Bassoonjedi's Library

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741), nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest")

A happy, happy birthday to Antonio Vivaldi. Unless you are living under a rock, or are completely new to Bassoon, Vivaldi composed over 30 Concertos (and counting), and many a bassoon teacher will tell their students that playing Vivaldi on bassoon is comparable to playing Bach on piano. Vivaldi’s music demands a clean technique, focused attention span, and disciplined practice method. They are also fun to play. Happy birthday Tony!

Tags: bassoon, bassoon concerto, method, sonata, vivaldi
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Most students cannot wait to tongue fast. It’s the first step to asserting yourself as a “Serious” bassoonist. Like revving the engine at a stop light. Most performers are initially measured by how fast they can play, and this could be used as a fair measuring stick, I’d prefer to measure a performer by how CLEANLY they perform.

But as the local bassoonist, it became clear to me at an early age that the studs of the band could play fast, and wield their tongues like Eddie Van Halen. I had a taste for heavy metal, and in my college years I decided to break down the barriers between my air-guitar fantasies, and my geeky-bassoon abilities. I decided I was going to play metal, and be the fastest tounguer anyone had ever heard. It didn’t take long in my higher education to learn that faster didn’t mean better, and clean always won competitions.

But where does one start? You can’t just jump into “Fight Fire With Fire”, you have to learn the essentials. Here’s how I sped up my tongue:

1) Start Slow. Sounds stupid right? You have to learn to walk before you can run, and with disciplined practice you can experience measured results quicker with discipline. Again, cleaner players are more valuable, and being able to perfectly tongue notes quickly puts you in the final rounds of the auditions. Play at the speed of perfection.

2) Assuming you already know how to start and stop notes with the tip of your tongue, take your reed with you. If you drive yourself to school or around town take your reed out, and tongue in small groups of 8-16 notes. Naturally, this is a solitary practice, and exposing others to speed drills can cause mass hysteria.

3) Pick your syllables. This was a final hurdle for me, and hopefully I have spared you. Most wind players swear by the “Ducka-ducka”, but I always found that my tongue would seal the air off completely, making a void in my mouth, and bring the music to a screeching halt. So try “tee-kee-tee-kee” It brings the tongue forward, and allows for faster movement.

Coming up: Part-two – Exercises and excuses

Tags: enbouchure, metallica method, practice techniques, tonguing
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One of the first scales I teach any new student is the F Major scale. It’s the keystone (Rosetta stone, touch stone) to a fundamentally sound beginning in bassoon playing. The F Major scale reinforces the base pedagogical 1-2-3, 1-2-3 fingering style that all wood winds base their fingerings off of. It helps the student find the middle range of the instrument, and gives them a base to create a solid foundation of intonation. It helps form the embouchure for middle and low notes, and introduces the second thumb key for the student to become familiar with (the fist being the whisper key). More and more these days, I begin to teach this scale, and find that a band director has assigned the wrong key to use for b-flat. This isn’t the band director’s fault, there are approximately 18 different fingerings per note, but I’m amazed that the fingering most commonly taught is the trill fingering.

Bassoontrainer.com has this offending key as the “b-flat key”, and I couldn’t disagree more. Has anyone ever played this fingering for an entire rehearsal before? This is an alternate fingering used for soft entrances and trills. If a student were to try an perform the Mozart Concerto with this key, proudly playing on stage and using enough air to project to the cheap seats the failings of this fingering would be readily apparent. If you are trying to gently pull a b-flat from the ethers of silence, much like the beginning of the Rhapsody for Bassoon (1952) by Osborne, then I would highly recommend it. But a bright and clear b-flat should always be performed with the b-flat thumb key.

I will admit fully that I am biased, but then again, one of my favorite professors when I attended West Virginia University was Dr. Terry Ewell, and he is a master of bassoon fingerings.  If his 30+ years of bassoon fingering research has concluded that this key is indeed a trill key, then I will yield to that wisdom.  In earnest, I beg all of you out there reading this and instructing beginning students: Do them a favor, do your band a favor, do your studio a favor, and teach the b-flat fingering with the proper b-flat thumb key. What seems so trivial can save a lifetime of work.

