Is the Oboe Hard to Play?

Learning to play the oboe as a kid, one of the most common comments I would get when I told people I played the oboe was something like, “Wow, that’s a hard instrument!” I was never quite sure how to respond because I just thought it was pretty fun! But I do enjoy a good challenge.

“Is the oboe hard to play?” is a question that does not have a very straightforward answer, but ultimately the comments I received were not totally misplaced. It is difficult to play any instrument well, but the oboe has some unique challenges that not all instruments present.

Reeds Are Hard To Play

short life spans

The oboe is a double-reed instrument and the reed is a huge part of having a working instrument. Oboists spend a lot of time searching for good reeds to buy or many spend hours making their own. This is because oboe reeds have short life spans, sometimes estimated as short as 10-15 hours, which means a very constant cycle of switching out reeds and dealing with dying reeds. By comparison, bassoons are also double-reed instruments, but bassoon reeds last for months due to their larger size and therefore more durability. Clarinets are single-reed instruments and their reeds’ lifespans are closer to that of an oboe’s, but they still last longer.

All this means that playing the oboe comes with the challenge of keeping up with always having a good reed on hand which can seem overwhelming to new oboists.

instability

Oboe reeds are also fickle and unstable and can change or even be destroyed by sudden changes in weather or bad care. If you live in a climate with all four seasons, sometimes the best option is to obtain new reeds as seasons change no matter how new your old reeds are, because the changes in temperature and humidity can affect reeds that badly. Oboe reeds are also very thin, especially at the tip, and it can be tricky for new and young students to learn just how carefully they need to handle their reeds so as not to break them. And then some reeds will unpredictably crack and become unusable even with great care. Keeping up with maintaining oboe reeds through all this can be tricky to balance when you are still learning just how to play as well.

technique

Also, playing oboe reeds requires a unique technique different even from the bassoon because of how much smaller the reeds are. “Embouchure” is the term that describes the way you wrap your lips around the reed and it is crucial to playing the oboe well or getting sound at all. Oboe embouchure is not set exactly the same for everything played on the oboe, but changes in subtle ways as you play. This makes oboe hard to play in the beginning because it can sometimes feel like you will never be able to play when learning the first few notes is so difficult, but with practice, a good basic embouchure becomes second nature and learning more after that is much easier.

Breathing Is Hard When Playing

Another big factor that makes the oboe hard to play is learning how to breathe when playing. The oboe is unique in this area because you are playing through a very small opening, the double-reed, and therefore you cannot expel all the air in your lungs through the instrument before running out of oxygen in that air in your lungs. This means that you may need a breath when your lungs still feel full of air, and oboists need to learn to find moments in the music to expel air as well as breathe in. Most other instrumentalists will need to breathe because they have blown all the air out of their lungs, whereas oboists need to breathe because the air they have becomes stale.

Learning to blow through an oboe reed’s small opening also means there is a lot of back pressure in your body as you play which is felt primarily in your head and can be very uncomfortable at first. This is another difficulty that completely disappears once you become accustomed to the feeling and will not be noticed anymore with consistent practicing.

Keywork Is Hard to Learn

Oboe can also be hard to play because the keywork and the fingerings required to play different notes are complicated. The progression of when fingers lift up or down do not always follow when the notes are moving up or down which can be confusing. There are also multiple alternate fingerings which means learning more than one way to play just one note. While the keywork on the oboe is complicated, I consider the clarinet to be more challenging in this area because it has more alternate fingerings and more open keys which means that it is harder to properly place your fingers on those keys.

Is the oboe harder than other instruments?

Some instruments are easier to play when you first start learning and become harder as you learn more advanced techniques. Other instruments are the opposite and it’s harder to learn the basics but it gets easier to play once you know those. Every instrument presents its challenges, especially if learned to a high level. Playing the oboe has several unique challenges that do make it hard to play and it is definitely in the category of harder at the beginning and easier after enough practice. I think this is one of the main reasons that the oboe is so often considered such a hard instrument- the initial learning curve is steep.

But all of the challenges listed above become manageable. Unique challenges are worth it for the unique sound!

Lessons Are Crucial

The difficulty of starting to play oboe makes lessons very important in the beginning stages. With an experienced oboist as a teacher, the first months of playing do not have to be nearly as difficult – for you or for those listening!! I would love to jumpstart your oboe playing through online oboe lessons!