Practical Hints is a unique and highly informative series developed to answer the many questions raised by the beginning student as well as the more advanced musician. Designed for individual use, the Practical Hints books cover such vital topics as care and maintenance, reeds and mouthpieces, playing position, embouchure, tuning, tonguing, tone quality, range, and practice methodology. Each book has been written by a nationally known instrumental specialist in collaboration with James D. Ployhar. Serving as a handy and informative guide, an appropriate Practical Hints book should be in every musician's library.

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.

Practical Hints is a unique and highly informative series developed to answer the many questions raised by the beginning student as well as the more advanced musician. Designed for individual use, the Practical Hints books cover such vital topics as care and maintenance, reeds and mouthpieces, playing position, embouchure, tuning, tonguing, tone quality, range, and practice methodology. Each book has been written by a nationally known instrumental specialist in collaboration with James D. Ployhar. Serving as a handy and informative guide, an appropriate Practical Hints book should be in every musician's library.

"Purpose is to place the musical and technical study of the oboe within the context of a precise understanding of the human body" --Foreward.

In Oboe Art and Method, veteran oboe performer and instructor Martin Schuring describes in detail all of the basic techniques of oboe playing (including breathing, embouchure, finger technique, articulation, and phrasing) and reed making, with expert tips and step-by-step instructions for how best to perform each of these tasks with grace and technical efficiency.

The oboe, including its earlier forms the shawm and the hautboy, is an instrument with a long and rich history. In this book two distinguished oboist-musicologists trace that history from its beginnings to the present time, discussing how and why the oboe evolved, what music was written for it, and which players were prominent. Geoffrey Burgess and Bruce Haynes begin by describing the oboe’s prehistory and subsequent development out of the shawm in the mid-seventeenth century. They then examine later stages of the instrument, from the classical hautboy to the transition to a keyed oboe and eventually the Conservatoire-system oboe. The authors consider the instrument’s place in Romantic and Modernist music and analyze traditional and avant-garde developments after World War II. Noting the oboe’s appearance in paintings and other iconography, as well as in distinctive musical contexts, they examine what this reveals about the instrument’s social function in different eras. Throughout the book they discuss the great performers, from the pioneers of the seventeenth century to the traveling virtuosi of the eighteenth, the masters of the romantic period and the legends of the twentieth century such as Gillet, Goossens, Tabuteau, and Holliger. With its extensive illustrations, useful technical appendices, and discography, this is a comprehensive and authoritative volume that will be the essential companion for every woodwind student and performer.

Practical Hints is a unique and highly informative series developed to answer the many questions raised by the beginning student as well as the more advanced musician. Designed for individual use, the Practical Hints books cover such vital topics as care and maintenance, reeds and mouthpieces, playing position, embouchure, tuning, tonguing, tone quality, range, and practice methodology. Each book has been written by a nationally known instrumental specialist in collaboration with James D. Ployhar. Serving as a handy and informative guide, an appropriate Practical Hints book should be in every musician's library.

Practical Hints is a unique and highly informative series developed to answer the many questions raised by the beginning student as well as the more advanced musician. Designed for individual use, the Practical Hints books cover such vital topics as care and maintenance, reeds and mouthpieces, playing position, embouchure, tuning, tonguing, tone quality, range, and practice methodology. Each book has been written by a nationally known instrumental specialist in collaboration with James D. Ployhar. Serving as a handy and informative guide, an appropriate Practical Hints book should be in every musician's library.

This book is intended to help those who are contemplating performing or studying the Brahms Requiem. It provides historical information, performance considerations, musical analysis, and resource material for all who enjoy the musicology behind this magnificent work. It is especially directed toward conductors, but it is also useful for choristers and soloists as well. A wonderful instructional tool!

Practical Hints is a unique and highly informative series developed to answer the many questions raised by the beginning student as well as the more advanced musician. Designed for individual use, the Practical Hints books cover such vital topics as care and maintenance, reeds and mouthpieces, playing position, embouchure, tuning, tonguing, tone quality, range, and practice methodology. Each book has been written by a nationally known instrumental specialist in collaboration with James D. Ployhar. Serving as a handy and informative guide, an appropriate Practical Hints book should be in every musician's library.