Find the major parts of the oboe in this picture.
The reed is made from a piece of cane attached to a metal tube called a staple. To make a double reed, first a strip of cane is cut, folded over, and tied onto the staple with twine. The end is sliced off, leaving an open slit. The upper end of the reed is carefully scraped away with a knife until the two "blades" vibrate freely when you blow.
The oboe has a complex arrangement of metal keywork that makes the instrument surprisingly heavy to hold. The keys cover holes in the body of the oboe, and make it possible to create different pitches.
The upper octave key controls the highest of the oboe's high notes. It is operated by the side of the left index finger.
Keys operated by the little fingers are very important on woodwind instruments. Pressing down on any of the little finger keys will open or close a hole further down the instrument which the hands can't reach.
Professional oboe and English horn players spend many hours making their own reeds and reeds for their students. The cane comes from France and looks like bamboo, only it's stronger.
You can see in this picture of the English horn that even though it looks similar to the oboe, its reed end is angled and its bell is pear-shaped. It's also lower in pitch than the oboe, and a few inches longer.
Why is it called the English horn? Nobody really knows, but here's one theory. The predecessor of the English horn is the oboe da caccia [say dah KAH-chah]. That's Italian for "hunting oboe." Perhaps the horn part of its name comes from the idea of the hunt or hunting horns. Maybe early on, the name horn was used interchangeably for any instrument used during a fox hunt. (Do you have a better guess?) Now about the English part. The early instruments were made in a bent shape, or angle. Today this part is the metal bocal, which is angled towards the players mouth and holds the reed and staple in place. One theory has it that the French word "angle" was mistranslated as "anglais" which is the French word for "English." Are you confused yet?
