I`ve been playing bassoon for almost 4 years now and it is definentely a pleasure. The only thing I have trouble with is Tenor Clef, but I`m only starting high school, so I`m on the right track I believe.

hey i don`t play the barking bedpost i play the alto sax but if you want to go bassoon`n(eeek) just start practicing and i`m sure you`ll do fine.

wow.... so reading the posts in the forum make me realize... no wonder colleges are hurting for good bassoonists... because there are SO FEW.... from what ive read there is one person that seems to know what hes talking about.... what a releif.... i play all of the wooodwinds, cello and french horn. I dont want to sound like a snob... But the key is practice and most students dont really cut it... I practice min. 3hrs a day. I dont think im amazing.. But i am a junior in hs. and im playing in 3 college groups... their Symphony, wind ensemble, and chamber ensemble... I taught myself bassoon at first and then started taking lessons, but i already have the music part down, ive been playing music since 3rd grade. My teacher was amazed i taught myself to flick correctly on my own.. :-p ive always loved bassoon and when i knew id be getting one i learned fingerings and bass cleff before i even had it. Im deff. going to be a music major. Hm... the hardest thing about bassoon? lol... Tuning is a big issue... u may be able to get good tone, and correct fingerings.. but what you really need to do is sit infront of a tuner playing through the range of ur instrument.... Hopefully Bb-high E.... and see how ur tuning is... it takes a lot in ur embessure and a lot of good air support... But theres something that makes it better and its free :-) practice! Ciao.

Hey,
Well i play bassoon too,i`m pretty bad it has to be said!The worst thing for me is definately fingerings cos having played cello for 10 years i get real mixed up between them but good luck!and if you get frustrated remeber, you`re probably better than me!

Anyone who says Bassoon is easy is not good at it.

Well I just started to play bassoon on monday and I know all the fingerings possibal on the bassoon. I have a concert comming up on Sunday and I am playing a solo and then on tuesday I am going to go to play at a wedding. so I will say yes but only if you are willing to put in the time"3-4 hours a day"

Bassoon, as a begginner, is not that hard to play, however, once you get on to some more advanced repetoire, like the classical concertos, like the mozart, weber, some of vivaldi, that is where the bassoon starts to get hard. With regards to tuning, I dont know what bassoons you have, but I have heard that i america, you have really crap bassoons, which ae completely duff and will never play an even scale. However, I have a quite good, old alder, which has quite a good, although not perfect scale. If you want to play bassoon, then you must be prepared to work to make the bassoon sound good. THat is part of what being a bassoonist is. I fyou are not willing to do this, perhaps you should play a different instrument.

I dont know all the fingerings of the bassoon, and will not pretend to, and I have been playing for 5 years. the bassoon is such an instrument that noone ever knows all the fingerings. dont be so stupid

Nick

Well I just started to play bassoon on monday and I know all the fingerings possibal on the bassoon. I have a concert comming up on Sunday and I am playing a solo and then on tuesday I am going to go to play at a wedding. so I will say yes but only if you are willing to put in the time"3-4 hours a day"

^Either i misunderstood that or you jumped into the bassoon quicker than I`ve ever heard. I can`t imagine having every note memorized within 5 days of playing and then having a concert with it.

and on american bassoons. as far as i know they shouldn`t be any different than in europe or anywhere else because their all made by the same companies, I.E. Moosman, Renard, Heckel etc. Besides everyone knows that all the best bassoonists live in United States so why would they limit all the good bassoons to the crappy players lol

there are 17 fingerings for high f sharp, you don`t know them all!

I`ve only been playing bassoon for about a month now. Stretching the fingers, and reading bass clef hasn`t been too hard because I`ve been playing piano for a long time. Low notes aren`t that hard, what I find are the high notes - High C and upwards. Very hard...

I have been playing the alto saxophone for about 7 years now since fourth grade. I have recently switched to bassoon just for a change. Little did i know i really like it! I am planning on making a career out of it. As for the hardest part, my opinion is the higher register fingerings and getting them to come out in tune. Luckily my band director is a bassoonist so i have some detailed on lessons and reed shaping. I have found some bassoon concerti and wanted to know is double tonguing a must know technique? The bassoonist in this music could play triplets faster than anyone i have ever heard.

it was probably klauss thuneman. thats the baddest bassoonist i`ve ever seen. he can spin it through his legs, bounce it off the backboard and tomahawk slam straight through. No but seriously. he`s amazing. i`ve never heard anyone tounge as fast as he can and thats even considering the world of some other instruments like trumpet and flute which are more notorious for their fast tonguing. as far as i know he`s probably the best bassoonist i know of. if anybody knows someone who is just as good i`d like to know bout him and maybe compare the two. and no jay you are not better. lol

Really the bassoon isn`t as hard as it`s made out to be. I started a few months ago, and I can play any music we get handed in band. I think it`s important though that you not only study scales and other fingering exercises, but you also should play music you like. Much of the problem with the bassoon is the highschool music you get is rather boring, so if you go outside even bassoon repitoire and play piano music or some sort that you like, you can go quite far quickly. Most people say that the fingerings are insane and illogical, but in all honesty they are similar to the clarinet, probably because the clarinet was invented by an oboe and bassoon maker. I think it`s weird that in highschool the director usually has a saxophone or flute student switch, when really, the smallest leap between an instrument and bassoon would be with the clarinet.

If you are good at bassoon, then you know that it is not easy. As someone said further up in this thread, if you think bassoon is easy, then you aren`t good at it. You say you can easily play band music; to tell you the truth, that means nothing. Anyone can play band music... try playing the Mozart Concerto, then say Bassoon is easy.

I shouldn`t be commenting like this when I`m still a future bassoonist, but in band bassoons mostly (80%!) play the trombone, baritone, bass guitar music, so it`s usually like E A E A E A back and forth and stuff and ya. I know for sure I`m not 100% correct, but just to point out.