Low A on Bassoon

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There are low As throughout the Mahler Symphonies. Not all have them. They also are in one or more of the Strauss works and Wagner’s Ring Cycle has one or two as I recall. It also appears in the woodwind quintet by Nielsen and Paul Chihara’s Branches for two bassoons and percussion. I’m sure I’ve fagotten a few. Haha.

leon-and-mark-with-low-a

Leon and Mark with low A

Some would take an English horn bell and stick it into the end of the bassoon in the Nielsen Quintet, or a rolled up piece of paper or cardboard tube. These work okay, but lack in resonance and good pitch. We always covered these low As with a piece of plastic plumbing drain pipe. I made a fancy matching set for Bob, Juan, Bonnie Cox and myself with a plastic base and metal end with a nice flair. It’s fun to blast a low A. Peter Schickele, a bassoonist himself, wrote a low A solo in his Lip My Reeds for bassoon quartet. We are recording that with Leon Chodos and Mark assisting on the low A for Lip My Reeds which goes back and forth with low Bb. That’s what we’re doing in the photo and you can hear the results on our Escaped CD.

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Bassoon Audition Advice

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Below is a list of the top rated audition pieces used by professional symphony orchestras. If your goal is to play in a symphony, you will eventually be called upon to audition on one or more of these. All are difficult bassoon solos or technical passages. Some are technically difficult, some musically difficult and others difficult for both.

You should begin practicing these if you are a serious bassoonist well before you are ever asked to audition. Bassoon solo excerpt books and collections of the complete parts are available through double reed specialty shops and sheet music stores. Listen to recordings to get a sense of how the part fits into the musical landscape and record yourself playing the excerpts to get some feedback. Advice from an experienced symphony bassoonist in private lessons could reveal some tricks of the trade for special fingerings that help in the sticky passages.

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Bassoon Reed Tuning Using Advanced Reed Design and Testing Procedure

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Question from Greg, a student of Mark Eubanks:

I have been focusing on reeds as opposed to the exercises and have some questions. I am using your book as my main resource. Right now, I have a reed which I think is a great reed. I am able to go through the warm-up routine (all of it!) without flicking and croaking. I have some questions, though.

This reed passed Objective #1 (pg. 14). On Objective #2 Eb was sharp so I added the 2nd finger and Bb key r.h. It was in tune at that time. Am I supposed to scrape regardless of the correction or can I move on to Objective #3 (Tuning Harmonics)? I went into Objective #3 and everything seemed fine. At Objective #4 (the Ab/Bb trill test) I am not sure if I am doing the fingerings correctly because I am getting a gargling sound on the trill Bb. I don’t want to do any correction to the reed because it seems to be doing so well in spite of this problem. I have not gone on to Objective #5 and 6. Is it required to go into Objectives #5 and 6 (if the reed is responding well) to go on and make necessary corrections? Does every reed have to go through the entire circle of objectives?

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