Cooper Wright Reeds | blog

C series oboe

Saturday April 12 2008

I sent off my oboe to Mr. Weber to get checked up and have been playing on this CL series Loree. This is my first time spending a lot of time with a fabled “C series oboe“ and its really surprising to me how different my reeds need to be for this instrument. Mr. Weber has a C series oboe but he’s reamed it out a bazillion times and so I’m not even sure you could call it any series anymore; it’s just a Weber series.

My reeds for the C series are bordering on 70-71, with not much definition at all. The top notes (side octave) feel slightly blown out and so I’m forced to build reeds that I can continue blowing a lot into, but maintain focus and stability. My reeds are much thicker and heavier, and comparing my reeds for this baby to the reeds I would have made for my Royal, I seriously wonder if its possible to make reeds “for the general census”. Instruments are too different, and unless you have a remotely similar feeling instrument, a reed is always going to come up a bit lacking.

The C series oboe is doing some very nice things for my playing. It’s giving me a lot of flexibility and sparkle in the sound. In fact, Friday in rehearsal my orchestra conductor gave me the highest praise he has all year, saying “That oboe solo was just perfect. The dynamic, the direction, don’t change it!” The man doesn’t dish out compliments, so I was very honored by his words.

The other major different is the C series is making me use my air with more flexibility. I really have to vary my airstream a lot, whereas with the Royal I just blew and blew and blew. Since it’s a bit blown out in the top joint, I have to change my airstream that much more. The overall results are a heightened consciousness of what I’m doing with the my body and the instrument.

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