It's funny, there are so many things you have said that I usually do and nobody told me to do in that particular way. It could be some kind of bassoonist mindset finding the best way to improve using your experience and self reflections. Congratulations for the video.👏
My last year of music before i end highschool and this is the instrement ive decided to play. Never touched the thing before today, looking forward to it, and thank you for your help well in advance
Not a beginner, I’ve been playing bassoon for a while but when I learned it was hybrid Covid year so I didn’t learn as well and had a lot of independent work. I didn’t really know what to do so I winged it(my directors seemed to think I was doing okay) but now I want to improve myself so I can enjoy my sound. Your videos have given me helpful tips and I’ll definitely use them to practice for auditions next quarter 💪
Best of luck! Make sure that you are purchasing high quality reeds and that you are using good air support. If those two things are good, your sound will improve more quickly!
Your routine is pretty similar to mine! I've been struggling with how to practice arpeggios so I'll definitely be stealing your arpeggio pattern! I personalize a bit by adding vibrato exercises- definitely still a weak spot for me but improving! With daily work my double tonging is also finally starting to speed up! (it's fun 'cause as I work on speeding up the Marriage of Figaro my double tonging is kinda keeping pace with my running passages, haha) -Ellie
Awesome! Vibrato exercises are a great one to incorporate into a warmup. Nice work on Figaro! I think I’m one of the few people who prefers to single tongue that excerpt
Lots to unpack from this video. Thanks for sharing your warm-up routines with us! To answer one of your questions, I’ll have to improve tuning by incorporating long tone exercises in my regular warm-up - and I’ll be sure to use a tuner to keep track of intonation. (As an aside, I find playing E3 - just below F3 on the staff - hard to tune. Maybe my embouchure needs tweaking some days; other days, the reed isn’t working; perhaps room temperature plays a role in intonation. Or it’s all of the above.) I also like your one-scale-a-day exercise. Given that a lot of band/orchestra pieces I play switch from one key to the next, however (think of pieces written as medleys), picking a specific key is going to be challenging! :P With that said, I’m playing some pieces or movements in keys such as A and E major these days, so I’ll work a little harder to develop these keys in my warm-up as they’re less intuitive than C major and flat keys (at least keys between F major and A-flat major). Lastly, I’ll be sure to check out the practice log in the video description. I do take note of what I practise in a notebook, but it gets filled with other info and I have to flip through pages to find what I worked on one day or two weeks ago. Having a separate document will make me more organized during my practice sessions. Plus, I won’t have to flip pages anymore. Oh, the convenience! Thanks again for sharing this video! Methinks I’ve got a lot to incorporate into my warm-up and practice sessions in days and weeks to come. (-:
@@BuildingaBassoonist Yes, it tends to be flat, especially when playing three out of the four reeds I currently have. Thankfully, the last reed is fairly new, so I think I’ll be playing with that reed for the foreseeable future. (-:
@@DwainRichardson if the 2nd wire is loose on the reeds, you could try tightening it if you have a mandrel and pair of pliers, that will usually help a sagging E. The other issue is that the reed might be too long if other notes are also consistently flat.
If I could make a suggestion for the fingerings of c5, and I don't mean this to be rude, but I find for the response, especially in slurs it helps to use both of the top vent keys (the d vent, which not all bassoons have but professional models will, and c/b vent). It should prevent the note from cracking and make the response much easier. The only downside is that it makes the note slightly sharp in my experience but still manageable with vowel shapes and voicing to tune. You can also treat it like a flick fingering switching to just the top vent key after the note speaks.
Great suggestion! This particular combo of keys doesn’t make any difference on my instrument for response, but I know that on some bassoons it makes all the difference.
Great video! I have a question. How long should i practice? I usely practice around 3 hours a day. Im planning on joining a conservatory for bassoon and i think 3 hours might not be enough.
It all depends on where you’re at in your development, what you need to work on, and your schedule and capacity for practice. 3 hours a day is pretty solid for most students in college. Sometimes you might need more and sometimes you might have to do less. No matter what, make sure that the practice is strategic and thoughtful and there’s a reason for why you’re practicing what you do. Don’t just practice to “get your hours in.” Best of luck!
Thanks for your insights into a warm up routine! I'm not a professional player (faaar from it) but I'd like to improve my abilities on the bassoon. I do have a teacher and I play in a concert band and usually I can manage just fine but there's so much I need to work on. Unfortunately, I have a "regular" life apart from bassooning and hearing that the warm up itself takes about an hour is a bit scary. My whole practice time per day is about an hour. Do you have any tips for peope who are not professional players (or "professional" students for that matter) on how to incorporate all those exercises when most times you only have an hour per day to practise without sacrificing anything?
It's funny, there are so many things you have said that I usually do and nobody told me to do in that particular way. It could be some kind of bassoonist mindset finding the best way to improve using your experience and self reflections. Congratulations for the video.👏
My last year of music before i end highschool and this is the instrement ive decided to play.