Tags: alternate fingering, b-flat, Basic Bassoon Playing, Bassoon 101, Dr. Ewell, fingering, trill key, WVU
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Earlier in the blog, I wrote about Self-Critique and instilling this process in young students. I usually reserve today’s method for advanced students. Once they have reached a level of comprehension where they are focused

on breath control, dynamics, and clean fingering to reach a top speed of perfection, I like to make their world even more intricate and introduce the idea of time traveling.

This is a method that I discovered after reading The Watchmen by Alan Moore. Near the center of the book, Dr. Manhattan reflects on time on the surface of Mars. The key sentence to me was “All we ever see of stars are their old photographs.” as Moore explains how the light traveling to us is so old that we don’t get to see the stars as they are. This thought married my comic book geek world with my musical world, and opened a portal of musical conscious to me that allowed me to relate the process to my students as a side effect of self critique.

An advanced musician can exist simultaneously in 3 main temporal states as they perform. The first being the present as they perform their music, they move through time as the notes are dictated to them. The second is the past. The musician catalogs all the aspects of their performance, good and bad to reflect on later for analysis and improvement. The third is the future, where student should look ahead to anticipate key changes in meter, dynamic, and problem areas.

Most musicians will say, “Well duh! We ALL do that.”, but at what depth? Explaining this to a student is usually the first hurdle, and I usually pull this out of my bag of tricks once a student has reached a plateau so they will be inspired to move forward. I usually explain that the human brain moves at the speed of light (usually I pepper in a lot of Flash comments. I’m a comic book geek, can you blame me?), and the brain can handle the load of processing three different states of being at once if properly nurtured. They are usually examining their performance and taking mental notes on mistakes as they perform, so they have already achieved a state of duality. One of the first advanced techniques introduced is anticipation. Reading ahead, and adjusting performance which is another dual reality. The key element that marries these states of being is the music. It is the constant moving through time. Its steady march from beginning to end is the anchor through this temporal journey, and will help keep you focused as you flex your consciousness through the past, and look into the future at the same time.

Again the mastery of this technique takes a while as you train your brain to focus on different temporal states at once. Then it is a matter of how far in the past and future you are willing to travel while in the present, and eventually how wide your focus can be. My main goal is to reach the middle of the piece and see not only how the rest of the performance will transpire, but also look all the way to the beginning and see how it went. Some pieces are easier than others due to duration and difficulty, but with a discipline to focus forward and backwards simultaneously, you can reach exponential growth.

All good things in time I guess.

Tags: advanced bassoon techniques, Bassoonery
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I know I promised an article with vowel sounds, but I will probably write that article later in the week. Keep an eye on your RSS feeds and readers for that update. Today’s Bassoonery 101 is what I consider a key element to teaching music in a general practice. After the third lesson or so, the student has found their pitch center and is starting to explore the range of the instrument. They also begin to venture into the depths of the Weissenborn beginner lessons. Once a student begins to tackle entire strains of music without fumbling for fingerings or pitch centers I begin to ask them the following questions:

What did you think of your performance?

What did you like about your performance?

What would you improve about your performance?

And with those questions, I introduce them to a world of self-inflicted criticism that is a key element to becoming a musician. Music performance is a competitive practice by nature. The first years of a musician’s life are shaped a competitive environment until they reach a certain mastery-level that focuses more on taste and interpretation in favor of technique. Most music programs today begin in classroom environments such as band, orchestra, or choir. The students who will grow into advanced musicians respond to this classroom competition environment with an instinct to be first chair, or the best in their section. The student’s desire to take lessons, or at least attend them periodically, nurtures that instinct. Taking lessons helps the student move up in the section, or grow as fast as the musicians they are surrounded by. And their music lessons should help answer questions that will begin to surface.

How do I make first chair?

How can I get into All-State band?

How do I win a Scholarship?

