From Quack to Crow in 30 minutes!

The introduction

Welcome to the oboe embouchure crash course! You're ready to use this site if you've had only a few days of experience with the oboe!

What's an embouchure? Move your mouse over the blue word to find out! We're going to show you the right and wrong way to make your first sounds on the oboe.

Starting out on the oboe can be intimidating, especially if you've ever heard a beginner, but by following this step-by-step method, you'll be sure to go From Quack to Crow in 30 Minutes... or less! You'll see me (some guy), and my assistant (a 10th grade überoboist) go through each step together on the way to oboe success. Unfortunately I did not encounter much success with my own oboe endeavors, but I'm sure you'll be different.

We'll present our immense knowledge to you in an easy to understand format. Each section will begin with an introduction, which will be followed by additional useful and useless information. You will see commentary on videos throughout the site, and all videos will open in the box to the right. This site is designed to be used while you have your oboe in front of you, but will also work if you only have an oboe reed. You may want to get an oboe too, though I think the reed sounds pretty nice by itself.

By the time you get to the last page, you will have gone From Quack to Crow in (hopefully) 30 minutes... or less! If you feel you're still quacking after you've followed our steps, you may want to consider switching to the viola.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We just informed him that you should never switch to the viola. If you do not feel successful by the end of this site, you did something wrong and should start over. Or was it us that did something wrong...
Don't forget to move your mouse over all the blue words you see!

Special thanks to Barbara Cantlon for her work on the Embou-Sure oboe embouchure method, available through WIBC Publishing, and to Dixie Detgen for her oboe workshop series presented at Southern Oregon University through the American Band College. Without their extraordinary knowledge, I'd still be quacking. I also want to thank my assistant, Dani, for helping to bring me closer to oboe transcendence.


first: the reed

Video Display Area