M&M's new obsession

When M&M started playing the flute a couple of years ago we knew that she might want to switch instruments as she got farther along in school. The flute was nice for her to start on because we had one that she could use and I could help give her some pointers along the way. Plus the flute is a nice base instrument to start on - quite a few of the other woodwind instruments have the same or similar fingerings as the flute. At first M&M expressed interest in switching to the oboe and we discussed it a little with the band teacher at the middle school when we were signing her up for classes at the end of 6th grade. Then when M&M showed up for school at the beginning of the school year we found out that the band teacher that we had talked to had moved on to another school and they had a new teacher at her school this year. We talked with the new band teacher at back-to-school night and found out that he would LOVE to have her switch to oboe because it is not a common instrument for students to play and if she started in her 7th grade year then she would be in good shape to move up to the advanced band for her 8th and 9th grade years. Unfortunately though both of the school oboes had recently been checked out by a couple of flute players from the advanced band who were going to try it out. So we decided to wait a little bit and then look into renting an oboe from one of the local music stores - especially since M&M had placed second chair for the flutes in the intermediate band (mostly 8th graders).

Then M&M saw me play in a woodwind trio for the Sounds of the Season Christmas concert and she all of a sudden became interested in the bassoon. I have an older sister that played bassoon and recently one of my nieces (who is in the same grade as M&M) switched to bassoon. I told M&M that if she was interested in playing the bassoon to ask her band teacher if the school has one. Finally after a week or two of "forgetting" to ask him she finally did and found out that the school in fact has two bassoons - and the teacher sounded excited about having her switch. He told her to buy some bassoon reeds and then come and see him about taking one of the bassoons home. So the next time I went to the music store to pick up a flute that needed some work, I bought a couple of bassoon reeds for M&M to try (and they are not cheap).

M&M tried them out that evening and then asked her teacher the next day if she could take one of the bassoons home. Because of a limited amount of time during the school day he asked if she could come and pick it up after school and she said probably not because she rides the bus home and didn't want to miss it. So he said to ask him about it again on Tuesday (it was President's Day weekend) and he would get it for her. When M&M got home from school she told me that the teacher had wanted her to come after school to get the bassoon and I reminded her that on Fridays I take Blondie to tumbling class right across the street from her school so she could have just walked over there and gotten a ride home with me. Well, M&M was then kicking herself all weekend for not remembering that and moaning and complaining that she was going to have to wait the whole 3-day weekend before she could try it out.

So Tuesday comes around and the teacher doesn't have the bassoon ready for her to take that day and so I told her to just wait until Friday again so that she can go after school and have him show her how to put it together and how to take care of it and get some bassoon music and then she could walk across the street to ride home with me. She reluctantly decided to wait until Friday and then we brought it home and figured out how to put it together and put one of the reeds on and she was immediately able to make some sounds with it. On Fridays I am busy running kids around to tumbling and piano lessons (and Luke had a friend's birthday party to go to), but I was finally able to get on the computer and find a couple of fingering charts for her to use. The bassoon we have found out is not as intuitive as some of the other instruments on what the fingerings are for different notes. There are several keys that just the left thumb itself plays (7 I think). Since I printed out the fingering charts, M&M has been obsessed with playing the bassoon and trying to figure out the fingerings for different notes. She is also set on learning some of the bassoon parts for the music they are currently working on in band class. I finally was able to convince her to start out with a couple of scales first so that she can learn the notes with the different fingerings. This is something that is just so new and different that she is excited to learn it. Her arms were a bit sore the first few days that she was playing it, but I think she is starting to get used to it - and trying to figure out the best posture and position for her to sit in and finding the right spot for the seat strap (there is a strap that attaches to the bottom of the bassoon that you then sit on to help support the weight of the bassoon).

If she ends up deciding to stick with the bassoon I think we might have to look into finding a private teacher for her. When I bought the bassoon reeds at the music store, the clerk said to me that playing the bassoon is a great way to get college scholarships because it is an instrument that not too many people play and there is always a demand for good bassoon players.