Never touched the thing before today, looking forward to it, and thank you for your help well in advance
Not a beginner, I’ve been playing bassoon for a while but when I learned it was hybrid Covid year so I didn’t learn as well and had a lot of independent work. I didn’t really know what to do so I winged it(my directors seemed to think I was doing okay) but now I want to improve myself so I can enjoy my sound. Your videos have given me helpful tips and I’ll definitely use them to practice for auditions next quarter 💪
Best of luck! Make sure that you are purchasing high quality reeds and that you are using good air support. If those two things are good, your sound will improve more quickly!
I am so excited to start doing this. Thank you so much
You’re so welcome!
Thanks for the great video! Very helpful as a beginner bassoonist to have these great warmups!
Thanks so much Emily!
Your routine is pretty similar to mine! I've been struggling with how to practice arpeggios so I'll definitely be stealing your arpeggio pattern!
I personalize a bit by adding vibrato exercises- definitely still a weak spot for me but improving! With daily work my double tonging is also finally starting to speed up! (it's fun 'cause as I work on speeding up the Marriage of Figaro my double tonging is kinda keeping pace with my running passages, haha)
-Ellie
Awesome! Vibrato exercises are a great one to incorporate into a warmup. Nice work on Figaro! I think I’m one of the few people who prefers to single tongue that excerpt
Great video! Thanks!
Lots to unpack from this video. Thanks for sharing your warm-up routines with us!
To answer one of your questions, I’ll have to improve tuning by incorporating long tone exercises in my regular warm-up - and I’ll be sure to use a tuner to keep track of intonation. (As an aside, I find playing E3 - just below F3 on the staff - hard to tune. Maybe my embouchure needs tweaking some days; other days, the reed isn’t working; perhaps room temperature plays a role in intonation. Or it’s all of the above.)
I also like your one-scale-a-day exercise. Given that a lot of band/orchestra pieces I play switch from one key to the next, however (think of pieces written as medleys), picking a specific key is going to be challenging! :P With that said, I’m playing some pieces or movements in keys such as A and E major these days, so I’ll work a little harder to develop these keys in my warm-up as they’re less intuitive than C major and flat keys (at least keys between F major and A-flat major).
Lastly, I’ll be sure to check out the practice log in the video description. I do take note of what I practise in a notebook, but it gets filled with other info and I have to flip through pages to find what I worked on one day or two weeks ago. Having a separate document will make me more organized during my practice sessions. Plus, I won’t have to flip pages anymore. Oh, the convenience!
Thanks again for sharing this video! Methinks I’ve got a lot to incorporate into my warm-up and practice sessions in days and weeks to come. (-:
Hi Dwain, thanks for your thoughtful comment! Does your E tend to sag flat when you play it? If so, it’s likely a reed issue
@@BuildingaBassoonist Yes, it tends to be flat, especially when playing three out of the four reeds I currently have. Thankfully, the last reed is fairly new, so I think I’ll be playing with that reed for the foreseeable future. (-:
@@DwainRichardson if the 2nd wire is loose on the reeds, you could try tightening it if you have a mandrel and pair of pliers, that will usually help a sagging E. The other issue is that the reed might be too long if other notes are also consistently flat.
@@BuildingaBassoonist thank you! 🙂
If I could make a suggestion for the fingerings of c5, and I don't mean this to be rude, but I find for the response, especially in slurs it helps to use both of the top vent keys (the d vent, which not all bassoons have but professional models will, and c/b vent). It should prevent the note from cracking and make the response much easier. The only downside is that it makes the note slightly sharp in my experience but still manageable with vowel shapes and voicing to tune. You can also treat it like a flick fingering switching to just the top vent key after the note speaks.
Great suggestion! This particular combo of keys doesn’t make any difference on my instrument for response, but I know that on some bassoons it makes all the difference.
Great video! I have a question. How long should i practice? I usely practice around 3 hours a day. Im planning on joining a conservatory for bassoon and i think 3 hours might not be enough.
It all depends on where you’re at in your development, what you need to work on, and your schedule and capacity for practice. 3 hours a day is pretty solid for most students in college. Sometimes you might need more and sometimes you might have to do less. No matter what, make sure that the practice is strategic and thoughtful and there’s a reason for why you’re practicing what you do. Don’t just practice to “get your hours in.” Best of luck!
I am blind and never felt a bassoon, how did you do the vibrato when you were playing
Thanks for your insights into a warm up routine! I'm not a professional player (faaar from it) but I'd like to improve my abilities on the bassoon. I do have a teacher and I play in a concert band and usually I can manage just fine but there's so much I need to work on. Unfortunately, I have a "regular" life apart from bassooning and hearing that the warm up itself takes about an hour is a bit scary. My whole practice time per day is about an hour. Do you have any tips for peope who are not professional players (or "professional" students for that matter) on how to incorporate all those exercises when most times you only have an hour per day to practise without sacrificing anything?
Where can I find the printed version of the exercises that you flashed on the screen?
The long tone exercises? Here is the link: sites.utexas.edu/bassoon/files/2016/05/Herzberg-Long-Tones-2016.pdf