Two Common Bassoon Misconceptions

Double reed instruments can bring wonderful color and new repertoire options to any band or orchestra program. As composers write new pieces with more and more exposed, soloistic double reed parts, the demand for starting or switching students to these instruments also increases. I hope composers take into consideration the challenges, and often rarity, of having students who find success on either oboe or bassoon, but ultimately, it is the job of the director to bridge the gap between the vision of the music and the reality of performance.

Even considering all of this, double reeds are often treated as the "elephant in the room," with everyone being aware of their existence but hesitant to talk about or invest energy towards them. Being two of the oldest wind instruments that we still commonly use in ensembles today, a lot of directors can be intimidated by the (sometimes nonsensical!) idiosyncrasies of these instruments. As a bassoonist, I have lived in the middle of these frustrations! Wait, how many thumb keys are there? Where is the "tuning slide" on this thing? I guess these reeds will work?

As a bassoon player, I will only focus on bassoon in this article, but will always advocate for all double reeds (okay, maybe not contrabassoon)! I hope busting these two common misconceptions can help alleviate some of your concerns about starting someone on this instrument or give you some new language to take to your current bassoon players to help them better navigate this unique and beautiful instrument!

Misconception #1: Moving the Bocal Changes Intonation

I switched to bassoon in 8th grade and was wholly unaware of my personal pitch until later in high school. Needless to say, I was out of tune A LOT when I first started playing and was blissfully ignorant! My directors were not so fortunate. After who knows how many times of asking me, "Can you hear how out of tune you are?" to no avail, they tried the next logical thing: "Let's try pulling the bocal out to see if that helps." It seemed to appease them at least, and for the rest of my high school career I would go through these motions alongside the rest of my fellow wind players. Make an adjustment if you're out of tune! It was not until I took private lessons for the first time in college that I learned that there is nothing on the bassoon you can move or adjust to change intonation. Yes, you heard me correctly, THERE IS NOTHING ON THE BASSOON YOU CAN MOVE OR ADJUST TO CHANGE INTONATION! Outdated instrument? You betcha! But the performer is still expected to match pitch to everyone around them? Absolutely.

Proper bassoon assembly is to have the bocal pushed all the way into the instrument. Regardless of where the bocal is positioned vertically, the intonation remains the same. If you have asked a student to do this before and noticed a change in pitch after, it unfortunately had nothing to do with the position of the bocal and your player made other adjustments to make the change they needed (even if unconsciously). All moving the bocal will do is open up a space for an air bubble to be created between the bocal and wing joint (where the bocal is inserted into the instrument). This bubble will cause air inconsistencies, more issues with pitch, and an increased chance of chipping or missing a note on an entrance. It is a very understandable and logical director solution that, in this case, leads to more difficulties for the performer. Leave your bocals pushed all the way in and let your young bassoonists worry about all the other challenges of the instrument!

Solution: Troubleshooting Out-of-Tune Bassoons 

• Check for other bocals. Most bassoons will have at least two, with 1 being the shortest, 2 being the most common and designed for 440A, and 3 being the longest. If your bassoonist has overarching pitch tendencies, try a different length bocal to see if that helps.
• Check reed quality. A good reed will do more for good intonation than anything else. Get your players on handmade reeds as soon as possible. Factory-made, large batch reeds (ex. Jones) should be considered a last resort. There are companies that make handmade reeds that are largely distributed and easy to get (ex. Singing Dog, Eastman) that will make huge differences in your student's experience. Ideally, I would urge your player to find a private lessons teacher through a local university and buy the reeds they hand make directly from them.
• Stress air support. A lot of bassoonists start their playing journey as the only person on this instrument in their entire school. This combined with director insecurities toward teaching this instrument led to players "hiding" in the band sound and developing the bad habit of using small, weak air. No air support leads to uncharacteristic tone, which must come first before intonation can be addressed. Ask your bassoons to play out! Challenge them to play louder than the low brass! You will get some raw sounds to start, but it's easier to carve a statue out of a solid piece of marble rather than form one out of pebbles. Full air support leads to better tuning in the long run.
• Focus on ear training. Because there is nothing on the instrument for players to adjust, it is paramount that they become skilled listeners. Training your bassoonists to audiate (hear the note in their head) before playing is incredibly helpful. This is useful for all musicians, but particularly useful if you want in-tune bassoons. In this case, I see bassoon as being more closely related to brass, strings, and voice rather than woodwinds. These instruments heavily rely on audiation to "pull the pitch out of the air," and bassoon is no different. The tuning differential on flute, clarinet, and saxophones are so much smaller, giving the correct fingering a "safety net" feeling. I would not rely on correct fingerings alone for your young bassoonists. 

Misconception #2: More Advanced Players Need Thicker Reeds

There is a correlation I have noticed among reed players (especially young reed players!) that "as I get better, my reeds get thicker." To a certain degree, that rings true with single reeds and at the very least gives a basic way to explain reed strength differences. And for most things, the logic makes sense! I work at something, I become stronger, and now I can handle more! It also makes sense that this logic should work for all reed players.

