Oboe has less back pressure but Bassoon has harder fingerings (Oboe is standard Bohem invented system Bassoon is not), a larger range (a good player could get 4 octaves meaning more fingerings to learn they change when you get way up there), no octave key, harder to cover the holes ( it is like low whistle vs. high whistle), Bassoons haver very weird intonation, and finally Oboe players can be as out of tune as they like because the rest of the Orchestra tunes to them. Yes Bassoon is harder, Horn is the hardest brass probably why they mention it but some would argue that Trombone is more difficult because of the slide but that is a load of crap. Pipes (especially UPs and GHBs) are still harder
I would hazard a guess that French Horn is on the hardest list due to the small mouthpiece relaying the slightest change which then changes the sound.
When I played oboe I did not even know what backpressure was, much less be worried about it. That was a case of the ignorance of youth. I just liked it, so I played it. I do remember hearing a guest instructor who played for what seemed like forever on one breath. I was extremely impressed. He taught me proper breathing technique.
I;ve gotta think Upipes using regulators full-tilt has to require the most physical coordination of anything.
What other instrument has each elbow, both hands, and the freaking wrists doing completely different things simultaneously?
THe hardest thing about GHBs, for me, was maintaining a steady pressure. The weak point was lips.
I would have thought the trombone is the most difficult instrument. It can play an infinite number of notes, nearly all of which are wrong.
Live and learn.
Roger
Yep.
I think organ might come close. Reading three staves of music at once, using both feet, and both hands, on three different keyboards (manuals, we call them) and maintaining the awareness to push the different pistons you need to switch sets of stops is pretty tough.
Last Sunday I got to church about 30 minutes before the service. This is later than usual, but I’d gotten in some organ time on Sat. afternoon, had all my settings written down for the hymns I’d decided on,and was ready. WRONG!! I’d forgotten that the priest had given me a list about a month ago of the music we’d be doing instead of what is suggested in our “guide book” for that Sunday. It was morning prayer service, which we rarely do, and a lessons and carols type service so that meant about five more hymns than usual- and usual is five plus all the service music. Boy, was I sweating it!! I don’t know if I’ve ever concentrated so hard while playing.
I still don’t think organ is as hard as GHBs . They are just physically difficult and so cranky.I can’t imagine it to be as hard as Upipes. But organ would come close, that’s for sure. But it’s certainly fun to have that much power, in both plain old volume and the complexity of sound that can be produced. 