Hi All,

I'm a bassoonist - it's my first instrument (eek!), but I've also learned a bit of guitar, just started learning piano and I'm teaching myself the recorder.

I'm a really big fan of the recorder, but what to do? I'm in my first year studying music at tertiary level - on the bassoon.

The recorder would be much more convenient - they're remarkably cheap by comparison and I won't need to worry about reeds! (Horrid things that they are).

I'm kind of unhappy on the bassoon, too. Either I'm conscripted into things I really don't want to do (yes, conscripted) or I'm excluded from all the fun, social stuff because no-one other than an orchestra, wind orchestra or wind quintet wants a bassoon around! There is an unfair bias against lower-pitched instruments and it saps all the fun out playing.

That's not to say I want to give up the bassoon altogether, I'm just not sure that I want it to be my principal instrument any more.

Does anyone have any comments or suggestions on this matter?

I guess there's always the option to do both, but I know this is usually not a good idea with woodwinds because of the embouchure (I have no idea how to spell that!). But because of the nature of a recorder mouthpiece, I'm not sure if this would still apply. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Isha

First of all, I'm not a bassoonist, although I teach a first study bassoonist who's also a post-Grade 8 flautist. She has no trouble switching betwen flute and bassoon, and the flute embouchure is usually where the problems lie.

I have just started playing recorder again seriously, and took my Grade 8 this term. I found that the recorder interfered with the flute embouchure, but not vice versa. This suggests to me that it is unlikely the recorder and bassoon will interfere with each other. The best way to find out is to play the instruments one after the other, having played the first one for at least 30-40 minutes. You'll soon find out if it affects your playing on the other.

The recorder is a great social instrument, as I'm finding, with lots of music making opportunities with the Society of Recorder Players across the country. Do you play both C and F instruments? It seems from my limited experience that you'll have more opportunities to play if you play most sizes of recorder, and you'll need to play either treble or tenor for most groups, as the number of descant players is kept to a minimum.

I 've had similar feelings about the flute to yours about the bassoon since I've been playing recorder more seriously. It's something to do with all that plumbing! I really like a simple instrument with a few holes in, even though the fingerings are trickier.

Could you discuss your options with whoever teaches recorder at your college?

I play C and F instruments, I own a descant and am borrowing an alto long-term and a sopranino short-term. I've had playing experience from Sopranino all the way down to a Bass. Alto and Tenor are my favourites, end-blown basses are awesome -- if only I could reach the F tone hole! The crook-blown basses are terrible and have a weak sound but I suppose I can at least reach low F.

We don't have a recorder teacher at my conservatorium, but we don't have any recorder students, so that would explain it. Recorder is not big where I am -- not for "serious" musicians, I mean. Then again, neither is the bassoon. Nothing unusual

Hi zauberfagott

You seem to have an oppositie dilema from people like me. Bassoonists are usually hard to find while clarinetists are normally surplus and wanted all over the place. As for embouchoure, this has been discussed a lot in the woodwind boards on here and certain combinations are considered easier than others, but I have come to the conclusion I can play clarinet and flute but not clarinet and bassoon. As a rule of thumb it usually works that reed instruments effect flute and recorder more than the other way round (I have found anyway). So a first study flautist should steer away from reed instruments, but clarinet or sax players can play flute with no trouble. There is also an issue of single v double reed, which is why clarinet and sax go together, but not with oboe or bassoon. Hope that makes sense.

Bassoonists are hard to find here, too. As I said, we're wanted in orchestras etc. but outside of that no-one wants anything to do with us!

I know oboists generally don't make good flautists, and vice versa, in fact oboe embouchure isn't compatible with anything so you really need to work hard to make it work. Flute embouchure goes well with bassoon embouchure, and flautists who swap to bassoon tend to have a much more pleasant tone than clarinettists who swap to bassoon (I've taught a couple). I'll never be able to play clarinet because I can't get my head around there being a different texture and vibration on different sides of the mouthpiece!

