Cover…

It’s 3:45 am and I can’t sleep. Darn. another one of those oboe-insomnia things Patty and I suffer from.

I had a good practice today (or rather yesterday), and discovered in my own playing that I believe I need to bring the angle of my oboe down toward me more. It adds a bit more cover, and makes my upper notes sit up, an issue that was stated on my jury sheets on my Strauss. I’m excited about this new discovery and look forward to testing it out more, but I definitely felt some new muscles!

Almost caught up with reed orders again. I made some big reed discoveries recently which has added more stability and depth in the sound of my reeds. Very exciting indeed.

Obohemia has some ridiculously funny reed art. I had to look at them carefully to even recognize them as reed paraphernalia

The truth about Patty! *GASP*

 My tell-all report of Patty!

1. She’s a wonderful player! She has a great sound, and I’m amazed how well she does on such thick, unresponsive reeds.
2. She’s very outgoing! She always writes about how shy she is, and perhaps she is, but as her sister put it, “When she doesn’t know you, she’s shy, but when she gets to know you, she’s very warm!”
3. Her reeds aren’t THAT bad. They just needed some minor adjustments, which were easy since there was too much left on, rather than too much taken off.
4. She is a very gracious host! After reading her blog for over a year, I’ve kind of got this sense that she’s lived in some kind of gray house 100 feet away from the curb, with the shades pulled closed. It’s the kind of house that nobody sees anyone going in or coming out, except at odd hours at the night. But in reality, she has a GORGEOUS house, in a beautiful neighborhood, and she’s just like your friendly neighbor next door… who plays oboe. Her husband cooked great food for us, and her beautifully remodeled interior looks like a perfect house out of a magazine.

I had a great time with Patty and Dan, and the laughs never ceased from the moment I walked into the door until the minute I stepped out, and Dan was still cracking jokes! I wish I lived next door to her. We’d have a great time sitting around just making reeds with each other. Of course we’d have to make them at my house, because Patty refuses to make more reeds… because she doesn’t want to dirty up her studio floor… or clutter her bookshelf with more reeds. *ROLL EYES HERE*

Thanks for a great weekend Patty!

Quote

Maryn K. Leister used to write an email update that was sent out to her customers every week or so. She runs her company MLK Reeds, but I’m not sure if she sells reeds much anymore, because on one of the last newsletters I received she said something about changing her company into a “reed support service”. In any case, I used to really enjoy reading her newsletter, and even won a trivia contest to send in a trivia question. I’m not sure why she stopped sending it, or maybe somehow I got removed from her newsletter email list. Do others receive her newsletter still?

I was looking at her oboe blog entitled “flarp“, which she hasn’t updated in six months, and came across an interesting quote here.

Accept the challenges, then figure out how to meet them.

-John Mack

She goes on to explain how this quote affected the decision she made her Sophomore year of college.

Blog Cards!?!?

“…and no blog URLs were handed out. (I did have my cards with me, but I wasn’t about to pester people with them unless they handed me one first.)”

At first I had to re-read this quote from Patty’s blog. Are bloggers supposed to keep Blog cards on them at all time? Isn’t this a bit extreme?

More and more readers are sending me emails that they are eager to discuss or ask about but appear to be too shy to post a comment. This is fine by me, but I am beginning to realize that I am a rarity in the blogging world; an extrovert. Patty recently posted about how she believes many bloggers are introverts. Another blogger of “Civic Center” posted about how the “blogger concert” pre-talk was a bit odd since… after all… bloggers don’t really talk.

I suppose some people blog because they feel needed to be heard and blogging is the best way to express themselves. I think I blog just because I can’t shut up.

You never know…

A couple of days ago Patty over at oboeinsight posted about people sometimes believe their posts to be private, figuring that if they shoot their mouth about people on their blog, it will never get back to them.

Though I’ve never done this, and never will, I am pleased to hear that one of my former oboe teachers found my blog (not sure why or how). I heard from another teacher that he had seen it and mentioned something to another.

It just goes to show that you never know who’s out there reading, eh? Perhaps Prof. Klein or Prof. Killmer or Prof. Henderson will reading my ravings about them, and let me into their studio some day!

Well, wishful thinking at least. But be warned folks! You never know who is reading and lurking in the dark! Be afraid!