Hi there,

Ive been learning bassoon for about a year at school since my music teacher asked me to play when I was learning clarinet.

Being relatively unexperienced in the long-term way of things, Ive been wondering about the left hand thumb. After a lot of long band practice, it seems to get quite sore and strained and I begin to feel it starting to tense up. Is this common?

I don't think it is; perhaps the reason is because I've got quite small wrists that have to support a heavy bassoon. It might be the angle that I play it on that gives it such weight seeing as its the left hand that takes all the leaning weight, but that's the only way that seems convenient to play. I use a sitting strap, not a neck strap, if thats any help.

Im just curious whether anyone else finds this problem - I'd hate to think this would lead to premature arthritis!

Dear Julia,

The seat strap tends to put more weight on your left hand, which is probably why your left thumb is getting sore. If you use the neck strap, the weight of the instrument will be shifted to your neck and your right hand. See if you can give that a try and let me know if that helps.

Okay; thanks for your reply. The school doesn't have any neck straps and I'm not sure about investing in a $50 strap, but thanks so much for your advice.

aye plus all the movement of the left thumb can get quite painful - remember when i was doign the sorcerers apprenticesolo and the thumb was dashing aroudn the place (i didnt play bassoon for very long ... all the stretching of the muscles too (unless you have massive hands

You can get really good bassoon straps that are like harnesses. Neck straps are good, but you can get an aching neck if you're in reheasals for too long! Get one that can at least go under one arm to take the weight off just the neck. The harness ones spread the weight right across the whole of your back though and should eb much more comfortable. They are probably much mroe expensive I should imagine too but probably worth it. For any baritone sax players out there, I'm told these harness straps work great for those too!

I hadn't found any problems with the left thumb but when I used the neck strap I exprienced a lot of pain in my left wrist and a few shoulder subluxations. I suppose it's a different muscle group or something.