.::BASSOONS::.

[arcticiceburg]

I have been told by my professor that you should not be playing on a reed for four or five months. Typically the reed's fibers will break down and not sound so good after this long. If the reed is not fairly dry when you put it away, it could mold as well depending on the climate. However, a reed should last more than three weeks. I would not be too concerned if the wrapping comes undone, since it is not vital. Unless the blades of the reed slip a lot, it is still possible to play on the reed. (I have found that my blades tend to slip a bit after I ream my reeds or sometimes after wrapping them.) If the slipping is due to loose wires, you may want to tighten them using pliers, but be especially careful if you do not have a mandrel to put the reed on since this can lead to over-tightening and the reed may not fit on the bocal well. If the reed leaks after the wrapping becomes unwound, you can coat the part that was wrapped with nail polish and this may help.

Also for reed preservation, or when I have a bit of a cold and don't want to re-infect myself, I will add mouthwash to the water I soak my reed in. (I fill the container about a quarter full with mouthwash and the rest of the way with water.) This not only seems to keep the reed cleaner, but leaves it with a minty taste.

[alrec]

when a mandrel is hard to find, a spare bocal works very well. an alternate way to make reeds is to use rubber in place of thread.....but it takes a bit of skill in reed craft to do it. also if you let your reeds dry for a day or 2, it will give back a lot of the tone they lose over time. most of my reeds give me there best tone about 3 weeks before they break, or become impotent.

tho the fibers do break down, a well kept reed can have life in it for 5-6 months, (this also requires luck) if you can adjust it correctlly. when your tone feels weak, you can squeeze the top and bottom of the first wire with pliers, and the sides of the second. the first wire will make the tip throat expand, increasing resistance a lot. the sides will do the same, but at a lessor level. The reverse for each is good for new reeds that are too hard to play, they close the tip a little. Always let your reeds soak about 5 minutes before adjusting them, and use a mandrel, or spare bocal.

thread being bad sounds typical of jones reeds. are you using standards or the new artist's?I'm suprised that meason's are giving you trouble like that tho. most measons are fairly decent, thread probloms dont come up till about the second month for me. i bought an emerald. it came cracked, and i didnt see it till i played on it. cant say anything for the quality.

nail polish is a good thing, but dont plan on using it for a quick fix. the smell can take a good week to go away, and unless it is imparitive that you do so otherwise, its best to do it at home. nail polish is the best thing to fix re-wrap threads with.

lastly, if a reed gives you one bad day, it isnt broken, its just being a pain in your side, dont throw it away, let it dry a bit, in your case. if you do not have a read case for your reeds (for instance, if you are using the case's that come with the reeds) you should drill, punctuor, chew.....etc. holes into the case's for ventalation, this keeps the fibers from being damaged from water, and lets them recover a bit from playing. an oversoaked reed will give you a lot of trouble, same as one that is as dry as dust.

your reed selesction is good. I have a meason that has lasted me about 1 year. latelly i had to move it back to front reed (what i call my primary reed, i dont think theres any particular term for it) and the wire snapped when i was adjusting it for bad tone. I canobalized a wire from my broken reed, but it was to short to go around twice. and played Ab as a nice G.

so it is pretty much gone, we will see if it fixes itself, or not. it lasted a good amount of time, 2 weeks, at its age, not bad. over all it gave me a solid 6-7 months. I have 2 artist reeds from jones, and 2 standards from chatier in the mail. i have played on hard reeds, a bit ovverrated. The medium range are best personally....well besides hand made reeds.

[arcticiceburg]

I would warn against using a spare bocal even- it is possible to damage the bocal (which can be quite expensive to repair or replace) and still not have the reed fit your normal bocal.

