poor bassoonies... more people should go out busking! Think how much money you'd make!

Over here (Australia) many people are just surprised when they actually see a bassoon.

Unless they're avid classical music lovers or concert goers you always get some special attention for your bassoon with the shiny multitude of keys.

I think it'd be great for busking apart from

1) it's not very loud, can be drowned out easily by city noises
2) I wouldn't go busking with my darling Bassoon (Bessy Booms)
if you had a cheaper 2nd one then maybe.

Cheers
James

It's generally agreed by all of us bassoon enthusiasts that the bassoon plays a bigger and often unrecognized role in much of what we hear, but its also important to keep things in perspective for this threads starter (bassoonist06). If your school band is anything resembeling the school bands I've played and heard then the bassoon will be painfully neglected. Most pieces played at the middle school level are simplified versions of the complete works. This simplified versions usually try to cut down on the number of parts being played, so it is rare to find a distinct bassoon part in these pieces. You'll usually end up playing the bass line with the tubas, or trombones, or euphs, or someone like that. This isn't bad if you love playing nothing faster than an quarter note, but most of us like the ocassional melody and complex parts! The bassoon will become more and more important as the band you are a part of progresses and can play larger and more complex works ... so stick it out!

Over here (Australia) I'm surprised to see a bassoon

Look up 'Jazz Bassoon' and there is this site with picture of a bassoon pickup so...

If you have one of those vibration picups you could use that, i guess
I reckon the whole bassoon population should busk, or walk around with bassoon ads!

Over here (Australia) I'm surprised to see a bassoon

Look up 'Jazz Bassoon' and there is this site with picture of a bassoon pickup so...

If you have one of those vibration picups you could use that, i guess
I reckon the whole bassoon population should busk, or walk around with bassoon ads!



<Added>

Sorry about the double post

Dont basinsh me!

Bassoons never get the attention they deserve. Mostly because you get stuck playing the world's most boring parts (well maybe except for tuba. SNORE!) But there are also some really great bassoon solos in pieces which the conductor never chooses. In Brahms' Academic Festival Overture, there is this really short but great bassoon duo, which was cut out in the arrangement I played. I mean WHO CUTS OUT A BASSOON SOLO!!! SHAME ON THEM!!!
Anyway, bassoons are the bass of the woodwinds. It makes the sound of the woodwind sections more mellow.
In Australia, you have to explain what a bassoon is to most people. No-one cares about the bassoonists

Is this the place to tell a really funny story? Two weeks ago I was doing a trio with an oboe and piano and me on bassoon. Later a friend of the pianist emailed her and said how great it was, etc.etc., and then said, "especially that person playing the digeridoo. I have heard some natives make bird and kangaroo sounds on them, but I have never heard Mozart played on a digeridoo! Amazing!"

It made my day!

Same here! Everyone at least knows that the bassoon is in the oboe family, but I have had people call it a bass-oboe, in which it sort of is, to bass clarinet. Most younger people just call it a 'thing'. It just seems that the bassoon is not the most glamourous of the instruments, but it is one of the most essential to many compositions, whether grand or petite.

I went busking with my bassoon choir last year (yes, bassoon choir, there were 20 of us!) and we drew loooads of attention to ourselves, 20 of us walking through a shopping centre carrying our bassoons (out of our cases so people could see them) and some guy walking the opposite way said 'oboe you don't!'

Love it!