As oboists, everything we do rests on the air we breathe, and comes from that. The Breathing Book cleverly explains many easy-to-practice exercises which will help to improve any oboist's approach to this, the core of our technique.
Gordon Hunt - International soloist and Principal Oboe of The Philharmonia Orchestra, London
The Breathing Book is a 'must read' for oboists of all levels, from students to professional performers. Stephen Caplan has clearly defined and clarified the complexities of proper breathing and posture, with all of the exercises having been carefully crafted and sequenced to achieve the optimal performance results. <em>Carolyn Hove - Solo English Horn, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Dr. Stephen Caplan's new book, The Breathing Book, is an oboe-specific guide to all things having to do with breathing and tone production. Stephen says that understanding breath is the key to improving every aspect of oboe playing and I certainly agree. His book has thirty lessons with informative and clever explanations and exercises that address many breathing issues we deal with in playing as well as teaching. I only wish I had these lessons myself when starting out my oboe playing career. I also could have used this kind of resource early on in my teaching. It certainly would have helped de-mystify the process of teaching breathing and support. I think that a student’s study of this subject would be more complete when paired with Stephen’s Oboemotions text on Body Mapping. Standing on its own, however, The Breathing Book is a great resource of lessons with great examples from long tone exercises, to Barret etudes, to excerpts from Telemann and Tschaikovsky that apply to each of the lessons. This book is easy to read, to understand, and to apply to the oboe. Congratulations and a big “thank you” to Stephen for providing us all with such a terrific resource.
Dr. Mark S. Ostoich, Professor of Music, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
It is wonderful that this book gives us a series of practical exercises to help focus on the quality of one’s breathing. We may know about how we should breathe while playing the oboe, but, if we forget to practice our daily exercises, we might not really do it well when it most matters, say, in a concert when we can be a little preoccupied. Of course we will learn a lot in the 30 days of (a little) work that Stephen recommends, but we should find our own ways to carry this into the rest of our days. We owe this to all the people who listen to us play our great and difficult instrument.
Allan Vogel - Principal Oboe, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Faculty - California Institute of the Arts, Colburn Conservatory of Music, and the University of Southern California
