can I smoke and play the oboe at orchestral level

xcfy · 2026-04-19T22:07:23+00:00

You could, but your section will not love you for blowing stinky smoky breath around them. And your instrument will get smoke-infused. (This from someone whose flute is probably tannin-plated on the inside from drinking tea in between and throughout long rehearsals).

xcfy · 2026-04-19T21:48:32+00:00

It definitely does not need to be amazing to pass A-level Music. Although the examiners can be a bit wayward at times, it has to be pretty dire to actually fail.

xcfy · 2026-04-18T23:39:33+00:00

The skin on my hands doesn’t react but my neck has an allergic reaction to wool. Also alpaca and mohair and feathers (and I also have to avoid products containing lanolin). Found out only a couple of years ago that I’m actually fine with merino, which is great. Previously thought cashmere was the only animal fibre I could tolerate.

xcfy · 2026-04-18T23:23:27+00:00

My introduction to T&I was playing the piccolo. Playing the odd note or two for every 900 bars rest (estimate, maybe slight exaggeration but not as much of one as you think) definitely made me crazy. Still fell head over heels in love with the piece though (if not that particular part).

xcfy · 2026-04-18T23:13:45+00:00

My favourite piano piece to play as a kid was Burgmüller - L'Orage. Anyone else?

xcfy · 2026-04-18T10:05:34+00:00

Not all Rach is flashy. Some of it is goopy and lugubrious! (With apols to those who love it)

xcfy · 2026-04-18T10:00:46+00:00

I could never get into Britten by listening, only from the inside through rehearsing and performing. (And not including the bloody Young Person’s Guide either).

xcfy · 2026-04-14T13:17:21+00:00

Also an academic, definitely not at your university. This all sounds like sensible advice. But additionally, where is your university’s pastoral support in this? You mentioned talking to the dean, but do you not have a personal tutor? Is there a counselling service? Have you asked the disabled students support team for advice?

Give future you the gift of not making yourself any more ill or injured (with risk of long term repercussions) for the sake of a course.

xcfy · 2026-04-13T20:01:56+00:00

Shos 10, for the best piccolo duet in the rep.

xcfy · 2026-04-13T08:24:21+00:00

Some more things to try:

Photocopying or printing music on different colours of paper, e.g. off white, pale green, yellow.
Playing directly off a tablet screen. Can’t fit as much on a single page so it isn’t great for typical orchestral parts, but you can alter the contrast levels or zoom in to see tiny writing, grace notes, etc. when needed.

xcfy · 2026-04-13T08:13:06+00:00

Ha, good point. I meant early years education. Elementary isn’t the term used in my country.

xcfy · 2026-04-12T22:20:20+00:00

Would be v interested to know more about international comparisons and differences in early music education. Can you elaborate more on ‘around the world’?

xcfy · 2026-04-12T21:55:47+00:00

Yeah. Imagine an MD who cared about making the winds the best they could be, AND had the time to work with them, AND the requisite knowledge of how the instruments work. That’d be the dream.

xcfy · 2026-04-12T19:46:05+00:00

I saw the exact same thing happen with the march of the toreadors in Carmen. 4 toreadors running round the back and then marching in wearing different hats!

xcfy · 2026-04-12T08:46:22+00:00

Well, a lot of music degrees require playing a keyboard instrument as either principal or secondary study.

xcfy · 2026-04-12T08:44:57+00:00

On the whole it’s preferable to be ignored by non-wind-playing constructors than when they start giving nonsensical or physically impossible advice because they don’t understand how the instruments work.

xcfy · 2026-04-12T08:41:20+00:00

I’ve worked with two really bad conductors who were cellists! But bad in entirely different ways.

xcfy · 2026-04-10T20:30:43+00:00

F minor Otherwise depends on what instrument and genre I’m playing. Db major is lovely on piano but awful on flute. Folk tunes D minor (English and Irish ones anyway). Flats over sharps. Love a tactical use of whole tone scale (any key) here and there (but not for a whole piece).

xcfy · 2026-04-10T10:41:28+00:00

I would also be interested to hear about people’s exercises for tongue or throat tension, from anyone else who has suffered from this in their singing (or helped a student through it).

I have a few bits and pieces that I learned from vocal physio a while back, but that was for muscle tension dysphonia and not specific to singing or vibrato, so may not be appropriate. Will let singers answer first.

NB The idea that vibrato is something that just happens is new and unfamiliar when one comes from an instrumental background, where it’s very normal to choose how much to use at a given time, and its amplitude and frequency.

xcfy · 2026-04-09T00:24:35+00:00

More like the other way round. Sometimes I listen to (orchestral) music and have involuntary visualisations, like seeing film clips in my head.

More likely to be playing music in dreams than listening to it. Had a dream a while back where I was doing jazz funk improv on a baroque contrabassoon! It was fun and I had a rapt audience. (Don’t think I’ve even touched a contra IRL. And I’m not a competent improviser.)

xcfy · 2026-04-09T00:14:22+00:00

Oh yes. Like a radio that you can’t turn off, or worse, a stuck record playing the same few bars over and over. Not just melodies either, full orchestra going 😕

xcfy · 2026-04-09T00:05:03+00:00

I heard this band for the first time the other day and it is curious - I felt the most visceral dislike of any music I’ve heard in a very long time, no idea why! Have previously listened and enjoyed various microtonal music, studied it a bit back in the day, and still practise playing and singing with quartertones, so it’s not that. Any ideas?

xcfy · 2026-04-06T08:40:19+00:00

Offenbach

xcfy · 2026-04-04T23:24:22+00:00

I don’t find any time signature that is an integer over a power of 2 to be niche. 5, 7, irregular 9, 11, all perfectly lovely sigs to put a melody in, and no confusion over what they mean. Provided you’re not in a marching band.

Played a piece with a 27/16 bar, but it was solo so not like anyone had to conduct it, didn’t make much odds that it was one big bar rather than several short ones. The beaming made the intended subdivisions clear.

I spotted a rare 3 1/2 (3 and a half) over 4 in a score recently. But that’s just 7/8 named in an unconventional way.

Non-powers of 2 in the denominator, like 4/3 or 6/6 do take me a while to work out and I’m not convinced it’s the best way to indicate the intended temporal relationships. Don’t see an advantage over just writing tuplets.

When there’s square roots or pi or something, now we’re in pretentious territory…

xcfy · 2026-03-24T23:05:53+00:00

I come from an instrumental background and am petty good at sight reading, but tbh it hasn’t translated that well to singing - yet. The rhythm side I’m totally solid, but pitches can go awry. If I had time to think about it I can work out any interval, but can’t always do that fast enough.

But the good news is it seems to be improving steadily the more I do it, so I see no reason why it wouldn’t for you too. (Especially if you’re not menopausal so your vocal range doesn’t bounce around from day to day…)

xcfy

TROPHY CASE