Valparaiso, Indiana

# 1

Articulations for oboist in book one include; tonguing, slurring, staccato, and accent.  Learning to tongue on the oboe reed is challenging because you cannot see the act of tonguing against the reed.  You can only hear your tonguing sound (articulation) and make adjustments to improve your sound as you  practice daily.

# 2

Keep your tongue close to the reed as you practice tonguing and slurring notes.  Start with just tonging the reed by itself.  Play a variety of rhythmic patterns based on the tunes from book one.  Follow by inserting your reed into the “well” of the oboe. and play your favorite tunes in book one.  Select a group of tunes (10 tunes to start).  Play them all tongued, all slurred, and finally play them by memory.  Your school music teacher will want you to play the notes exactly as written.  However, you can beyond you teacher’s expectations.

# 3

Play your Bb and Eb scales using different tonguing patterns.   Start with quarter notes followed by eighth notes.  Play two eighth notes on each step of the scale.  You can slur the entire scale followed by slurring every other note.  Keep the beat slow but steady.  As you play your scales, be aware of your breathing.  Be sure to let out more air that you take in.  Do not “gulp in your air” when playing the oboe.

# 4

Staccato means short or detached.  Note that there is more silence than sound when you play a staccato note.  There are different lengths of staccato notes.  A violinist can pluck the string with their finger, play with a short bow stroke, bounce the bow, and play with a separated bow stroke.  All these different bowing and plucking  styles produce different-sounding staccato notes.  These are good examples for the oboist.

# 5

Use your listening skills when performing various articulations.  You do not want the music to sound ugly.  Often slurred sounds on the oboe sound better than tonguing sounds in the first year of performance.  When tonguing still  sing through your oboe and connect the notes  A good private oboe teacher will help you improve your tonguing technique.