 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: deejay
Date: 2001-03-05 18:58
I started out learning bassoon last year and stopped, because I didn't have enough money to buy my own, but now I do and I have to desided wether to buy a pro clarinet or a bassoon. The clarinet I own now is great, but wish to play clarinet in college and on the other hand I wish to play bassoon also. I have always wanted to learn double reed instruments(I do play oboe, but I don't like it). I am playing bassoon this summer for an band/orchestra this year and have the option to buy one. What should I do?
If anyone knows about bassoons or can answer this please do, to start out would a plastic one be good?? I was thinking about buying a plastic then when I can play really good go and buy a step up wood bassoon.
deejay
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Author: Mandy
Date: 2001-03-05 21:45
Double reed players are a strange breed,-no offense.
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Author: Eoin McAuley
Date: 2001-03-05 21:54
You will find that good bassoons are much more expensive than a good clarinet. Clarinets are extremely unusual in the world of musical instruments. Even a professional model rarely costs more than a couple of thousand dollars. With other instruments, the sky appears to be the limit. I heard a young cellist starting out on a solo career proposing spending £60,000 (at the time about $80,000) for a decent cello. I don't think bassoons are quite as bad, but they will still set you back a lot of money.
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Author: Todd H.
Date: 2001-03-05 22:02
Do the deal deejay! There is'nt a "Vs" needed, clarinet and bassoon so often play together. Plastic Bassoons are fine, in general. Be critical of a used wood bassoon especially if you find that is a "seasoned" school instrument. Maple rots quick compared to grenadilla!
....I think that mandy meant to say "french hornists are a strange breed,...probably just a typo!!!
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2001-03-05 23:42
I know a professional orchestral player who plays on a Fox plastic bassoon and she is perfectly happy with it. An advantage is no messy timber tone holes that leak a little, no chance of rotting timber at the bottom of the wing tenon, and consistently well made. This is a quality instrument.
I have been impressed with the Mooseman wooden cheap end bassoon because the areas that suffer from wetness are all lined, and mechanically it is sound, but initial adjustments are certain to be needed, and I am not in a position to evaluate the way it plays.
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Author: deejay
Date: 2001-03-06 00:47
I play a Selmer Signet Special.
I checked around and found a few bassoons. Nice plastic models will run around 600-800, used and used wood ones anywhere from 900 and up. Ones that need few minor thing will cost 200-500. I found a very nice Linton basson for 600, a band teacher is selling it. I am going to buy it if I can get rid of my oboe in time to buy it.
deejay
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Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2001-03-06 01:38
<body BGCOLOR="yellow"><FONT COLOR="cyan" SIZE="+2"><i><b>
I have been told that Bassoon players can write their own ticket ... get a scholarship at almost any good music college. OTOH have you seen many clarinet players around? (I was told that by my brother-in-law who has a phd in music and at the time was the head of the music department at a university in Indiana.)
There will always be more good deals coming along on good clarinets and you have one to sell to wangle another later.
</b></i></font></body>
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2001-03-06 03:10
As to money matters you can buy economical Fox or Yamaha for your own use.
After you enter an orchestra, they will lend Heckel(50K$) or Moennig.
The good point to learn bassoon(fagot) is that there are not so many people who
try to learn bassoon. This means much less competition to get a job.
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Author: Gene Wie
Date: 2001-03-06 10:32
Ditto on the low cost of a clarinet player. I've played violin for seventeen years, and it's ridiculous the amount of money that's demanded in order to be at a high competitive levels (what do you do when people have obviously superior equipment that is financially infeasible for you to obtain? A good violin is a good violin, but a Strad is a Strad, and at equal levels of musical and technical proficiency their "hardware" so to speak will carry those players that extra half inch).
When I was in high school, my parents shelled out some bucks for a decent violin. To this day I know very well that there was a reason why I didn't get a driver's license till I was almost 18. =)
Comparatively, I've saved up at random computer jobs and gigs over the last couple years and funded my own set of Bb and A R13 clarinets. I love the fact that playing clarinet is more about being a musician and less about having a huge pocketbook. True, it's a lot more competitive because there are so many of us, but I can accept that fact. I'm a computer consultant by trade and the day job can deal with buying reeds and stuff.
