Oboe Secrets: 75 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Oboist and English Horn Player (Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician) - Softcover

Leclair, Jacqueline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810886200 ISBN 13: 9780810886209

Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 2013

Synopsis

Modeled on the brilliant approach first formulated by distinguished professor of music and master clarinetist Michele Gingras in Clarinet Secrets and More Clarinet Secrets (both available from Scarecrow Press), Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician: A Scarecrow Press Music Series is designed for instrumentalists, singers, conductors, composers, and other instructors and professionals seeking a quick set of pointers to improve their work as performers and producers of music. Easy to use and intended for the advanced musician, contributions to the Music Secrets series fill a niche for those who have moved beyond what beginners and intermediate practitioners need. In Oboe Secrets: 75 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Oboist and English Horn Player, Jacqueline Leclair tackles the oboe's reputation as an especially difficult instrument and illustrates how oboists and English horn players can overcome common challenges. Leclair draws on her experience as a performer and instructor, offering practical tips and sometimes revolutionary ideas for rethinking oboe pedagogy. Leclair also looks at performance strategies in the areas of equipment maintenance and management, physical health, and performance technique. Her secrets focus on such matters as how to optimize practice sessions, build endurance, improve use of the body when playing, work with reeds, and apply extended techniques. Oboe Secrets provides oboists and English horn players a quick and efficient path to significant improvement--both technically and musically--in their playing. It is the perfect resource for advanced high school oboists, professional performers, music instructors, and avid amateur musicians.

About this title

Review

This series sets forth a quick set of pointers to improve musicians' work as performers. Easy to use and intended for the advanced musician so the book states, these books 'fill a niche for those who have moved beyond what beginners and intermediate practitioners need'. This excellent book does it exactly what it says on the back cover. ... Oboe Secrets would be of use to oboists of almost any level. . . . For the student or amateur it points the way to future development of playing, and better technique; it would be a most useful resource for teachers. For a professional such as myself I found it thought-provoking and very rewarding to read, encouraging us to re-evaluate what we do, how we do it and why. ... Oboe Secrets clearly represents a great deal of work in assembling the ideas, describing things clearly and setting them out in a logical and highly readable way, with sensible use of illustrations. May of the 'secrets' would be of use to players of other instruments too. Jacqueline Leclair has done a very fine piece of work for us all, and I highly commend it.--Double Reed News

Leclair's descriptions and ideas of conquering them should be refreshing and often liberating. Being reminded of a 'lost technique' is quite helpful, and likewise reading solutions similar to your own can be reassuring. The resource list at the end of the book is extremely helpful in that Leclair has included a brief synopsis for each book listed. The variety of texts and suggested recordings lends insight into Leclair's reading tastes and habits. It is clear that she is committed to working towards healthy playing habits, enhancing and encouraging creativity, and opening her mind and body to discovery and invention. Oboe Secrets is written in clear, easy to comprehend language, should be a staple in the oboists' and English hornists' libraries, and I recommend it for students, teachers, amateurs and professionals alike.--The Double Reed

About the Author

Jacqueline Leclair is a professor of oboe at McGill University and regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. The New York Times has hailed her performances as "astonishing" and the New Yorker has called her work "lively" and "wonderful."

Edition details

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0810886200
• ISBN 13: 9780810886209
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 168