Drewisms
Our imaginations are often bigger than our ears.
The gouge is every reedmaker's favorite scapegoat.
The crow is a deceptive diagnostic. Don't obsess over it. Just make sure your reeds play well.
If you feel your knife dulling, you should've sharpened it five minutes ago.
Good reeds promote good habits, and bad reeds promote bad habits. So practice on good reeds. Don't save them for performances.
Embouchure development isn't like weightlifting. There's no benefit in increasing resistance with progressively harder reeds. It's more like training for a marathon. It's about form, efficiency, and stamina.
Don't be a name-dropper. Nobody likes a name-dropper.
Nothing awes an audience like an oboist's indifference to oxygen.
Anyone can convey motion through sixteenth notes. Learn to make a whole note dance.
The player, the reed, and the instrument all contribute to tone, but not equally. The player is most important, the reed a close second, and the instrument a distant third.
You can learn from your favorite players, but you can't sound just like them. And even if you could, you shouldn't. They're them, and you're you. So cultivate your own inimitable "voice." Play with authenticity, with conviction. Make every phrase your own.
Big reeds make small sounds, and small reeds make big sounds.
The less black ink on the page, the more you should practice it.
Don't play too fast too soon. Aim for control, not speed. Speed will come in time. But without control, it's useless.
"Dark" and "bright" are prosaic. You can do better. Describe tone creatively.
There are no do-overs in performance, so learn to play it right the first time.
Practice with purpose. Don't just play. If you're not getting better, you're probably getting worse.
Scrape first for response, intonation, stability, and flexibility, then for tone. Tone is important, but function is more important.