Making reeds under the pressure of an upcoming performance is always a little terrifying, but it seems like having a revolving cycle of different stages of reeds takes a little of the fear out of it. I've finally gotten to the point where I'll always have a few blanks, a few profiled and a few nearly finished reeds in my case, and boy does that make it easier to have a reed ready for tomorrow when I need it!
This week my student had a reed crisis at the same time as me; apparently an over enthusiastic dog nearly ate her best reed! I can't help but find that funny...even if I know how furious I'd be...and my old faithful pair of fine reeds finally bit the dust. I managed to churn out two new ones for myself for the rest of the 4 concerts I have this week and two for her as well. I don't know if I would have been able to do that last year, and I certainly would have been more terrified of it. Planning for the win!
I'm really loving playing second right now, too. There are a lot of beautiful duets and harmony parts in the Mozart I'm doing with Canada West, and I've had the privilege of playing with some really fine first oboists lately. I think, more than anything, I've stopped being so afraid of the oboe and really started to just love playing. It might sound like an obvious thing to do, but for me it's been quite revolutionary.