I didn't notice you were in Australia, so my suggestions about SRP groups don't apply Sorry. I do know the main recorder website is Australian-based, but you probably know that already.

That's interesting - I'll bear that in mind if I ever take it into my head to learn a double read instrument!

to be quite frank, i play flute, clarinet, recorder AND bassoon. admittedly, i never got far on bassoon and my sound was awful (mainly due to the poor instrument and overused reed) but if you cant find wind ensembles or whatever, arrange other pieces for bassoon and piano e.g. Chopin's Prelude No.6 in B minor Op.28, that'd make a lovely Bassoon and Piano piece!

as far as playing recorder along with bassoon is concerned, you shouldn't have a problem, i mean heck, im a grade 7 flute player, 6 on clarinet and about 8 on recorder,

if you really are miserable on bassoon, quit and move to recorder, plenty of solo works for it and can easily transcribe flute music for it as well and more concerti as well

The problem is not finding ensembles - I'm in 2 orchestras, a wind orchestra and a wind quintet. The problem is finding people to play with for fun. No-one seems to want anything to do with a bassoonist outside of the conservatorium.

But I think I might go through with the change. My boyfriend thinks I should finish my degree on bassoon, but I'm not sure if I really want to. There's no point to music unless you enjoy it, and there are too many days where I don't enjoy my instrument.

Hmmm...I think there are periods when intensive study of anything is not "fun". That doesn't mean it will never be rewarding in the future. And you may have good reasons to give up bassoon, but being in the doldrums probably isn't a great reason!

If you want to stick with a low-pitch instrument, how about a low-D whistle (Irish whistle, only pitched heaps lower)? They are not terribly loud, but nice to play in folk or folk-pop bands or living-room strum sessions, and you could easily double up on the higher-pitched tin whistle. You can have lots of fun with weird tonguing and stopping too.

Tin whistle is undoubtedly fun - so much fun, in fact, that you will have a hard time finding anybody to take it "seriously" as a musical instrument!

What types of music/bands/cultures do you enjoy for fun? If it's steel bands you like, Irish whistle won't take you far; and if you like rowdy dance bands, recorder might be less useful than bluegrass banjo - stop and think about where you want to play a new instrument, as well as what you want to play...

Don't restrict yourself to wind instruments - I really didn't enjoy much string music when I played flute, because I never listened to anything but woodwinds, but since my son took over the family CD selections, I've discovered that the more you listen to something, the better you like it.

You would put a lot of pressure on yourself to say you're definitely going to change the instrument that is your main one... maybe you could start working on getting another up to a good standard whilst keeping going with the bassoon? It doesn't sound like recorders should seriously mess with your bassoon embouchure (try it and see, I guess!) so it would be a good outlet and opportunity to play "for fun" while improving, without putting you in a position where you absolutely HAVE to get your recorder playing brilliant in a short space of time. Anyway, just my two cents!

I have actually been thinking of dropping the bassoon for a few years now, I haven't been really happy with it for quite a while now. Although I do have some good days, and maybe I'll stick at it for a bit longer.

I originally was thinking of swapping to oboe. They sound so pretty! And I'm in love with cor... But that got a bit soured for me unfortunately. I'm too sensitive to what other people say, I think, and there was so much opposition. Not fair

I would probably want to stay with woodwinds. I'm not a gigantic fan of brass instruments (I like them but I'm not really interested), I startle too easily to be a percussionist, I have no talent or ambition on the guitar, I dislike the timbre of the piano.

If it wasn't the bassoon it would be oboe or recorder, or maybe flute. If it wasn't a woodwind it would have to be viola. Oboe & flute because they sound so lovely, recorder because they sound hauntingly beautiful and other-worldy (yum), and viola because I adore "inner voice" parts, and they also sound very beautiful in their own way.

I can play oboe fairly decently, but I haven't played for a while because I don't have my own instrument. Recorders are very accessible in that department (I'm starting to earn money and I'm getting close to my first wooden recorder, yay!), and I'm probably a lot better than I am at the oboe.

play recorder!!!!!! it's ace! yeh convenient but brill!