a confusion of clefs
When you think about reading music, you probably imagine it being in treble clef. For most instruments, sheet music is mostly read in treble, but there is a major thing about the bassoon that many people don’t realize when they first start out. Or maybe another person, maybe even with an instrument in the same key, can’t read the music. This is because the majority of bassoon music is in bass clef!
We use bass clef because it’s written in a way that if the bassoon plays a note, it’s actually in the same octave as a piano would be. For other instruments, like the contrabassoon, it’s actually an octave higher than how the note sounds [8].
We use bass clef because it’s written in a way that if the bassoon plays a note, it’s actually in the same octave as a piano would be. For other instruments, like the contrabassoon, it’s actually an octave higher than how the note sounds [8].
![Picture](/uploads/2/6/9/5/26957432/640492302.jpg)
To the left is a picture of the bass clef, with notes labeled. The range of the bassoon goes from Bb1 all the way below the staff, a step below the lowest C shown in the picture, all the way up to Bb4, four ledger lines above the B sitting on top of the staff. Some of the higher notes are rarely used, although I've seen them all in both etudes and scales, and it really is helpful if you know every note to increase your range.
keys
![Picture](/uploads/2/6/9/5/26957432/857167243.png?338)
Even though you may not use all of these keys, it's good to know what to use them for.
The top three keys on the right side of the left thumb quadrant are used only for flicking, and some bassoonists don't even use them. Others, such as the F# key in the right fingers quadrant, or the Ab key for the right thumb, are mostly used for alternate fingerings in chromatic stuff, scales, or fast parts in etudes.
These keys and alternate fingerings can be really helpful to learn, and I know that from experience, so it's really not a waste of time.
The top three keys on the right side of the left thumb quadrant are used only for flicking, and some bassoonists don't even use them. Others, such as the F# key in the right fingers quadrant, or the Ab key for the right thumb, are mostly used for alternate fingerings in chromatic stuff, scales, or fast parts in etudes.
These keys and alternate fingerings can be really helpful to learn, and I know that from experience, so it's really not a waste of time.