Embouchure, part 2

As promised in the last entry,  here is a continuation of the topic of the oboe embouchure. 

Today I'm sharing some exercises that I give to students to develop embouchure function and flexibility.  These exercises are suitable for young players,  but I often use this as review for my young college students and for students learning oboe pedagogy.

Four-Step Process to Forming a Great Oboe Embouchure

            1.Bring your lips together is if whistling. 

            

            When whistling, the lips are drawn together in a rounded position that is slightly in front of the teeth. The chin is flat and the sides of the lips are drawn together. Another way to think about this is to mimic the sound of an owl:  Whooo-whooo. 

 

            2. Now, imagine your lips are creating an inverted whistle. 

             

            The lips will be formed as if whistling, but are now also slightly drawn inward. Be careful that you do not bring the jaw forward at the same time.

3. Place the oboe reed (without the oboe) on the bottom lip. 

            

            Only the VERY tip should be inserted just past the red, soft, fleshy area of the inner lip.

           4.  Surround the reed with your lips to create an airtight seal and blow through the reed.  
          
            Think of the lips as a cushion and support for the reed. The lips should never suffocate the reed, because the reed still needs to vibrate freely. When you begin blowing through the reed, the embouchure should gently hold and support the reed.

Encourage your students to try to whistle!

---OR---

Hoo!  Hoo! 

Remind young players that by imitating the sound of an owl,  they are creating a great oboe embouchure. Keep observing your student's embouchure development over weeks and even months and years! Make sure they bring the corners of the lips together, keep the chin flat and drawn down, and have no puffy cheeks or air pockets in the lower or upper lips.

                                                        

                                                        

The following are exercises that (mostly) can be played on the reed alone.  Perfect for beginning players, but also useful for when a young student's oboe is in the shop for repair!

C! C! C! Exercises

1     1. Place your lips on the thread portion of the reed and blow (your lips should NOT be    
        touching the cane). The pitch sound, or “crow” should be the pitch C.

       2.  Second, form your embouchure around the very tip of the reed and create the exact  pitch that sounded with step 1. This exercise is often quite difficult for students.  If they haven't been using enough embouchure support before,  they will first produce a VERY FLAT pitch.  Encourage the student to use bring the corners together and possibly close the lips together more.

      3.  Next, put the reed on the oboe and play a C (third space, treble clef) with the same embouchure as in step 2. If the embouchure is correctly formed,  then the note should be in tune.

______________

Once a student feels comfortable with the 3 Cs exercise above,  we explore embouchure flexibility.  This flexibility is incredibly important for developing accurate pitch and response in the lower and upper registers.

Flexibility Exercises on the Reed Alone:

     1. Say “EEEEEEEEE”

Form your embouchure around your reed and begin blowing. Next, while blowing position your embouchure to say “EEEEE.” The pitch of the reed should go up.

    2.Say “OOOOOOOOOOH”

Form your embouchure around your reed and begin blowing. Next, while blowing position your embouchure to say “OOOOH.” The pitch of the reed should go down.

    

             3.Say “EEEEE---OOOOOOH”

Alternate between “EEEE” and “OOOOH” sounds.  It might sound like a sliding kazoo.  Discover the highest and lowest notes that you can play.  Can you play a short song such as “Three Blind Mice,” “Row Row, Row, Your Boat,” or even “Yankee Doodle”?

Practicing this sort of flexibility will be important for playing the oboe.  Low notes need more of an “OOOO” embouchure,  and higher notes need more of an “EEEE” embouchure.

For HOMEWORK:

1.    Memorize: the Four-Step Process for Forming a Great Oboe Embouchure

(With a short quiz in the next lesson)

2.     Practice the C!C!C!  Exercises at home for 5 minutes each day.
       This will help you build a really great embouchure.

3.    Practice the Flexibility Exercises on the Reed Alone for 5 minutes each day.  This will help you build embouchure flexibility and endurance.
4.   In our next lesson,  you will perform a short melody that you've learned on the reed alone.

4.    Write down any questions that you have so you remember to discuss them in our next lesson.


That's all for today.  I'd love to hear from you and know how you work with your own students!


