Dear Guests, Welcome to my blog which I treat like a creative garden where I regularly plant and change this and that be it poetry, philosophy, an Oboe Brilliance lesson, an essay of some kind, or a journal about composing. Visit every Monday for oboe coaching which is also helpful for many melodic instrumentalists. Musically yours, Kathryn

"How do you compose?" That is the most commonly asked question I hear.
This blog is a window into my creative process and philosophies as a composer and instrumentalist. At times it may contain music, photos, and poetry as well. May you enjoy, return, and benefit!

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21

Oboe Brilliance: Technical Elegance lesson #1 "Leap Frog"

Dear Guests, Today's blog is valuable read for all instrumentalists. Enjoy! Musically yours, Kathryn

Oboe Brilliance: Technical Elegance – practice technique lesson # 1 “Leap Frog”
There are so many wonderful practice techniques. For lesson # 1, I am simply writing out the technique I used today.

Today after a lot of endurance playing, I wanted to keep playing without using incorrect muscles or compromising my embouchure in order to not stop playing so I used the “Leap Frog” technique.

The “Leap Frog” technique is to play every other measure, or every other phrase, or every other specified measurement which is predetermined somehow. When I leap frog when playing alone, I imagine the written sounds in rhythm when I am not playing. This is an excellent way to develop stronger ears and reading skills.

By playing every other X length of time, I am able to stretch out my playing time. I find this valuable when I am returning to playing after being sick, when I am breaking in a hard reed, or when my lips are ready to fall off after a lot of playing! I also find is extremely helpful when I am working on very demanding passages filled with notes requiring great dexterity as a way to increase my playing speed and to master the finger techniques. A word of caution however, is to watch out for side and necessary alternate fingerings while employing this technique. One way to guarantee that you are using the correct fingerings with this technique is to finger the last note of the silent leap frog passage, and to finger the first note of the next. (I had to do that today as d# and g# were everywhere!)

“Leap Frog” btw, is also an invaluable mentoring tool. I use it all the time in my lessons with students. We will leap frog phrases, or measures, or segments as we take turns playing through a piece. Students and I find this to be serious fun, and I find it to be an extremely efficient way to teach a variety of levels to a piece. After playing through a piece leap frog, we will almost always repeat, alternating what we did and didn’t play. It’s actually become a joke to decide who’s “odd” and who’s even, in my studio.

Leap frog helps in keeping the correct tempo when working on a demanding piece. I’ve found that when I play every other measure, I can play the measures I do play faster, than if I’m playing the measures consecutively. This technique helps me play the measures faster consecutively in less practice time. This technique also helps me stay out of “automatic pilot” and be more tenacious with my concentration to each measure.
Leap frog with a student is fantastic to use with students who get “squirrely” and tend to rush or get sloppy, or raise the pitch biting down more and more as the piece continues.

An advanced form of “Leap Frog” can be used to specify style of playing for every other X length of time. For example, #15 of Vade Mecum, odd measures staccato and even measures portato, or odd measures pp, and even measures ff, etc.

Have fun playing!

Kathryn Potter © 2009