Well, wish I were in your area! Every decent concert band and orchestra around here has two bassoons and doesn't want any more.

I play my bassoon in a wind band where there are 5 bassoons and 6 oboes, but only 3 clarinets! We're so short of them round here! I'm the only bassoon in my orchestra though!

It does differ depending on where you are, but it is very well known that bassoonists are an endangered species. I put it down to these things:

1) Ask people on the street if they know what a bassoon is, and 60% will say no. 20% will say 'I think it's a bit like a clarinet?' and the other 20% will be the people who actually know. I'm guessing the percentages, but you get the point.

2) Some people discourage others to play the bassoon - very unfortunate but it's not unheard of for music teachers to say 'try the flute instead'.

3) However beautiful a sound the bassoon can make, when you put a beginner on one it sounds absolutely disgusting until they get the hang of it, and this will discourage a lot of people.

4) A lot of people start playing their chosen instrument at a young age. However, the bassoon is a rather large instrument, unless you can get your hands on a mini bassoon you can't really start till around the age of 12 (ish).

5) There are loads of people who learn instruments to a pretty good standard in school, then forget about it and go do medicine or something instead. Unfortunate, but very common.

6) Bassoons are reeeeeally expensive.

Get the idea?

Up until I started bassoon this year, it was dominated by a family who just played bassoons. Really interesting, but last year was the only year our high school band didn't have a bassoon. It is an awkward instrument when you take your first try, and it also seems that people need to have sort of passion for bassoon. I fell in love with the full range of sounds the entire oboe family could make at an early age, but I was not able to play any of them until this year. And if you notice many classic pieces of music, the bassoon was a common instrument through the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, but then it sort of fell into decline (this is just what I've noticed, probably due to poor development of the instrument [keys, making, etc. If I am wrong, someone please correct me]). To me, it sort of became a "novelty" instrument that wasn't really given as much attention as the most popular instruments such as flutes, clarinets, trumpets, and saxophones (even though the first saxophone was invented using a bassoon body and clarinet mouthpiece). So it seems that it the bassoon is either not recognizable, or some people just don't like it at all.

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And a note to the expense a professional bassoon may come to... try up to $17,000.

......... keep going. A Heckel will set you back more like $40,000

Ian

I have no idea how much this is in dollars, but i've seen one for £18,000.

HI guys, I'm back!

Great news, the concertband (Symphonic wind) is finally going to let me audition for bassoon, so I'll be the only double reed player.

My bug-infested bassoon was only $350. It plays very well, too. I'm also the first bassoonist in the history of my high school. I had started on oboe, and was one of three or four, because everyone knows how utterly horrible a beginner oboe sounds. Even though I can now play the oboe better than some professionals I've heard, it seems that people just remember how horrible I used to be, because whenever I try to play the oboe in class, they all scream: "Shut up! It's annoying!" This from the trumpets who can't play outside of the staff and the saxophones whose tone reminds me of farting cats. And also the pathetic puffy-cheeked clarinets.

hey, don't be hatin' on the clarinets...i'm still in love with mine.

I have nothing wrong with clarinets themselves. Just their players, who tend to either be arrogant or unable to play. Though that might be a little unfair to the small minority who are nice and can play.

I'm the lone bassoon and they put in with the saxes-they tend to drown me out

which is good in a way if I can't play

i was alone in middle school and one year in high school...but now there is one other kid with me

I went into concert band yesterday and someone asked me when did I pick up oboe.
Seriously, how can someone confuse the two? If I played oboe and someone asked me if it was a clarinet that would have some reason, but a bassoon looks nothing like an oboe! They just have a double reed-so what? Nobody confuses a tuba with a trumpet, and they have the same colour

I agree with werothegreat, but clarinetists tend to be
1. Pretentious
2. VERY bad at trills

because like ruth said, hardly anyone even knows what a bassoon is