By squeezing the wires, opening or closing the tip is only an indicator of what really changes the sound. By flattening the tube of the reed (accomplished by squeezing the second wire), you lessen the resistance of the reed. This is a better alternative to immediately taking off cane when a reed is too resistant, since it is reversable and either flattening the tube too much or taking off too much cane can cause notes (especially the E in the staff) to sink and be flat when the other notes are in tune. Squeezing the sides of the second wire will, as Alrec said, increase the resistance on the reed by making the tube rounder. (It, however, is not ideal to play a reed with a perfectly round tube.)

Nail polish does smell, but shouldn't smell for a week. If you are able to, let the nail polish dry by an open window or out doors. This should dry it quickly and it won't stink as much. Also, allowing your freshly nail polished reed sit outside of an unventilated case overnight will help get rid of the smell more quickly as well.

It is a good idea to have 22 gauge brass wire as a back up in case a wire breaks on your reed. About three inches in length is enough to wrap the wire around twice.

[alrec]

isnt there a copper gauge that is usable as well for reed wires? or do i have the wrong metal?

[bassoonist88]

Thank you for the thread tips (nailpolish, I never would have thought of it never having had lessons or anything). By the way, is there any sensible way to go about becoming comfortable with the high range of the instrument? All of the fingerings seem so random, it's next to impossible for me to memorize them, much less play them with any speed. Any tips would be awesome.
~Your's truly, the Clueless Wonder :

[alrec]

i dont know of any quick tips. to be honest i never had to put my range above the D until this year.

just play through them chromatically and slowly, also dont think of lipping intervals as octaves. think of them as section. low Bb to E, then f to f. G to d. eb-g a-b, and b-d. try making groupings like that to help you play them better. grop the higher ones by a common pattern. grouping the lower ones isnt important.

[arcticiceburg]

Copper wire can be used if brass wire is not available, however, it is more flexible and tends to break when you try to tighten it enough that it is not loose on the reed. I would not recommend using copper wire on reeds.

As for extending your range, I have found playing extended scales and arpeggios on a daily basis has helped me immensely. Also, practicing scales in different patterns (for example, in thirds) can help you get used to switching between awkward fingerings in the high register. Start slow and spend extra time on the most difficult fingering combinations. This seems to help me, although I'm still working on reaching the high E flat (a note introduced to me this spring) from any note other than D, so it can be a slow process. With any luck, I'll be making use of my high E key this summer and adding that note as well.

[bassoonist88]

Another question: How many reeds do you suggest rotating at a time (if you rotate at all)? I use two but I am able to begin using more if anyone believes it is beneficial to do so. Should reeds be soaked in cold or warm water? Should a used reed be left out in the open if possible or is it fine to place them in your case right away so long as they have a small amount of ventilation? I was also wondering where I could get a cheap but efficient reed case because I am unable to spend $40 on a little box... my parent's wouldn't see the light to it and I really don't either.

[arcticiceburg]

Any rotation of reeds is good. I typically have one tried and true reed for rehearsals and performances while I break in the two or three reeds I make once a month or so. Warm water will soak a reed faster than cold water (which is why it is possible to soak a piece of cane in boiling or nearly boiling water much faster than in cold or room temperature water.) Please, however, keep in mind that water should be used to soak a reed and Not saliva. "Soaking" a reed in your mouth doesn't soak the reed throughly enough and will break down the fibers much quicker than soaking in water. A reed should be dried as much as possible before returning it to the case (to prevent molding), but mine typically do all right if they are semi-dry before I put them into a case I reamed holes into for ventilation. If you look at Woodwind Brasswind (wwbw.com), they usually carry a plastic reed case that holds four bassoon reeds for about $20. This type of case has served me well for the past 6 years, and nearly all student bassoonists I've seen don't use the more expensive wooden cases.

Has anyone else developed hand/wrist/shoulder injuries from playing bassoon? My teacher used a hand-crutch when she was a younger student, but because her hands were too small she ended up developing a pinched nerve in her shoulder. Due to the weight put on the left hand, I have developed chronic inflamation in several tendons in my left wrist. (This may have been prevented by putting my seat strap at more of a diagonal with the hook near the front of the chair and the other end near the back.) I'm hoping this isn't as permanent an injury as I was told it is, since I still have a lot of playing to do in the next few years of college.