Simply put: I personally have chosen to go with the clarinet because of the much more level playing field. Anything that's more a personal musical challenge than a uphill financial struggle is good in my book.
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2001-03-06 16:35
To play the clarinet really well is an accomplishment and will help in playing other woodwind instruments. There are a lot of good clarinets out there that will help with this quest. I like Leblancs (although I also own Buffet and Selmers) best because you don't have to spend so much time working on intonation in the upper registers. I play an Opus and love it. If you ever run across a good used one at a reasonable price, snap it up. They have great acoustics and a nice even sound in all registers.
Double reed instruments are in demand and are a great way to get into an orchestra that might have a full clarinet section.
I suppose after playing clarinet 39 years and being in all types of situations and around all types of people the basic advice I would give is, which one do you enjoy playing? Focus on that one and you'll decide what brand of instrument to purchase as you see how you progress with your skills and how people react to your playing.
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Author: deejay
Date: 2001-03-06 18:55
I enjoy clarinet really well and love playing it, but I also love the bassoon. I enjoy learning bassoon and would like to play bassoon in an orchestra. In one of the bands this summer I am joining has lots of pro clarinet players and as my director told me I would have a hard time even with dead last part, but I told him I want to play bassoon and that would be easy to play since they one have one and the parts are fairly easy. Right now I have to use my schools bassoon, it needs help, but atleast it plays. I still have time to desided what I want to play professionaly, which I tend to play bassoon and clarinet..
deejay
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Author: Blake
Date: 2001-03-06 19:53
Just remember..for every short bassoon passage you play there is alot of oompah parts....clarinet parts are alot more intersting particularly in band....
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2001-03-06 20:08
I've always considered myself an honorary bassoonist of sorts, as in high school orchestra we only had one bassoon player, so I played all the second bassoon parts on my bass clarinet. Ever since then I've been extremely fond of the bassoon and have had the utmost respect for its players. But, yes, bassoons are expensive. Soprano clarinets (though not the larger clarinets!) are relatively inexpensive for professional instruments, but that is partly because they are small and very simple. Even a flute has a much more complicated mechanism than a standard Boehm clarinet, and if you look at all the other woodwinds (oboes, saxophones) they too are much more complex than the average clarinet.
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Author: deejay
Date: 2001-03-06 23:02
are bassoon parts fairly easy in a band? I really have no clue since we have no double reed players in band, except me which I have a oboe solo with a flute player, wait i take that back, a few years ago they had a bassoon player and he didn't know until after she got out of school otherwise she would of had her to play i guess.
deejay
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Author: Corey
Date: 2001-03-07 00:00
When you play bassoon don't you have to read in bass clef?
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2001-03-07 05:18
Mozart Bassoon concerto seems very difficult and only for real bassoonists.
By the way, I heard almost all bassoonists make reeds themselves.
This might take quite a few years to learn(I guess).
One good solution is to have a good bassoonist friend who can
accept your reed making too.
Another difficulty may be a selection of vocal(spell?).
I learned Heckel's bassons need more than 10 years(nearly 20 years?) through hundreds of manufacturing processes from material to become a bassoon. It may not be the size but the process to make them so expensive.
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Author: Royce
Date: 2001-03-08 15:29
Deejay,
I would advise against a Linton bassoon. They are widely considered to be pretty dismal instruments. The only plastic bassoons that I could recommend are Fox (and the older Conn plastic bassoons, also made by Fox). I have gone through the ordeal of buying a bassoon recently, so I think I have a pretty good idea of brands, prices, etc. Email me if you would like to talk further.
Royce
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Author: Bob Curtis
Date: 2001-03-09 22:45
deejay:
In regard to bass cleff, you will have to read this and it is not hard once you become accustomed to where the notes are locatged. To complicate things more, as you advance you will have to read in the Tenor Cleff also. That is the cleff which is not quite a Treble cleff, but plays more in the upper register similar to the Treble clef. They base middle "c" as their starting point and go from there. Now it becomes interesting!
Just remembert, that there are fewe Bassonists out there than Clarinetist, and the job and scholarship opportunities are much more in demand.
Good luck in your selections.
Bob Curtis
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