I'm going to try and keep this post short. My current top priorities at this exact second are get warm and go to sleep, neither of which I can do while writing this.
Anyway, today went all right musically. I got a little less practice than I would have liked (by maybe a 20 minute margin), but my embouchure and right hand - specifically, thumb - were quite sore and more than willing to call it a day.
For once, I actually attempted to make reeds. But, this was somewhat thwarted: only one piece of the two canes I soaked for an hour plus was an oboe cane. I made that reed; all turned out fine. The other, which was English horn cane, I attempted to make. This went less successfully, as it was poorly shaped (doubtlessly my own doing from a while back) and there wasn't a hope in the world that it would seal. You could literally see into the reed, no matter how even you tried to close the sides.
Enough technical talk, though. I don't have much else to go on; I still haven't found my quintet music, I still haven't found my cigarette paper, my thumb still feels like it wants to die whenever I play horn for too long, I'm still trying to make any one of my oboe reeds an actually decent reed. (This is an exaggeration, mind you: I can play fine on nearly any one of the ones I have in my case at the moment; none of them are what I would call "perfect", though.) The one I played on today completely wiped out my embouchure in a matter of a half hour, at maximum. I managed to pull through for nearly an hour, but by that time I gave up and said "to heck with this". Nearly literally, too; I probably did, as I talk to myself incessantly, but I don't quite remember.
All I can say is thank God for the fact that English horn reeds generally last a long time. I've been playing on this one literally since before All-State, and it's only now just beginning to show its age.
Anyway, today went all right musically. I got a little less practice than I would have liked (by maybe a 20 minute margin), but my embouchure and right hand - specifically, thumb - were quite sore and more than willing to call it a day.
For once, I actually attempted to make reeds. But, this was somewhat thwarted: only one piece of the two canes I soaked for an hour plus was an oboe cane. I made that reed; all turned out fine. The other, which was English horn cane, I attempted to make. This went less successfully, as it was poorly shaped (doubtlessly my own doing from a while back) and there wasn't a hope in the world that it would seal. You could literally see into the reed, no matter how even you tried to close the sides.
Enough technical talk, though. I don't have much else to go on; I still haven't found my quintet music, I still haven't found my cigarette paper, my thumb still feels like it wants to die whenever I play horn for too long, I'm still trying to make any one of my oboe reeds an actually decent reed. (This is an exaggeration, mind you: I can play fine on nearly any one of the ones I have in my case at the moment; none of them are what I would call "perfect", though.) The one I played on today completely wiped out my embouchure in a matter of a half hour, at maximum. I managed to pull through for nearly an hour, but by that time I gave up and said "to heck with this". Nearly literally, too; I probably did, as I talk to myself incessantly, but I don't quite remember.
All I can say is thank God for the fact that English horn reeds generally last a long time. I've been playing on this one literally since before All-State, and it's only now just beginning to show its age.
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