[alrec]

cr*p so it got worse. I have been burning adrenaline in band latelly. Beethovens 9th will do that to you. other then feeling a bit over drawn latelly in my right lower arm, i havent had any probloms

[evilbassonygenius]

As far as injuries go, I've no personal experience. However, one instructor I had was still working out shoulder problems she developed as a result of her bassoon playing. She recommended (perhaps commanded) that we stretch out our arms/shoulders/upper back a bit before playing. Maybe that could help? I'm certainly no medical expert, or even dilettante. As for the small hands/crutch issue, a professor once recommended that you (carefully!) measure and cut off a bit of the bottom so that it fits your hand size/finger length. (Yes folks, good luck cutting the metal). Sorry I don't really have any healing help, only preventative measures that I suppose won't do you any good now...


I have misplaced (literally, misplaced) not only my high Db fingering (the one to make the Db scale three octaves, not two) but also my Weissenborn fingering chart! Such is my luck. Anyone care to tell me the fingering?

Thanks!

Good luck with/enjoy the bassooning.

[trumpetguardgirl]

So I don't hear bassoons enought to know if I'm sounding right.

I found this video of a girl playing. Tell me if she's good.



Post a video/audio of yourself if you wish. ;-)

[arcticiceburg]

The girl in this video sounds like a bassoonist that has been playing only for a year or two. She begins her performance with an interesting multi-phonic sound, but I don't think the composer intended it. Even though she cracks some notes and needs to support the ends of notes so they taper more, she sounds fine for someone that hasn't been playing for too long.

[alrec]

Dynamics werent really there. it seemed very much like the tuning was off. the tuning and tone sort of taper off near the end of the notes. A little choppy in places. the piece sounds like it wanted to be smoother. Sounds like there was some timing issues, the piece just didnt flow right.

Before i can say if she was good or bad. I have to say this. seat strap. I dont recall seeing a hanger attatched or built in. Without that a neck strap will kill a preformance. Unless you spend time learning to play with a neckstrap. Seat strap is just more practical.


Lots of questions come to mind. Mainly they revolve around the horn. Either she was good using a bad horn, or she was a beginer using a deccent horn. If i knew she was using a good bassoon i'd say shes new to bassoon buy a year, atleast at the time this was recorded. Her range was limited, the high notes sounded like they were being forced out. Articulation......what I heard of the piece the articulation seemed very legato. Which sounded right. the toungings that were harder seemed more often then not to stick out and hamper the piece.

Overall she gets my rating of advanced beginer. Good things she had was a decent comand of the horn. I didnt hear too many wrong notes, and the piece did have some rythem in it. The problom areas where articulation, keeping tone, and keeping the piece running.


Thing that bugs me is that it seems like this piece was beyond her reach as far as skill. Id much rather she had played a piece that she was more masterfull with. Im not saying a person should only play something there good at. But i would have liked to say " that was pretty good, if a little easy" then me saying now....

She shows a lot of promise, but based on that preformace she has a long way to go, and a lot of hard work ahead of her. My advice yo you is to get ahold of a proffesional preformace, perferablly of the same piece and compare for yourself.

[trumpetguardgirl]

K. Another question.

I have just learned the figerings for the "higher notes" today. But anything above G (top space) is very hard to play. Particularly, A (top line), B (space above top line), and C (first lefger line above staff)... ESPECIALLY C!!

Now what do I do for higher notes? Do I "squeeze" the reed with my emboucher, such as you would do with a trumpet emboucher for high notes? Also, when will my reed strength come into play here?

I'm playing on a medium soft. Does the strength effect your high notes? And when should I switch to a, lets say medium reed? What does it effect?

Also, I seem to be "leaking air" on the high notes (G-C). How do I prevent this? ...Or could it have been from my emboucher getting tired?