As a teacher I want to feed this instinct, and by fostering the routine of self reflection, the student will begin to self-correct, and speed up the learning process.

What did you think of your performance?

What did you like about your performance?

What would you improve about your performance?

Notice the key words here as well. Even though a student may be as young as 10 or 11, I still use the term “Performance”. I like to have them acquainted with the idea that every time they play, they perform. Every etude is a performance, every scale they play is a performance, and every solo piece is a performance. The self reflective natures of the questions are also ordered depending on mood. If the student slumps after playing an etude, knowing they will have to answer the questions with disappointment, I naturally leave the “What did you like?” question for last. If I’m trying to keep a lesson on track, the “What would you improve?” is always last.

By repeatedly asking these questions, I set a habit for the student to question their performance when they go home to practice. If you can install the habit of self critique, you have sped up the learning process and given the student a gift.

Coming soon: The advanced critique method known in the Bassonjedi studio as “Time Travel”.

Tags: Basic Bassoon Playing, Bassoon 101, Bassoonery, critique, practice technique, teaching technique
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The embouchure is as hard to set properly as it is to spell correctly (This blog post brought to you by the F7 key). One thing I pass along to all my students is the idea of making a mistake LOUDLY. Make your mistakes loud and proud. Half the battle of bassoon playing is figuring out where the notes are in your embouchure, much like the horn. After orienting the student on C4 (As mentioned earlier) I also make sure that the loud and proud ideal is being observed to ensure there is solid breath support, and that the student won’t meekly attempt to play the instrument. The difference in other woodwind embouchures with a single reed is cushioning the top of the embouchure, and tightly sealing the reed. The embouchure shouldn’t be so tight that you wind up imploding your face, but enough to get air through the reed, and cushion the vibrations.

To practice setting the correct notes, I usually tell a student during practice to sit at a piano, or near a keyboard instrument. Bang on the note as loudly as possible, and practice holding the note, and tuning to it. Keyboards are easy since you can normally tape down the note, but a piano has a few tricks. You can bang on the note and hold the sustain pedal, and for advanced players, hold the key down without striking the string, and holding the sustain petal down while playing the note on the horn. If the string reverberates, you are in tune with that piano. Tuners with various long tones are ideal for this practice.

You can play long tones with the student over and over, but the real work is done after the lesson is over and the ideas are reinforced in the practice room. Long tones are essential for practice this first week, and the student should be moving up and down the fingerings to orient themselves on the tonal differences. After they start to feel comfortable, they should start and stop the notes to make sure that they can play them correctly from a “cold start”.

One chief thing I like to pick on in the first lessons is when the student starts and stops a note. Normally this is when the honking can occur, and can be easily quashed like a 3rd-world rebel uprising. I have never agreed with the idea of “Attacking a note”. What did the note do to you? It just wants life! And yet, the first days of band we are all taught to ATTACK the note. Another glorious term is the “Cut-off”. Cut-off? What are you cutting off? So what are you a bunch of savages? Attacking notes and scalping them?

So I take this time to teach that notes are started and stopped. A beginner is so worried about playing a long tone that they will sometimes let the note just die out without support, giving a nasty honking wail at the end. This is where the discipline of starting and stopping notes has to be cemented into their minds. End the note cleanly. No honking allowed. If you are blessed with active parents, tell them that the student should be (A) Playing loud and proud, and (B) No honking allowed.

Next Article: Latin Vowels and Pitch Centers

Tags: Bassoon 101, embouchure, teaching
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So of all the fingerings, and places on the instrument there are to pick from, where should you start? My answer is the same as Grandpa Weissenborn : C (AKA C4). Some people start out with open F, and work down the range to orient the student and get their embouchure adjusted to the low notes before tackling G. Although this a is a sound strategy, if you are teaching from the Weissenborn studies for beginning students (which I HIGHLY recommend) you should mirror the wisdom of Weissenborn and start where the book does.

