A Guide to Teaching Oboe Lessons (for the first time)
How to Teach a First Successful Oboe Lesson
Teaching oboe lessons can be incredibly rewarding. However, if you have never taught a private lesson before, or are just getting started in your private studio, there is a learning curve. I created this ultimate guide to teaching oboe to help my students, and anyone else out there, get started in the first year of their studio!
With over 10 years of private music instruction experience, I have developed systems, created studio policies, and grown several studios on several different instruments. This included private oboe lessons through my own studio, and applied lessons and woodwind quintet as an Adjunct Professor of Music-Double Reeds at Fort Lewis college.
However, in my first year of teaching, I was all over the place. I wasted a ton of time figuring things out. It is my hope that this article will help you learn how to approach your first lessons with confidence and set up a system so you can grow your teaching studio and earn more money!
Key take aways for your first lesson:
Cover the basics such as instrument and reed care
Cover the technical basics such as posture, breathing, and embouchure
Test the student’s oboe (with your reed) and adjust their reed, if necessary
Provide the parent with a list of supplies they need such as handmade reeds, recommended sheet music and books, and a repair specialist
Be clear on your studio policies and lesson expectations right from the start
As your studio grows, consider some business management software
Table of Contents
Basic Facts and Care
Beginner oboists will need direction on how to care for their reeds and instrument. Here are the top tips to cover:
How long to soak the reed – I recommend 2 minutes in room temperature water. Beginners may be soaking their reeds in their mouth, or leaving them in water for the duration of their practice session or band rehearsal. Explain that the reed fibers need to be saturated to vibrate, but that they can easily become over saturated too!
Swabbing – Let students know they will need to swab their oboe every time they play. The moisture can affect how well an instrument plays. If a student has a wood oboe, be sure to let them know this can help prevent cracking too.
Warming up the Oboe – If a student has a wood oboe, it is critical to warm it up with their hands prior to blowing warm air through. If they student has a plastic oboe, warming up the oboe with their hands can help bring the pitch up and prevent water in the tone holes.
Brushing Their Teeth – Let students know they need to have a clean mouth prior to playing. This is particularly important with younger students. Younger students may not want to brush their teeth, but even if they can rinse their mouth out with water or mouthwash. I once had a student whose oboe wasn’t playing. I swabbed it out and a piece of Pizza Hut pizza came out! Ew!
It may help to provide your students with a list of suggested oboe accessories. This is also a good time to address beginner oboe frequently asked questions.
Posture
You don’t need to over complicate this but address any posture issues in the first lesson or two. Some students may want to play slumped over, hunched over, with their legs crossed, or with their hands at a strange angle.
All of these sorts of habits will be difficult to break if you don’t address them right away. They can, of course, inhibit the students progress and create overuse injuries later on.
Check the oboe (with your reed)
The first thing to check is how well your students oboe is playing. Use your own reed to play-test the oboe. You can use this guide on how to adjust your oboe to learn what basic adjustments to look for.
What to do when an oboe doesn’t play well:
If the oboe doesn’t play well, or barely plays at all, I speak with the parent about repair options. Often, a school program will haves a budget for repairs. If the parents purchased the oboe from eBay or received a donation oboe, you can explain to them why the oboe needs to be in good working condition to get the most out of lessons. Provide them with a list of qualified oboe repair specialists.
Take the time to explain how there will be more back pressure, notes won’t speak or come out, and how it will be frustrating for the student to learn on (and they will have difficulty progressing).
Adjust the student’s reed
Next up is the student’s reed. Most students will come to their first lesson with store bought reeds such as Jones or Emerald.
I always adjust the reeds the best I can—making improvements on pitch, response, tone, etc.
However, for the second lesson (and beyond) I provide the parents with a list of reed professional makers from whom they can purchase handmade reeds from. If the parents object to higher prices, take the time to explain to them that a handmade reed will last longer, play better, and be more consistent. Many parents and students don’t understand how long a reed lasts and why they need to buy so many!
Provide the first page of scanned music (provide link for purchasing)
When a student first comes to me, I don’t require that they purchase any sheet music prior to the lesson. However, I like to be prepared with some scanned (and printed) sheet music from my personal collection to get them started.
For beginners, the first book I use is the Rubank Elementary Method for Oboe. It is a great way to help the student learn basic fingerings and rhythms. During the first 6-months with a new student, I progress to duets and then eventually easy solos. Here is my complete list of recommended beginner oboe music (that I use in my own studio).
Proper Breathing on the Oboe
It is helpful in the first lesson to cover the basics of oboe playing. First, talk about breathing and how to take a proper breath. We all have our own pedagogy around this technique, however, a good way to see if a beginner is breathing correctly is to look at their shoulders. If their shoulders “rise” when they breath, they are taking too shallow of a breath.
