Yep. It’s still there. The Curse of the Flappy Sides.

For those non-oboists who read this blog, the tip of my reed is incredibly thin,

but unlike this image (posted below, nabbed from a Google search which led me

to Cooper’s blog), the very tip of the tip is flapping open. Basically, it makes the

sound bright, and forces me to bite to ‘control’ the reed.

These are both bad things. I’ve been working through it with Jim–he’s

had me shaping, tying, and scraping while he watches to see if I’m doing

anything wrong. Neither of us can figure it out. He says, somewhat

frustratingly, “Oh, this happened to me for about three years when

I was in my twenties, and no one I asked knew what to do about it

either.” Well, classy.

I figure the best thing to do is get other opinions–so I asked Patty

what she thought, and she suggested something is wrong with the cane

I’m using–which I *think* is mostly Ghys cane–so I’m going to get my

hands on some different stuff and give it a shot.

In other news! I went to see Wintersleep on Wednesday night, and it was

great, only the crowd was packed, and I didn’t want to have to drag David

behind me in my bid for the front–so we sat at the side, where at least we

could see. Sitting down in a dark corner was not the best idea, though,

because my eyes kept sliding shut. I wasn’t bored! I love Wintersleep!

They played almost all of my favourite songs! Roar. Anyway. It was a

good concert, and I’m glad I went.

My other other news is that I now know more about Bach’s Musical

Offering than I ever wanted to know.

And finally: Brian Seaton was here! Yay! Whenever Brian comes we

get awesome “this is how your oboe works” masterclasses. We’ve had

them on acoustics and undercutting, and yesterday’s was on cracks. I’m

so glad my oboe has never cracked. *knock on wood*

Ren out.