C (C4) is an easily played note, and gives the student the right launch pad to start their bassooning career. It lays easy on the embouchure, and helps orient the student to the pitch center. At this point I usually encourage the student to press their fingers firmly to ensure that the pads of their fingertips cover the tone holes. Another new experience for most students, and converts from other instruments like saxophone will be covering tone holes. I encourage the student to press firmly on the first week of practice so that they see the circles on their fingertips. If they have a complete circle, they are fingering correctly.

Speaking of the first week of practice, I try not to jam too many fingerings into a first lesson. Initially, a student will have to overcome the new experiences of the seat strap, having 9 keys to deal with on one thumb with 4 on another, tone holes versus magic buttons/pads, and figuring out the whole “double reed” thing. So for the first week, I try and stick with fingerings for C4 up to open F. I skip the flats, and stay with the naturals. The difference in embouchure from E-natural to Open F is hard to grasp the first week, so I let students orient their embouchure until they feel comfortable to tackle E-flat and D-Flat.

Next: Bassoon 101 – Ready, set, set, set, set……

Tags: Bassoon 101, fingering, teaching
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Guide to Bassoon Playing

Tip for Beginners – Bring the Instrument to You

Bring the bassoon to you. Recently I had an evening teaching a beginner, and noticed the strong urge for students to accommodate the horn with their posture.  While this is a very accommodating spirit, I always have to remind the student that the bassoon is a tool for making music, and as an object, you should bring the horn to you. The seat strap is probably the weirdest feature to learn since it is unique to the bassoon. Along with figuring out how to make the reed sound, putting the horn together, and where to put your fingers; all of that is in relation to this odd strap of leather you need to fasten to the bottom of the bassoon and balance it in order to play.

So how does one overcome this problem?

First, take the reed off the horn. This little tip could end poorly with a reed smashed against a chair back, or scraped across a student’s face. If the student is between the ages of 10-13, you must remind them that this unwieldy instrument can really damage their face, or even poke out their eye if they aren’t mindful of where it is at all times. So, remove the reed, and then try and have the bassoon drape over their chest like a seatbelt. The seat strap should rest underneath in the middle of their thigh. The bocal should line up over the left shoulder. When the bassoon is properly aligned, then they can bring the bassoon forward, and bring the instrument properly to their mouth.

*Illustrations soon to follow

Next Beginning Tips:

The Emboucher – Ready, Set,Set, Set, Set, …..

And

Fingering-Where to begin?

Tags: bassoon, Bassoon 101, Bassoonery, beginners, bocal, position, posture, reed, seat strap
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So now among the rest of the internet, I have embarked on the journey of cataloging my observations by means for the blog. I’m not here to make a corporate statement, or sell anything. I would merely like to freeze my current thoughts in time by spending a minute between practice reps to jot down my thoughts and memories.

8.19.2008

So I live in South Western Florida along the Gulf Coast, and my mission as of late, is to rehabilitate my playing back to a professional standard, and audition for the local symphonies. One in particular has an opening (For one year. I smell a sabbatical) and I would like to be listed a a sub for the local performing groups as well.

Due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Fran, I have a multitude of time to practice up. Bringing my playing back to my old standard will be hard work, and I expect many hours of grueling, repetitious work.

Step 1: Scales

What’s music without the scale? In order to rehab my playing I must do the following:

1) Pick one scale, and play it, diatonically, from the bottom of the range to the top.

2) Stay steadily within a tempo dictated by your metronome. This is the first dictum of the Bassoonjedi:

Play at the Speed of Perfection

Only when you do this, can you acheive perfection. Never overstep your bounds of ability when in practice. If you do, you only invite error and sloppy technique.

Is that all?

Yes. Practice is simple, and never to be made to complicated. I won’t say what a “Professional Level” tempo is. A true bassoonjedi can play all tempos with comfort, elegance, and without effort. When you achieve this, a bassoonjedi will you be.

So how’d I do today?

Frankly, not too bad, but I have fallen to padawan levels. My speed of perfection is but half of my true form, and I exert effort where there was once grace. However, I was able to shake off the cobwebs, and I feel that the force is with me.

Tags: Basic Bassoon Playing, Rehab, Scales
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