Good tone, Pitch, and Embouchure on the Oboe
Give the C-C# exercise (for embouchure)
The one exercise I leave students with on their first lesson is the C to C# exercise. This is an exercise I learned from my former professor Peter Cooper. This one exercise can help jump start students in the right direction. If they can play a proper “C” on the reed, they are already well on their way.
Leave the lesson with goals and expectations for the next lesson
I like to end each lesson with a suggested goal for that week. It helps to give students something specific to work towards. In the first lesson, you’ll also want to discuss lesson expectations.
Setting up expectations in the very first lesson is critical. How much do you want them to practice? What is your cancelation policy?
It can be helpful to write down some of these polices and provide the parent and student with a printed piece of paper to take home.
Managing Students, Scheduling, and Receiving Payment
Managing Students
If you are just starting off, you won’t need any software to manage your studio. However, once you get going, and have several students, if not doezens of students, you’ll need something called a CRM.
A CRM is a “client relations management” software. All service-based businesses need one! This helps you track your students, their parents’ names, their lesson times, their homework, take payment, schedule lessons, and more!
I personally use Notion to manage all my (multiple) businesses. However, if I was soley managing a music studio, I’d use My Music Staff. (not affiliated, just think it’s a great tool!).
My Music Staff handles everything—calendar, invoicing, expense tracking (for taxes), student portal, and even a website builder.
Scheduling
I recommend a slightly longer lesson for the first lesson. For beginners (middle school), 30 minute lessons are often a nice amount of time. However, that first lesson, there is so much to cover! I will suggest a 45-minute lesson to the parent for the first lesson, and weekly 30-minute lessons after that.
For adult lessons, I usually do a 60-minute lesson off the bat and suggest weekly or bi-weekly 60-minute lessons.
Each teacher must find their own policy. Some require a month of payment in advance. Personally, I require payment at time of service, but don’t require any monthly or semester-based pricing. If a student starts canceling frequently, I’ll speak to the parent about their interest level and suggest they wait until the student is ready to commit to continue lessons.
Receiving Payment
If you are running a large studio, something such as My Music Staff is a good tool for managing payment. However, if you are just getting started, you can take payment in a variety of forms—cash, check, Venmo, Paypal, Square (credit card).
For your first student, it is ok to stick to cash or check. Once you are ready to grow your studio, I do recommend setting up something like My Music Staff, or a business Venmo/Paypal/Square account. This will require you register your business as a sole proprietor or LLC and open a business checking account. I am not a licensed accountant,* but my understanding is you don’t need to formally declare your income until after $600. *Please consult with a licensed accountant for all tax related questions.
Pricing Your Oboe Lessons
Deciding what to charge for your private lessons when teaching oboe can be a challenge. The best way to price your hourly rate is to ask around. What are other music instructors in your regional area charging? If you are just getting started, charge a little less. As soon as you get some experience, charge what others are charging in your area. When you have years of experience, charge more! You are offering a valuable service and your prices should reflect that value. As you gain more experience, your instruction will become more valuable and your rates should reflect that.
Final Thoughts
Diving in can feel overwhelming, but just get started. This guide is a great starting place, but you will learn as you go along. Covering the essentials in the first lesson or two will make a tremendous difference. Once the student has an understanding of basic instrument and reed care, a list of required supplies, lesson expectations, and some basic fundamentals, you will be off to the races.
Teaching Oboe FAQ’s
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The oboe is a difficult instrument to be self-taught and can be incredibly frustrating to learn on your own. Reeds are made out of organic material and need to be hand-made or hand-adjusted by a professional to play correctly. Working with a professional oboe instructor can help you identify issues and eliminate problems with the instrument and reed so you can learn to play the oboe with eas.
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All instruments are hard to play, but the oboe is arguably one of the hardest to play! The oboe uses a double reed which is made out of two pieces of cane. This organic material needs to be hand-adjusted by a professional to work properly. Reed making and adjusting can take decades to learn because of the complex nature and thin material of an oboe reed.
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Yes, the oboe is harder then the clarinet because it uses a double reed. Double reeds are extremely thin and delicate. Reed making requires years of expertise that can present a challenging aspect to learning the oboe for the first time. However, with a qualified oboe instructor providing guidance and reed adjustments, learning the oboe can be as easy as the clarinet.
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The first few notes on the oboe are usually A, Bb, and G in the lower-middle range. These are easy notes to get out for the first time. They are easy to finger and respond well. I recommend the Rubank Elementary Method for Oboewhich walks you through these first few notes and beyond!
