At approximately 6:30 pm on Monday, my beloved oboe was severely injured and remains in critical condition. Okay, I’ll stop being so dramatic but my oboe does need to take a little trip to the oboe repair shop after the cork fell off her bottom joint.
Just like children, pets or cars, a musician’s instrument needs to be maintained on a regular basis and often needs a trip to the “doctor’s office” every now and then. Anything that is used as much and as often as a professional musician’s instrument is bound to not be in perfect working condition at all times.
In particular, the oboe needs a tune-up at least once a year. An oboe is comprised of many little silver keys and many more tiny screws that keep all of those keys not only attached to the main wood of the instrument, but also keep each key moving when it’s supposed to in order to produce the correct pitch. You might never think about it but everything from putting the instrument together and taking it apart over and over to the weather can affect the adjustment of the oboe.
The adjustment is literally the lining up of the keys and the accuracy of each key moving the way that is should. If a screw is screwed too far in by just half a turn or is unscrewed by half a turn, it can completely change the oboe to sound a different way or play a different note than expected.
Another issue oboes tend to have is the disintegrating of their cork. The oboe is broken up into three parts, the top joint, the middle (or bottom) joint and the bell. About every year or so this cork tends to break because of constant use and weather. The cork is wrapped around the circular part at the bottom of each joint, called the tendon, so as to facilitate its fitting in with the other joints. The cork needs to be greased regularly so that it’s very easy to put the oboe together and take it apart. For me, I think cork grease is stinky and greasy so I use chapstick instead and it works like magic. The cork isn’t very thick though, so it’s expected that it will fall off and need replacement on a regular basis.
I’ve been dealing with this middle joint issue for over a year now because when the cork first started falling off and cracking, I was in the middle of concerts and my senior recital and couldn’t be without my oboe for a couple of days while it was being fixed. So I did the next best thing and used scotch tape to keep the cork intact. Well, I’ve been successful now for over six months but on Monday night, while teaching an oboe lesson, the tape gave up too. So a trip to the repair shop it is!
