Bassoon Reedmaking 1. Soak GSP cane in water for a few hours or overnight. 2. Fold cane in half using a knife as a guide (fold the cane over the knife blade, but don’t actually use the knife to cut the cane).  3. Use pruners to cut the ends of the cane off if necessary. The bark should be 1 and 1/18” long. (The top wire is applied at 1 inch, and there is a 1/8 inch “collar” of bark above the top wire.)   4. Score the bark with lengthwise knife marks, barely breaking through the bark, which will enable the tube to be round.  5. Fold the reed in half and apply the top wire at 1 i ..read more

This past week the Columbus Symphony with Music Director Rossen Milanov performed Shostakovich 10 and the Britten Violin Concerto featuring our Concertmaster Joanna Frankel.  For this demanding concert I found that in order to do justice to each solo and exposed passage, I had to use no less than 4 different reeds.  Furthermore, some of those reeds were used more than once during each concert.  That's a lot of reed juggling, and it goes against my usual policy of playing the entire concert on one reed to avoid the distraction of fussing with equipment. Why did I decide to p ..read more

Columbus Symphony Bach St. John Passion with overhead English subtitles Being an orchestral player is an ongoing adventure.  Even when you think you know what you're in for, there are so many variables - orchestra size and personnel, stage setup, conductors, soloists, tempos, number and timing of rehearsals, interpretations of the score, interpretations of the style, and for bassoonists, the functionality and quality of the reeds. This past week, for the first time in 56 years, the Columbus Symphony performed the monumental  Bach St. John Passion.  I thought I knew what ..read more

If you are a student or amateur musician who is playing in an orchestra and no one has advised you on the unofficial "rules" of orchestral playing, then this post is for you.  I had the opportunity to hear an amateur orchestra rehearse recently and it struck me that the bassoonists and other woodwind players could have used a few pointers to enhance their orchestral playing experience. During the rehearsal I heard the conductor (who was apparently inexperienced) instruct the wind players to go with what they heard from the piano soloist instead of watching his baton.  That piece of ..read more

These days many bassoonists forgo the burden of purchasing and maintaining a gouger, a profiler and a shaper, especially since there are several reliable sources of processed cane.  Although I profile and shape my own cane, I prefer to teach students to make reeds using cane which is already gouged, shaped and profiled (also known as GSP cane).  To make reeds using GSP cane, the following tools and supplies are required (according to my specific method of forming and finishing blanks): GSP cane (Barton Cane is a popular source) forming mandrel (the mandrel used for forming the tube ..read more

Rhythmic (or rhythmical) fingering is a concept I rarely hear about these days, yet during my student years at the Eastman School of Music I heard about it plenty from my teacher, K. David Van Hoesen.  He believed that rhythmic fingering was an important (yet often ignored) aspect of bassoon playing.  When he first brought it up in one of my lessons, he admitted that it could be very difficult to teach.  Then he mentioned that one of his students who was particularly sharp (not in pitch, but in brainpower!) had picked up on it instantly.  I wanted to be like that student, s ..read more

Shortly after starting my job with the Columbus Symphony, someone contacted me to ask if I taught bassoon lessons.  I wasn't sure how to respond, since I was busy trying to figure out how to play principal bassoon in an orchestra and felt that I had my hands full with that.  Teaching was not really on my radar.  So I called my teacher, K. David Van Hoesen to ask him if I should teach.  He said yes, I had to teach....I'd learn from my students.....teaching would force me to analyze what I'm doing.....it would help me figure out what works and what doesn't......etc., etc. He ..read more

This week the Columbus Symphony is performing a program of exotic masterpieces as part of its Russian Winter Festival. This is the program: Prokofiev - Lieutenant Kije Borodin - Polovetsian Dances Rimski-Korsakov - Suite from The Golden Cockerel (Le Coq d'Or) Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture (And there's also an encore which shall remain a secret.) The bassoon is not featured heavily in this program as a solo instrument but there is always plenty to keep us occupied.  The details can be daunting.....I noticed that there were 3 intervals which captured much of my attention this week.  An interva ..read more

Tchaikowsky's Manfred Symphony (1885) stands out in several ways.  It is a multi-movement symphonic poem rather than a numbered symphony, it's Tchaikowsky's longest symphonic work, it's an example of Tchaikowsky using the idée fixe made famous by Berlioz, AND its score includes 3 bassoons often playing in unison in exposed passages. The Manfred Symphony is based upon the dramatic poem Manfred by Lord Byron.  The Russian journalist Vladimir Stassov came up with a sketch of a program for a 4-movement musical composition and asked composer Mili Balakirev to write the music.  Balakirev didn't wa ..read more

I'd say the bassoon is a bit unusual in that it's possible (although certainly not ideal) for its players to ignore its maintenance for years at a time, and the bassoon still seems to work.  Right?  That's the way it always seemed to me.  (I know of a professional player whose bassoon has not seen a repair-person during this century.)  On the other hand, players of other instruments seem obsessed with constant maintenance performed at least once a year. In case there's any confusion around what I mean by "maintenance", routine maintenance on a bassoon usually involves re-seating or repl ..read more