Oboe and out,


Dr. G, The Oboist

Embouchure

My inspiring undergraduate teacher, Marc Lifschey,  used to say, "all we have to play the oboe is our air and our embouchure.  That's all!"  I mostly agree, so today I'd like to explore the embouchure as it relates to oboe playing. I hope you find this helpful in your own thinking and for your teaching.  Please feel to write comments below!  I'd very much like to hear about your oboe embouchure-related perspectives and ideas!



First,  embouchure is a term that describes the formation of the lips and facial muscles that surround the reed in order to play the oboe.  The embouchure is one of the most important components to playing  oboe with stable pitch, a range of dynamics, and a full tone.

Some characteristics of a good oboe embouchure:

• The lips should surround the reed like an inverted whistle with an airtight seal.
• Teeth should never come in contact with the reed--lips act as a cushion between the teeth and the reed.
• The embouchure should maintain a rounded feeling at all times. Like whistling, the lips should be  firm but not tense.
• Flexibility is a key element to a great oboe embouchure (thank you,  Mr. Lifschey!).  For example,  when playing large intervals the embouchure must be supple enough to relax or tighten appropriately to allow notes to speak easily with good intonation.
• A successful embouchure permits beautiful, resonant tone quality at any dynamic level (I learned this from studies with Elaine Douvas).
• No puffy cheeks or air "pillows" in the lower lip--allow the facial muscles to form directly around the gums and teeth.

Examine the diagram of facial muscles below. It is taken from a book every musician should have,  What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body by Barbara and Benjamin Conable (Columbus: Andover Press, 1998).  Take some time to study the illustration carefully. Then go to a mirror. look at your facial construction and consider which muscles are used to play the oboe.

Teaching Students to Form an Oboe Embouchure:

The purpose of this exercise is to teach students how to form an embouchure. I've found this to be a useful step-by-step process that helps a student understand what a successful embouchure should feel like. The muscles used to form an oboe embouchure are similar to whistling, and it is convenient to use this as a starting point for discussing how an embouchure is formed. It is NOT important if the student can actually whistle or not; the purpose of the following exercise is simply to help them explore how to form the lips and facial muscles into a position that is similar to whistling.

1. Ask the student to bring their lips together is if whistling. When whistling, the lips are drawn together in a rounded position that is slightly in front of the teeth. The chin is flat and the sides of the lips are drawn together. If the student has trouble with the idea of whistling,  ask them to mimic the sound of an owl:  Whooo-whooo. 
2. Now,  ask the student to imagine their lips are creating an inverted whistle, The lips will be formed as if whistling,  but are now also slightly drawn inward. Be careful that the student does not bring the jaw forward at the same time.
3. Next, have the student place the oboe reed (without the oboe) on the bottom lip. Only the VERY tip should be inserted just past the red, soft, fleshy area of the inner lip.
4. Have the student surround the reed with their lips to create an airtight seal.  Think of the lips as a cushion and support for the reed. The lips should never suffocate the reed,  because the reed still needs to vibrate freely. When the student begins blowing through the reed,  the embouchure should gently hold and support the reed.

Encourage your student to notice how the embouchure is brought together to surround the reed. Have the student visualize the rounded, gathering motion of pulled purse strings. Direct the student to always think of the embouchure as having a rounded feeling with a flat chin instead of just applying pressure between a top and bottom lip.

For young students,  think up fun exercises that reinforce the formation of a good oboe embouchure.   One fun embouchure building activity is to blow bubbles through a straw. The same rounded position of the lips needed for playing oboe is employed with the straw. This is particularly  great with malts and milkshakes as it also builds air support and air focus skills! Even my college students meet at a local ice cream shop once a year for studio bonding and to reinforce good embouchure development skills. Another activity is to blow up a balloon--the lips must stay rounded and seal the balloon as a large amount of focused air is used to blow up the balloon. I'm interested in what fun activities you use with your students!

Stay tuned for the next installment, when I present some exercises and tests for learning embouchure function. Please feel free to submit comments below.

Oboe and out,

Christa