This common conception unfortunately leads to a common misconception for bassoon! The biggest difference is that there is no hard mouthpiece to act as an "anchor" for the embouchure. Having a single reed player move to a thicker sized reed is typically predicated on air flow output. You are overplaying your current reed, so you need something that can keep up with the amount of air you are using! There is slightly more physical demand, but the mouthpiece offsets much of the muscular demand of the embouchure, focusing the airflow into the instrument as designed and reducing strain of the face to produce proper tone. The mouthpiece itself is also consistent from reed to reed, creating familiarity and allowing only the new reed to be a variable when creating tone.

For a bassoon embouchure, you have no "anchor" or no other piece of the instrument to assist in tone creation. It is just you, the reed, and air! To get rid of the "duck" or less flattering sounds bassoon can be associated with, you must focus on resonance. Make sure your bassoon players are using a double-wrapped embouchure (no teeth on the reed!), with a relaxed, dropped jaw, and "O" shaped oral cavity. Minus the buzzing, it is more comparable to a good brass embouchure than other woodwinds. The more resonance the player can create with this embouchure, the better all aspects of sound production will be. More resonance leads to better tone, better intonation, and more projection.

With resonance being the top goal, we now bring it back to the reed itself. To this day, I still play on either a medium or medium soft bassoon reed. That thickness of reed allows me to focus on my embouchure, air, and resonance first. It also allows me to have more endurance and make it through long rehearsals with all the other wind players. The thicker the reed, the faster that fatigue becomes an issue. The double-wrapped, anchorless embouchure means the player is physically responsible for most, if not all, of their airflow, using the musculature of the face to maintain the stream through the instrument instead of letting it escape out the sides. All wind players do this, but double reeds have less built-in assistance. Have you seen your double reed players getting tired before everyone else? This could be why!

Medium Hard and Hard reeds result in a personal battle where the bassoonist is fighting against their face to use their air and create sound like they know they can. Once the embouchure is fatigued, though, they will not be able to contribute at the same level as they could fresh. Tone and pitch will be the first two things to go, and young players will begin to add pressure or "bite" down on the reed to compensate. The Catch-22 is once you start biting because your face is tired, you remove resonance by limiting how much of the reed can vibrate. Your player may be able to get close to pitch doing this, but their tone will be nowhere near as good, their resonance reduced drastically. As more fatigue sets in, more adjustments are made, reducing resonance further while causing even more muscular fatigue. In an attempt to maintain good tone and pitch, your player will end up sacrificing their embouchure and ultimately both techniques in pursuit of the very things they are attempting to save.

Solution: Troubleshooting Bassoon Reed Thickness 

• Switch over bassoon players at any level to Medium-Soft or Medium thickness reeds. Beginners may even benefit from Soft, but not for long.
• Check on the age of your player's reeds. Bassoon reeds last longer, but they are not invincible. No more than three months on a reed for beginners, and less for more advanced players. Old reeds have less resonance, and bad habits sneak in to compensate.
• If a player just bought reeds that are thicker, reinforce the relaxed embouchure, and encourage them to stop playing once serious fatigue sets in. Once they notice they are moving away from proper embouchure, stop and take a small break. Better that than reinforcing bad habits!
• Let them know it's okay to take regular 30-second breaks in rehearsal when needed.
• Make sure your bassoonists are playing closer to the tip of the reed, not the wire. Just like with the thickness of the overall reed, the part near the wire is thicker than the tip. If the entire reed is in their mouth when they play, they are playing on the thickest part of the reed, adding more fatigue faster. Playing near the tip adds resonance, more airflow, and more endurance.
• Have a student play on both sides of the reed. There is not a "top" to a bassoon reed and can be played with either flat side up. Sometimes the micro-differences between the two sides can change the feel while playing. Your players may prefer one side to the other! You may prefer the sound from one side to the other!
• Again, stick to using handmade reeds when possible. These have gone through more steps to get reeds as consistent as possible and closer to performance ready than factory blanks.
• Focus on air! Good airflow and resonance will solve so many problems people blame on reeds.
• Set your bassoonist's embouchure and forget it! Resonance will come from a relaxed, consistent embouchure. Please do not ask bassoonists to "lip it up" or bend the pitch using the embouchure like you would ask a clarinet or saxophone. The double wrapped embouchure is 360-degrees of interaction with the reed, and any adjustment adds unnecessary variables to your player's setup. Asking them to use the lips to change pitch also reinforces biting and improper technique over resonance. 

All that's to say that I urge you to take the chance to add a double reed! Find a highly motivated and committed student and give them a unique opportunity! There will be growing pains for both of you, but ultimately it can provide the perfect challenge for a young musician who is ready for more and while also providing your program with new color and musical options. For those of you who have already taken the plunge, I hope this article was helpful! You know your double reed students will be successful, but simple adjustments like these from you along their journey can remove so many unknowns and frustrations, making the addition of double reeds more of a blessing than a regret! If you ever have questions, do not hesitate to reach out to me directly at ajay@palenmusic.com. I obviously enjoy talking about it, so feel free to use me as a resource! All the best!