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if people say it's hard...then you've already got the answer...i mean, i doubt we'll give you a different answer

well ur not a very optimistic person and since when r clarinets at all related to tacos?!?!

Hey! biggrin I'm a clarinet player and started playing the oboe a month and a half ago! Holy Crap!

Um... Oboe isn't really 'hard' it's just the ambeture (sp?) is quite different and the fingerings are more complicated. xD

For reeds, I don't think there's really a size. There's Soft, Medium Soft, and Hard. Since you played the clarinet, you should go with Medium Soft.

I'm learning the oboe now because we have a kinda small band and our oboe player was a senior and she graduated, but she was really good.

So Yeah... >.>

my little brother posted that when i waz still at school sorry

to "toco clarinet": haha!! very clever!! me like 3nodding

to "V-VstephV-V": it shoouldnt be that hard..yes, the fingerings aren't that hard, but the only problem is the sound quality since it's a double reed rather than a single reed. so really practice on good tone cuz if you dont you'll sound like a dying cat-monster-thing. where as if you have a great tone, it sounds so smooth and beautiful!! biggrin so keep at it kiddo!!

Clarinet and oboe have very, very, very different embouchures. Clarinets hold the reed all pouty-like. Oboe players, well it's more like flute --- or maybe it's more like making your lips the way you would if you were trying to play a drinking straw like you would a flute. A lot of oboe players make the mistake of pinching the reed with their lips. That's just a recipe for a lot of pain and after a few minutes, you'll have completely worn out your lip muscles and they won't be able to hold the reed anymore so make sure you don't do that.

Fingerings are not like clarinet. They're related to flute fingerings. You'll have to get used to reading above the staff as well when you switch but at least it's still in treble clef.

As for reeds, it's usually best to start with a soft and a medium soft reed, no matter what instrument you played first, and that really goes for any new instrument and not just oboe. When I was started on clarinet as part of my repair apprenticeship, they gave me Rico 1 and 1.5 clarinet reeds (the softest reeds on the market), even though I play on the world's hardest bassoon reeds. Also, double reeds are a lot less forgiving of damage than single reeds. They won't play with nicks and chips and long cracks like a clarinet reed will.

And yes, oboe may well be the hardest instrument in the band, mostly becuase it's extremely easy to sound like a dying animal. You'll need to use a remarkable amount of air support. You'll want to make sure your oboe is kept in good shape becuase if it needs repairs, you might pass out trying to play. Oboe's ranked very high in the band on the amount of air it takes to play - right up there with piccolo (more than 1/2 the air blown out is wasted when the air stream is split at the mouthpiece to make the sound) and tuba (where there's so much high-diameter tubing to fill up to produce pitch).

Also, if you've been second or third clarinet, you should remember that oboe parts usually double flute so expect to be surprised by the amount of runs you'll be expected to play. You'll have to practice them. Unlike on clarinet, when you're playing oboe, you can't hide if you don't know the music. For the same reason, you might end up needing to count more carefully and make more notes on your music (so keep a pencil handy at all times). It wouldn't go amiss to practice rhythms and subdivision either, but that's not specific to oboe - it's for any musician that's planning to apply themselves. Look for "Raymond C. Fussell Exercises for Ensemble Drill" - you only need pages 40 and 41 so check if you band director has it before you buy it (though it's usually only around $3 anyways).

Jeez. What did I do to piss you off? Aside from the first point, all the rest seem like incredibly unfair criticisms. First, maybe you don't have experience with double reeds, but I was trying to give descriptions from a comparative point of view. I'm not saying clarinet players should stick their lower lip out and let it quiver while they play. I mean that double reed players roll their lips in whereas single reeds don't - the lips are left out/forward/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. Second, I mention being able to read above the staff becuase there is a huge difference between being able to figure out a note and being able to recognize it without thinking so you can hit it in the middle of sixteenth-note passages. Maybe you could read any note anywhere on any staff like that, but most students are comfortable in their instrument's range only. If you saw the note 2 B's above the treble staff, you'd be able to instantly identify it without counting the lines? Flute players can, but give them a G below the staff and they have to stop and think about it becuase that's a not they just don't have to know as it can't be played on their instrument. Yet, that note would be simple for a clarinet player to read. Third, you may be in denial about the habits of young third clarinetists but just becuase they shouldn't hide doesn't mean that they don't. Think of the shock when they're suddenly in a one-person section on an instrument with a piercing sound. I felt that that deserved mention in case the OP might be one of those clarinetists (not saying she is, just mentioning it in case). The other advice about counting and subdivision was meant as advice on how to cope with that problem. If you're in a one-person section, you're not able to rely on cues from your section-mates if you loose count, for example. Of course a lot of advice is good for any instrument and I do give some of it out to other instruments but I mentioned things here that might surprise someone switching to oboe... as requested by the OP. So maybe you shouldn't be so quick to criticize every little thing someone else says, especially if you don't have double reed experience yourself.