I'm in 6th grade and I started playing oboe this year. Not many people play oboe so these posts rarely get replied to. I have a good tone quality (according to my teacher) I don't have that "duck" sound. If I play like 10 measures of notes my lips will give out and starting buzzing as if I were playing a brass instrument. I believe if you practice more, you can avoid that. Oboe is a hard and expensive instrument to play, over the past 2 months I have gone through 6 reeds and each reed is $15. Expect to pay more than $30 each month for reeds. You'll need patience and sometimes you'll get extremely frustrated and just throw your oboe. And its usually because of the reed. Don't let reeds discourage you, inspect a reed before you buy it and don't get frustrated. I recommend a Jone's Medium Soft Reed for practice and keep a Marlin Lesher for performances. Jones are consistent and durable while Marlin Lesher are fragile but sound great in short periods like in performances. Oboe reeds and extremely fragile so take care of them. Even if there is no physical damage, oboe reeds will stop playing or sound worse after a week or two. Don't use an oboe reed past 3 weeks because its not going to sound right.