Bassoons

I have to say that NUSWS bassoon section is very friendly and warm.

The story starts like this:

The contrabassoon girl told me on Wednesday night that she will go CFA practice at 4pm at Thusday. Then of course I have to go CFA to draw keys.

I reached there at around 4.30pm, and someone has already drawn the keys. So, ok lo, I start my studying.

As you, every studying will come to a point of boringness. Then I went into the auditorium to have a look. The contrabassoon girl (sorry, I didn't ask for her name, because I will simply forget, so it's better to be don't know than to be forget) hasn't started practice (so you know how long I have studied).

Then I went to ask her about reeds (just curious about bassoon and contrabassoon reeds). She told me a lot of things, like a bassoon reed cost S$50, and the set to make reeds cost more than S$500. And yes, all hand-made.

My curiosity somehow works. She then gave me a bassoon reeds and teach me how to sound. Bassoon and oboe are both double reeds, but the way of blowing is totally different, but both are fun. Sometimes I just feel that I am more suitable and more enjoy in playing double reeds.

After the long-winded reeds blowing session, she asked me whether I want to play the contrabassoon (because my curiosity is mainly on contrabassoon). I asked, "Can I?" She replied, "CANNNN..." in a rather strange but warm and friendly manner.

She then took out the contrabassoon. These are how it looks like:







Contrabassoon must be the hardest instrument to play in my life, in terms of air amount needed. Two instruments that I always plays, flute and tuba, are only needed half the air amount of a contrabassoon. It is more heavier than a tuba, of course the range is also lower than tuba.

Playing it for 10 minutes is already like playing flute for 2 hours or oboe for 3 hours. But the sound is really fantastic, like can go into the deepness of your heart. No wonder Mr. Tan likes it so much.

Around 6, another bassoon girl came. I was given chance to play bassoon. Same way, the bassoon girl asked, "Want to play?". I asked, "Can I?", this time both of them answered, "CANNN..." in exactly same manner, even same pitch. I think they must have practised this many times.





I felt so easy when playing bassoon. The air amount needed is only half of contrabassoon, which is almost like flute and tuba. I think I sounded quite good in bassoon, maybe because I already get used to double reeds. However, they said that I always bite the reeds too inside. I think is because everytime when I plays oboe, the reeds keep falling out and I have to bite more inside.

After knowing the scale (which I can play easily), I wanted to try the lowest note of the instrument. Then the girl sat beside, teaching me how to reach the note, very patiently. And finally after more than 15 minutes, I reached the note, and both of them yelled, "YEAH!!!" I felt the feeling of strong achievement, and so happy.

I really never saw such wonderful section before, gave me all the encouragement and help a new player would need. I was thinking, if there is any more bassoon to spare, I might as well just join the bassoon section. They are reeds player, using the most expensive reeds among all others, and they just lend me the reeds to play without enforcing me to take good care of the reeds (which Xianwei always will, and you know, no insult la, that only means that you care about your reeds).

If I compare with my own section, I felt that my section is so cold. Not that they are not friendly (are they?), but they are just more concentrate on practising their own, and only teach when I do something really wrong. Even for oboe, I never have such good help, and the only help I got was from Farid, the NUSSO oboist (because Jinyang is so busy lah). In contrast, tuba (Daniel) and eupho (Yokes, Edna and Fairoz) are much more friendly, but not as friendly as bassoon. Maybe lower instrument players are just more friendly. Big instrument, big heart?

p/s: I suddenly got an idea to show how "cold" or "warm" a section is. For flute, I can't touch other's flute, not without asking, and some even warned me that no matter what I just cannot touch. For oboe, I can play any time, but only with my own reeds. Eupho, just ask, and normally they will allow when it is not being used. Daniel will let me play his Tuba if he doesn't need to use any more, so sometimes I can just take and play. For bassoon, wow, they ask you whether you want to play or not, using their own reeds. How can I not like bassoon?