If You Think This Instrument Is Hard to Play, Try Building One(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
If You Think This Instrument Is Hard to Play, Try Building One
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/arts/music/oboe-laubin-jim-phelan.html
9 comments
I have a small woodworking hobby and own several large machines for it. I also love to play the banjo and work hard at improving my play.
There is no way I’m going to combine the two. The amount of time consumed would destroy my primary hobbies.
There is no way I’m going to combine the two. The amount of time consumed would destroy my primary hobbies.
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Only slightly related, but skills in building instruments (or AI) are basically orthogonal to skills in playing/using instruments (or AI).
Also slightly related, the map is not the territory.
Also slightly related, the map is not the territory.
Building picks and shovels vs. using picks and shovels
Silly observation: the garage door rolls up to reveal the Oboe maker, but the nyt subscription paywall moves up the screen faster, as though parodying itself.
my bottle gravel shaker didn't seem tooooooo bad
Once that's mastered then realize what's really needed is to make each one slightly better than the last, but only by such a slight degree that for everyday users they are still virtually identical.
Then what you end up with in the long run is allowed to be much different than when it started, but there are no major surprises along the way.
"Continuous improvement" is really just stepwise on a relatively different timescale.