I am 15. I play the flute, guitar, violin and piano. The orchestra director in town needs a basoon player badly. He encouraged me to start learning the basoon. I was wondering about how long it takes to learn.

I`m starting to play the bassoon next thursday. My flute teacher at school is going to teach me. My teacher told me it wouldn`t take too long beacause with playing the flute i allready know the baisics of reading the music and the types of notes. All That is needed to learn is the fingering and how to blow the reed. If yo`re like me you should find it alright. GOOD LOOK!!!!

Well did you know that the bassoon music is written in bass clef? Flute is in treble clef, so unless you already know how to read bass clef, you might take some time to adjust... So even if you can read all the notes and stuff for flute, you`re gonna still have to learn more.

P.S., does your flute teacher play bassoon as well? I would think a bassoon teacher is better than a flute teacher in this case...

meh, the bassoon, i got a hang of the bass clef in a few weeks. i still don`t know ALL the fingerings, the bassoon is an instrument that takes a lot of attention... =/

how long are you supposed to soak a new reed?

You only really need to soak a new reed for 2-3 minutes. After you`ve played it a few times, you only need to soak it for 30 seconds to a minute. This is pretty much the same for all reed instruments.

how long to learn bassoon??? i have been learning the bassoon for 6 years, will probably go to music college next year, and am still probably only a beginner, or an intermediate. when you have been in someting like the chicago, or the new york, or the london symphony orchestra for 35 - 40 years, that is when you have "learnt" the bassoon, when you have played it long enough to know all of the idiosyncrasies that come with learning all the different fingerings. i am just starting to learn some advanced trill fingerings, your learning never ever stops, particularly on something like the bassoon

Soak your read for about 1 - 2 mins. dont go over 5 mins unless they are completely new

yea i agree. playing any instrument is a continuing learning experience... except fo the recorder.. iunno about that one

Im gonna have to agree with fred on this one. Ive been playing the bassoon for 7 years now-- and its an ever continuing learning experience. Sure you can know some of the basics in a few weeks but it takes an extreme long time to master everything (if thats even really possible.. lol). Even if you have memorized the fingerings and can read the music you still can work on the tone and things such as that. From my experience however people usually do not pick up the bassoon as fast as they pick up other instruments, but thats just from my experience and what I have seen.

As for soaking a reed, I always began setting up in the band by soaking. When my instrument was assembled and my seat strap was arranged just so, my reed was ready.

The bassoon is a very interesting instrument, i`ve been playing for 2 1.5 years and i`ve got up to grade 3 but as you are already musically minded it shouldn`t take very long to master the basic bassoon talent