Reeds

• Reed-making - a step-by-step, illustrated, demonstration of how to make a bassoon reed.
• Sharpening your reed knife

Educational resources

Find answers to your questions about how to play the bassoon. Check back frequently for updates!

• Fingerings - an annotated fingering chart which includes not only standard fingerings, but information on the tuning tendencies of each note, alternate fingerings, and trill fingerings. Try out the bassoon fingering trainer here!
• Intonation - how do you tune a bassoon?
• Instrument and equipment recommendations.
• Flicking - an overview of the technique often referred to as "flicking". An important lesson for beginning bassoonists who have difficulty producing the a, b-flat, and b above open f.
• Sightreadthis.com

New!

Bassoon fingering font! Add fingering diagrams to your Finale or Word documents. Music Teacher Tools.

Audio/MIDI

• Excerpts from the Nutcracker as you've never seen before! Click here to view video. Get parts here.

• Tuning soundboard

• VCU Festival of Winds Double Reed Ensemble 2007 Images

• .mp3 - Sound files demonstrating the sound of the bassoon and various selections of music.

• Take a virtual audition

• Bassoon magic

• Halloween bassoon

Links

Links to web sites that specialize in double reeds.

Practice techniques

Practice - An in-depth look at how to utilize your practice time more effectively.

Music lists

• Orchestral excerpts - a list of the most popular bassoon passages from the orchestra literature
• Exercises - printable exercises for the development of bassoon technique