Can’t remember what we did but the good news is that it looks like a unison nasty passage so you could feel free to mess up.and when the conductor glares at the section, turn calmly and point to ob 2 … or if you are ob 2.. stare at the conductor and shrug your shoulders..:ob 1 is in charge after all…Just kidding.. I’ll be interested to hear Erin’s input.

So sorry to hear Erin…get well soon. I hope to be able to join again soon but currently have some Wednesday conflicts. Miss these wonderful sessions.

@Magda Prins-Nip thank you so much…I really had wanted to share it with Oboe School friends.

@Christi Allison i really hope to be able to rejoin the Path and hope when I do that you will still be there.

@Magda Prins-Nip I’m having reed sorting week at the moment for oboe and english horn. All of my reeds are for 440. I hate getting rid of reeds but like Magda, my criterion is when they go sharp. I tried putting them in other boxes (in case I could revive them sometime in the future) …but that doesn’t work for me….so now…when I decide the reed is finished, I cut the thread and just save the staple immediately, so I only keep a box of staples that can be reused…..this gets rid of the temptation to keep them…just in case I should need them🤣. I have learned to be ruthless with the oboe reeds. Much harder to get rid of eh reeds because they generally last longer. I just made myself a new rule…for every reed I cut off the staple, I tie 2 new blanks.

Sounds like this was an interesting Q and A today…sorry I missed it. Re the water in the bore….an oboist from Eastman (here) was advised by her professor to use something like a few drops of Rainex (like you would use for the windshield of your car) in the bore of the oboe and it acts a bit like the trail of water that you might put in the oboe. It creates a ‘track’ down the back of the instrument and the water finds it’s way there and travels down and away from your tone holes.

@Erin Brophey Yes I have, some years ago. I think (like when oiling the bore) I sprayed it on a feather and made sure the feather was not spread out so that the trail of Rain Ex was just applied (top joint) to the back and not the tone holes side. It doesn’t need to drip down like a water bead just enough to make the back shiny looking . I used it for a while and I still play the oboe that I used it on (Loree Royal no liner). I can’t see why it wouldn’t work on composite material though. the advice came from Anna Hendrickson, who was at Eastman ( and taught me for a bit) but now Oboe Professor at Potsdam University here in NY. No one else I know has heard of this but clearly it didn’t damage my oboe. I only stopped because I don’t tend to get water in my keys and rarely need a dramatic solution. I would check now to make sure the product ingredient list still does not contain any chemicals that could damage wood or resin or plastic. I know that Brian S advised me not to even oil the bore of my lined instrument…so he probably wouldn’t use something like RainEx in that instrument. PS.. next week, I am traveling to FL and the week after…getting ready to leave. I will watch the replays and hope to join the week after.