A Fundamentally Sound Switch to Bassoon
Open Access
- Author:
- O'Brien, Katherine Anne
- Area of Honors:
- Music Education
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Music Education
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Linda Carol Porter Thornton, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Linda Carol Porter Thornton, Thesis Supervisor
Joanne Rutkowski, Thesis Honors Advisor
Daryl William Durran, Faculty Reader
Sue Ellen Haug, Faculty Reader - Keywords:
- bassoon
music education
clarinet
saxophone
voicing
flicking
half holing
method books
band - Abstract:
- The bassoon can be an overlooked instrument in the school band. Frequently, this may be attributed to a director’s limited experience with the instrument. An overwhelming amount of material for bassoon pedagogy is available, but not all is appropriate for use in a secondary school setting. Most of these materials were written for more proficient players than the typical middle or high school player. Consequently, directors may give their bassoon students music to learn without re-enforcing the fundamentals of the instrument. Woodwind methods books used in a mixed instrument class may ignore bassoon specific technique, such as “flicking”, voicing, and reed adjustment. The purpose of this thesis was to provide a resource for band directors to assist them in helping their students make the transition to bassoon from another instrument. This resource contains information about the fundamentals of bassoon playing, as well as a list of appropriate method books and a corresponding list of techniques to work on with each exercise. The specific problem of this study was to identify the obstacles facing students beginning to play the bassoon, and give an overview of the process for successfully switching students to the bassoon from another woodwind instrument. In order to address the problems of the study, college music education majors were surveyed to determine what was difficult about the bassoon from a clarinetist or saxophonist’s point of view. Saxophonists and clarinetists were questioned, since these instrumentalists are a frequent source for bassoonists. ii Method books were also evaluated to determine which exercises can be used to teach bassoon fundamental technique. The data collected was used to create a database of materials for properly teaching bassoon to secondary students. Clarinet players found bassoon between “medium” and “most difficult” to play. They found it dissimilar to the clarinet, and indicated that learning the bassoon embouchure, voicing, and flicking were the hardest skills to master. The clarinet players also noted the bassoon felt awkward to hold and play. Saxophone players found bassoon to be only “medium difficult” on average, and found the bassoon more similar to their own primary instrument than the clarinetists. They indicated that voicing and the bassoon embouchure were easier to learn, while flicking and half holing were more difficult to learn. While having a musical background in any instrument is useful when learning bassoon, results of the survey suggest that saxophonists may have an advantage when switching to bassoon because of their experience with voicing, a similar embouchure with equal pressure from all sides, and holding larger instruments. Clarinet players, however, reported an easier time learning how to half hole than saxophonists, so they are not to be discouraged about switching to bassoon. Ultimately, the desire and motivation of the student to learn and practice will determine their success. Having prior single-reed experience, especially on saxophone, has shown to be helpful.