I am a clarinetist and want to switch to bassoon in high school...I know absolutely nothing about bassoon, even down to how to blow it! In fact I have never even seen a real life bassoon in my life. Please help...any tips for a total newbie? Thanks for anything that might remotely help!
Take some time on this forum and read many posts from past musicians who have done the same thing you want to do. There are many tips listed in these replies, too many to repeat here.
The first tip I would give you, however, is to talk to your band director and see if he thinks it is a good idea for you. The clarinet-to-bassoon route is a well-worn road and many people have done it. Second thing is to ask your band director to recommend a teacher, then rent yourself a bassoon, if the school will not supply one. Don't do any more than this until you see if you like playing the bassoon.
If you have trouble adjusting to a double reed, they do make mouthpeices for bassoons. They look kind of like a clarinet mouthpeice and use clarinet reeds, I think.
I play the clarinet and i switched to bassoon last year it was hard at first but you will definatly need a tutor because of your embourchure for bassoon is very different to your clarinet embourchure. You will also find that you will pick it up quickly i am doing 6th grade after a year of playing.
I actually switched from Clarinet to Bassoon 1/2 a year ago, and I was able to teach myself the embouchre and everything. Just try it out, and start with seeing if you can get a sound out of it, then go from there.
searching...
