How Hard is the bassoon to pick up?

[Joeybsmooth1]

As a Tenor and Bari player could I just pick up a bassooon and play it( If I had a fingering chart)

[Subbie]

No, it's a completely different embouchure.
You should get a private teacher for at least a few lessons to get started

[Rowka]

How Hard is the bassoon to pick up?


In a case with a good handle, I imagine it's quite easy.

[captorquewrench]

My daughter plays bassoon. IMO, from what I have seen and attempted myself with her help, no you can't just pick it up. It's a very different beast on many levels. Like subbie I also recommend a few lessons to get you started.

[Martin Williams]

Im with Rowka, not to heavy at all!!

Seriously though, that is one instrument you dont wanna try without a teacher!

[whaler]

Maybe a bassooooooooooon would be more difficult. Oboe might be easier, but a bassoon will burn longer.

[Dr G]

Bassoon was my concert instrument from high school through college. It is not an instrument to take up as a casual double. Consider, instead, buying a classical mouthpiece for your tenor and committing any extra time to that.

Tenor. Nothing else matters.

[chitownjazz]

In a case with a good handle, I imagine it's quite easy.
But playing it is another matter entirely.

Better to try an easy instrument like clarinet. :twisted:

[zxcvbnm]

You could just pick it up and play (that's what I did for a few weeks), but you would have to focus almost entirely on long tones and building your embouchure. If you ever want to get anywhere on it, you need a teacher.

[jazzsax07]

Are you out of your F...ing mind! :)

As a former band teacher, I only felt adequate teaching bassoon when I was working with a choir teacher who was a bassoon major.

[And7barton]

I found it damn hard to learn...... and really, never did, properly.
Unlike the clarinet...... I once bought a clarinet, played with it for half-an-hour.... then packed up my tenor sax and went off on a gig. I took my clarinet with me to show my fellow musicians in the band. When I got there, I discovered I'd left the neck of my sax laying on the arm of my settee........ Since it was miles from home to this venue, I had to grab the clarinet, and pretty well learnt it onstage ! - I was fronting a lineup of guitar, bass guitar and drums so I couldn't hide away. Well, I got through it...... God only know what it must have sounded like..... it was a long long time ago.
I can even remember the venue - Winding Way Social Club, in Dagenham.
Try doing that with a bassoon !

[Ralfy]

My friend switched from tenor sax to bassoon in 7th grade. It wasn't an easy change because, like everyone has already said, it has a double embouchure. It probably made it a little bit easier that he completely stopped playing tenor and concentrated only on bassoon though. He also told me that the fingerings were pretty difficult at first.

Some notes he still can't get out after playing almost 3 years on it.

[Tim Price]

JUST DO IT.....:) :!:

DIG THIS- Your brain must be kept active through learning and through regular vigorous exercise. As long as you keep learning new things, your networks will remain strong and your brain will act like young kid.
It’s when you stop learning that you loose mental performance and you slowly start down the path towards the fog. It’s up to you and only you to exercise your brain and keep it young. SO, with that said, get a bassoon and dive in....while your doing it your gonna have fun. (( Plus, in most high school orchestras etc the " other " bassoon players are women.:D
I had some great times in high school with the flutes and bassoon female players. ))

But not to get off topic....haha.... By exercising your brain and learning something new, your brain physically changes. BASSOON IS PERFECT!

Be a life long learner....JUST DO IT.
If you need reeds ask me I'll help ya.

Have fun and good luck.

[Fred]

I'm about to commit sacrilege here - at least to the real bassoon players. But there is an alternative for sax players. Don't forget the handy-dandy bassoon mouthpiece made by our friends at Runyon Products. It at least needs to be mentioned in a thread involving a sax player wanting to try his hand at bassoon.

http://runyonproducts.com/bassoon.html

[asaxman]

Not only are there embouchure issues, but the bassoon has 12 thumb keys! It is written in bass clef, and the fingerings, and cross fingerings are very complex. Next, you have to deal with reeds, YIKES! The bassoon has a huge range. Good luck! Double, don't dabble!

[Merlin]

Not only are there embouchure issues, but the bassoon has 12 thumb keys! It is written in bass clef, and the fingerings, and cross fingerings are very complex. Next, you have to deal with reeds, YIKES! The bassoon has a huge range. Good luck! Double, don't dabble!

Don't forget about tenor and treble clefs!

I just finished a matinee of Irving Berlin's White Christmas here in Toronto, playing the Reed 5 book (bari/bs clar/clar/bassoon).

The bassoon is the double that's gotten me some great theatre work over the years.

[Exiled92]

One of my few theatre experiences was in high school, playing reed 4 in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - clarinet, bari, and bassoon. A fun part! That was with about 5 years into bassoon and 1 or 2 into clarinet. For bassoon I had teachers, but clarinet was self-taught. I sounded fine on bassoon at that point, and quite passable on a borrowed Buffet clarinet. However, had it been the other way around (lessons on clarinet, self-taught on bassoon), there is no way I would ever have gotten the part. In fact, as I think about it, all of my theatre gigs have involved bassoon - sometimes alone, sometimes with other reeds.

A teacher is absolutely vital for learning bassoon, and it's best if that teacher is a double reed specialist. Oh, and tenor clef is from the devil.

[Joeybsmooth1]

Tim when I was in middle school , I wanted to play the flute for just that reason. But my mom me me play the t-bone. No cute girls there, then I had to play the tuba. So no love there. I am just glad my school need a bari.

Girls were like .. You sax is just so big.

[Ralfy]

Girls were like .. You sax is just so big.

Yeah it was like that for me too. It got to the point where they wanted to press the keys and blow on it too.