Mr. O's Bassoon Guide
  • Home
  • 1. Materials
  • 2. Embouchure
  • 3. Instrument Setup and Preparation
  • 4. Let's Play!
  • 5. Care and maintenance
  • 6. Resources
  • 7. Blog
  • Citations and Thank You's
Welcome to

Mr. O's Bassoon Guide

An American Band College Practical Application Project by Garson Olivieri

MUSI 6285 (PA3)

Getting Started on Bassoon

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You want to learn to play bassoon. Great. I'm here to help. In order for my help to be as useful as possible, I HIGHLY recommend that you go through the steps in order and don't skip anything.

It is assumed that you already play another wind instrument before you begin this course. In designing its structure I assumed that you already have a basic knowledge of reading music, breathing to play a wind instrument, how fingering charts work, and other basic musical knowledge that you've probably already picked up in your band classes. This is not a comprehensive music course, but a guide to picking up bassoon as a second instrument.

Try to come into this endeavor with no assumptions or preconceived notions about what works on your current instrument. Don't try to apply your clarinet embouchure to bassoon, or your saxophone horn angle, or even try to moisten your reed in the same way you would on whatever instrument you play. Bring your musician's ears, your general knowledge of music, and your intuition, and leave everything else at the door. Let's go have an adventure.

Chapter 1:
​Gathering materials

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Let's start by making sure you have everything you need ​to be set up for success
Materials
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Chapter 2:
​Embouchure and First Sounds

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In section 2 we'll form an embouchure and learn to crow on the reed alone, as well as the reed and bocal.
Embouchure
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Chapter 3:
Instrument Setup

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Don't skip the "boring part."
​Instrument assembly, posture, and using the
​seat strap ​are vitally important
Instrument Setup
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Chapter 4:
​Let's play some bassoon!

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Playing your first notes on the instrument,
up to the first scale.
Bassoon Time!
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Chapter 5:
Care and Maintenance

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Keep your bassoon happy and in good condition with simple care and maintenance.
Care and Maintenance
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Chapter 6:
Resources and Links

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Fingering Charts, links to product websites
​and helpful tools, and other resources to help you along the way.
Resources
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Blog / Q&A

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Do you have any questions or ideas for this site? Anything you wish I would have covered that I didn't?
Comment here and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

We can also use this as a bassoon nerd meeting place.
Did you discover a cool bassoon video on youtube? Got any good bassoon jokes? Post them here. Bassoon IS very memeable.
Blog
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  • Home
  • 1. Materials
  • 2. Embouchure
  • 3. Instrument Setup and Preparation
  • 4. Let's Play!
  • 5. Care and maintenance
  • 6. Resources
  • 7. Blog
  • Citations and Thank You's