Any advice for a Bari sax player trying the oboe?

Banize

I’m in my freshman year of high school, I go to a performing arts school and we’ve already done 9 concerts this year. I’ve been playing saxophone since 4th grade but changed to Bari in 7th grade. I figured that if I wanted to be able to play another instrument, now was the time. There is a great oboe player in the orchestra in my town and they’ve convinced me. I’m definitely able to learn the oboe since I am in an art school and perform in the same theater that the symphony orchestra performs in. I have the time, money, and dedication to play it. I know it’s going to sound like absolute garbage for a couple months and I’m fine with that. I also noticed that saxophones aren’t really in orchestras and seeing as that the oboe has practically the same fingerings, why not spend time learning something that I’d like to learn and something that could open up more doors for me?

I have emailed two oboe players about starting oboe and lessons and have the emails of one other oboe player. I got a medium soft reed (I think the brand is called Jones?) and the local instrument repair shop (who’s basically just a 60 year old man,) is going to let me use an oboe that he will have looked at in about a week. The oboe is a full set but I don’t have any books about oboe/music books. I have been thinking of trying oboe for about three months now and I have finally started doing something about it. I would like to know what’s a good price for oboes with all of the different keys because while I have bought a Bari sax and alto sax from the local repair dude along with numerous repairs and reeds, he does tend to price his instruments up by about a $1,000. For example, my alto is a Yamaha 52 (new is around 3k) and I got it for 4k when it was new. Any suggestions of what else I should do?
 
As a performing woodwind doubler that studied oboe and bassoon I would highly suggest that you look at bassoon rather than oboe.
As a clarinet major in college my chops were pretty solid so I thought that adding oboe after college would be a breeze. It wasn't. I learned how to play, made my own reeds, etc. and gigged a bit on it.
Oboe is extremely physical; embouchure, air, finger placement compared to baritone sax (which I also play).

I don't play oboe anymore as it took too much time away from my other instruments....but I still play bassoon.
The embouchure for bassoon is way more forgiving, the reeds (yes, I make my own reeds) are easier to work with; more material, wider, etc. and the air support would be more like what you are doing in bari
plus
centering your embouchure is way-easier on bassoon than it is on oboe.

Don't get me wrong, if you have your heart set on oboe, go for it but you would be up'n running on bassoon in way less time than on oboe.

Someone can be an ok to pretty good bassoon player and get by......but oboe: you either play it well or not. It is a non-forgiving instrument.

The above is my opinion from personal experience.
 
I recently found a vintage single-reed mouthpiece for oboe that my wife loves. You could look into that, it makes the oboe much easier to play and very few of us can tell the difference in sound between that and a double reed. YMMV.
 
Gandalfe said:
I recently found a vintage single-reed mouthpiece for oboe that my wife loves. You could look into that, it makes the oboe much easier to play and very few of us can tell the difference in sound between that and a double reed. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Years ago I remember a company that made a mouthpiece for bassoon. If memory serves me correctly it used a Eb clarinet reed.
 
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