Right now I`m in 7th grade and play alto sax. I want to play bassoon in my school`s band because there`s like only 3 bassoons out of 100~140 band students in 7th and 8th grade and I also like the sound of bassoon so do you guys think I would be able to learn bassoon quickly?

playing the bassoon is really cool, i`m glad that you`re interested in it... and with only 3 bassoons, you`ll probably get a lot of attention too.. i`m the only bassoon in a band of around 40, and it`s really fun to be the only bassoon... learning it is pretty simple, have you asked your band director if it`s possible for you to switch?

ooh, but i noticed you play sax, if you`re planning on playing both, it`ll be hard o keep the embouchures... i have absolutely no idea why, but specifically on the sax, if you are on a double reed but you go back to sax, and then you go back to a double reed again, you`re embouchure will be ruined for the double reed. just forewarning... it`s possile to get used to playing the two of them back and forth though...

alright but i do think i`ll be playing both thanks for the comment!

for starters the bassoon isn`t any more difficult to learn than any other instrument. Depending on how far along the rest of your band is you may want to take some private lessons to catch up. There shouldn`t be a problem with your embochure. I used to play flute and switched to bassoon. i`ve never had a problem with switching embochure and flute and double reed are about as different as they come.

yea but, the thing is, switching from the flute and bassoon IS not as difficult because of the fact that the embouchures are so different. there`s no doubt about that. since the sax and bassoon embouchures are a little bit alike, at first you might bite on the double reed when playing, etc... but with practice of getting used to switching embouchures, it`ll come naturally afterwards. but i do agree with the above posters comments on getting a private teacher to catch up with the rest of the band. good luck =)

yes i was planning to get a private instructor alright thank you very much!

i have a friend who plays bassoon and saxaphone and she has 0 trouble with it

sice you guys are on this topic i might as well ask this? how bout playing both tuba and bassoon. is that a hard switch?

i don`t have any personal experience with the tuba but from what i understand it doesn`t really matter what your switching between because you will be able to change your embochure based on what your playing. its just like people who play percussion. they don`t have trouble going between the snare and the gong even though they require to different mallets and two different ways of holding them.

thanks that was a big help

I started playing bassoon two years ago and my band teachers think I can easily beat their upper class players. It may look hard, but it`s really not. I chose it because no one else in my class played it. You should be able to play it since you have previous experience in music. When I first started playing, I had never read a lick of music in my life. Now I know how to play flute also.

thanks for the help guys!