All woodwind instruments, with the exception of the flute, have keys that allow them to play higher notes. The saxophone and bassoon have a thumb-operated key and the clarinet has a thumb-operated register key. When playing the oboe, you will find a variation of these systems, as oboes can have up to three octave keys. The use of these keys will depend on the configuration of these keys adapted to the oboe model being played.
The following are the options that a musician may have to deal with when playing high notes on the oboe.
SEPARATE OCTAVE KEYS: This is the system that most beginners will encounter when playing the oboe. Your instruments will have two octave keys, one on the back of the top joint operated by the left thumb, and one on the side of the instrument operated by the left index finger side. The back key is used to play the notes E through G# in the second octave and the side key is used to play the notes A through C above that. The important thing to remember with separate octave keys is that you should never hold both at the same time. If you hold them down together, both the pitch and the pitch of the notes will be affected.
There is a technique that will always help to achieve a clean change between the two keys. Instead of thinking, “side key on – back key off” (or vice versa), try thinking of the switch as a single movement. To accomplish this, use your left thumb as a pivot and rotate your wrist. If you are switching to the side octave key from the back key, this move will have the effect of releasing the back key as you bring the side of your index finger into contact with the side key. To shift down, simply rotate your wrist in the opposite direction. Both keys are worked, therefore, with a single action. If you can master this, you’ll find that fast passages involving frequent octave clef changes will become much easier.
SEMIAUTOMATIC OCTAVE KEYS: This is probably the most common system by far and the one used in my experience by the vast majority of professional players, certainly here in the UK. The layout of the two keys is identical to the separate system described above, but with a little more key binding work that allows the player to hold down the back octave key while positioning the side key. The mechanism does the rest. This obviously makes shifting a bit easier and smoother. However, it must be remembered that it does not work the other way around. When playing the key notes of the lower octave (E – G#), holding the side key will make the notes sharper.
FULLY AUTOMATIC OCTAVE KEYS: This system sometimes has the same key layout as the other systems, but the mechanism allows the player to place one or both keys at any time. On many fully automatic oboes, the octave key system works with a single thumb key (the side key is dispensed with entirely). This is the system adopted by Adolphe Sax in his saxophone design. Although this system sounds very attractive in many ways, it has a major drawback; – Harmonic fingerings cannot be used on a fully automatic oboe. Harmonics are quite an advanced technique when it comes to playing the oboe but they can be very useful in certain situations.
THIRD OCTAVE CLEF: When we play in the third register (the very high notes), from the upper E up and up, we add the back octave key. A fairly recent development is the addition of a third octave key that helps play higher notes. In a conservatory system this key sits above the thumb octave key and in a thumb plate system it is usually placed next to the thumb plate. Personally, I have never used a third octave key. I have always found that I can get the highest notes using the standard octave key of my thumb.
The use of the octave key on the oboe is one of the fundamental techniques that must be understood, applied, and mastered if one ever truly wants to control the instrument. It is, as you can see in the previous article, very important to know what system you have and how to use it correctly. Otherwise, it will affect your ability to play high notes on the oboe with good intonation and good tone. The name, Oboe, originally comes from the French, ‘Haut Bois’, which means tall wood. Given this nomenclature, it would be a shame if your high grades were bad. High notes on the oboe are not a problem as long as you do things correctly.
