What Is An Oboe?

I want to get an oboe, but my parents can only afford a student model. What should I do?

• I want to get the fox 333 protege oboe, but we can only afford the Yamaha 241 oboe. I know I should get an oboe with left hand f and b flat, but I can't. What should I do?

• Answer:

  It really is helpful to have the left F key from the beginning, and in many places you cannot be competitive at region auditions without that and a low Bb, as the range most middle school region auditions call for is low Bb to high Eb. You should look into used oboes. Ask your oboe teacher to help you with this, as they will know what is good. If you can't find anything within your price range, the Yamaha is one of the better student-line instruments. Try these: http://www.hannahsoboes.com/ http://www.carlosoboe.com/buy-an-oboe/used-oboes/ http://store.mmimports.com/used-oboes/?sort=featured&page=1 Ebay and craigslist are much more dangerous--you'll want your teacher's advice on anything you buy (so you don't end up buying some Chinese-made piece of junk), and you should still set aside as much as $500 on potential repairs for things like old pads. A new fox 330 for about half of what they usually cost: http://www.ebay.com/sch/Oboe-/112678/i.html?_pgn=2&_skc=50&rt=nc http://www.ebay.com/itm/Barre-by-Laubin-Wood-Oboe-with-Left-F-/261463010990?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce068eeae (Break in wooden oboes CAREFULLY) There are a lot of relatively cheap Yamaha 410's and 411's, but I don't know much about those. I've heard that they're a lot less good than Yamaha is now, but I haven't heard anything bad. If you want to try one of those, ASK YOUR TEACHER, and maybe see if you can try one back-to-back with the 241 to see how they stack up.