D'oh, of COURSE!

December 9, 2011
I've been having a lot of reed problems lately, a lot of failed reeds, a lot of unresponsive or hopelessly flat, hopelessly sharp, hopelessly ugly....basically everything was All WRONG and I could NOT for the life of me figure out WHY.

So I took out my old india oil stone and sharpened my knife, then honed it on my ceramic sticks. 

I've only had about an hour of reedmaking time since then and I already have two very promising new reeds. Why is it that I'm always thinking it can't be my knife??

During the time I was avoiding reedmaking due to frustration I had a chance to look at some old photos and read a little of the wonderful Oboe Reed Styles by David Ledet.  Noticing the horrid notch in my old knife and looking at some of the hacked and slashed reeds of professional players from around the world I gradually came to the tentative conclusion that maybe I should have a look at my current knife. The obvious answer is always the hardest one to find.

I had a wonderful time playing at the Prophouse cafe on Tuesday as well! We actually made it through the Britten Phantasy quartet! (we did stop and start a bit, but it was still great!) I'll have to think very carefully about what sort of concert and venue I want to eventually perform that one in for the future. I've promised the string players to bring the Mozart Oboe Quartet for next time...yikes! What have I gotten myself into?!?! Haha. It' s definitely good for me. 
 

December goes by like lightning

December 3, 2011
December is always a hectic month, doubly so if you're a musician. Add a little vitamin D deficiency to that and you have some trouble. I've been taking my vitamins, getting out skiing and playing soccer in an attempt to drive off the winter blues and it's been pretty darn effective this season!

I've never held with the mono-focused approach to music, and strongly believe that a full life adds to one's musicality and worth as a person. I'm loving the amount of other people's live music I'm get...
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Pre-show Babblings

November 22, 2011
One day away from the big OperaFeHk show. It's nice to be mostly just playing and not worrying so much about the logistics. Our Stage manager, Krista, is doing a great job.

The only thing that's really difficult is being part of the "Megabeth" monster. The idea behind the piece is rooted in the (often tragic) combination of Ego and lack of ability that, as musicians, we constantly wonder if we're contributing to (or maybe that's just me).  The double headed monster is harder on my self esteem ...
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October

October 25, 2011
This month has been very busy; two concerts in one weekend and lots of activity surrounding the new OperaFeHk ensemble's concert coming up in November. With all this thinking ahead I haven't even started to think about a Halloween costume! 

One thing's for sure, though, I need to perform a piece involving a Thunder Tube

I finally broke down and bought a new reed knife - you can only re-grind the edge so many times. Now to start a new batch of brightly coloured reeds for the coming month!


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