiry Project: F Major Scale

December 2, 2019 / / 0 Comments

We’re almost there, folks: my adventure with the oboe is nearly over.

The mistake I made on this day is that I decided it was a good idea to learn the F major scale AND my piece on the same day. It made so much sense in my head – the piece I wanted to play was in the key of F, so I theoretically should have been able to handle both of them at the same time. Boy was I mistaken. By the time I got through learning the scale, I was already exhausted, and then I had an entire piece to learn after. My face is very sore.

Enjoy: F Major.

 

Inquiry Project: Eb Major Scale

December 2, 2019 / / 0 Comments

I am almost at my goal of learning three scales and a piece on this instrument. Something that was nice this time around is that the Eb major scale, for beginner band purposes, is lower than the Bb major scale, which I found to be much easier. The back pressure wasn’t as bad in the lower notes.

Now that I’m learning more of the instrument, I’m beginning to see the patterns of the fingerings. It is reminding me more and more of flute the more I learn on it. I’m beginning to understand why middle school band teachers will move their best flute players to the oboe.

For your listening pleasure: the Eb Major scale.

 

Inquiry Project: Midterm

October 14, 2019 / / 0 Comments

The concert Bb major scale: the one that made me second guess everything.

We’re about halfway through the semester, and that means I should be about halfway through tackling this instrument that I have chosen. I don’t think I can quite say that with confidence yet, but I can get through the concert Bb scale. This is generally where kids end up after a year of band, so for me to do it in four weeks is some sort of accomplishment, at least.

I won’t lie, this video isn’t perfect. The higher notes on this instrument are incredibly difficult, and it took me several tries to get a recording that was in any way passable. I have been collecting the outtakes to compile later as a way to fondly remember this experience – maybe I will post them at the end of this project.

For your listening pleasure: the concert Bb major scale.

Inquiry Project: The First Five Notes

October 12, 2019 / / 0 Comments

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.

 

September 27, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Hello and welcome to my personal inquiry project. I have chosen to dive head-first into the world of double reeds and learn to play the oboe. Now, you might ask, why would I do this to myself? The answer is pretty straight forward: the double reed instruments (oboe, bassoon and English horn) are currently the only band instruments that I don’t feel confident that I could pick up and play at any given time. In order to be the best band teacher I can be, it’s time for me to figure out these mysterious creatures.

My goal for week one of this project was to pick up an oboe, put it together, and just make a sound on the instrument. I have since learned that oboes are terribly expensive to rent, and essentially unreasonable to purchase, but since it’s for the children I went ahead and rented one anyways.

Now that I have an oboe in my possession, the first challenge was putting the thing together. I have learned that oboes have not one, but two bridge keys, and unlike clarinet there is no way to lift them while putting the instrument together to prevent damage. You just have to be really, really delicate when putting the thing together. The one I rented is also relatively new, so the corks are a bit stubborn – basically putting it together was the most stressful part of my first oboe experience because I was so afraid of breaking it as I forced all the pieces together.

When I am instructing beginners on any instrument, I get them to make a sound on their mouthpiece first before putting it into the instrument, so with the oboe I started with the reed. If anyone was wondering what that sounds like:

After playing around with the reed a little bit, I put it into the instrument and made some sounds. None of them were pretty, and I’m fairly certain there’s something not quite right about my embouchure because it hurts if I play for more than five minutes. I will check back next week where I attempt the first three notes of the Bb major scale.

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