I'd been wanting a bassoon for a few years. I'd ask for one for my birthday or Christmas and never get one. So I started asking band directors if their schools were having an auction or anything to let me know if any bassoons were going in it.
I happened to ask the band director at Cook County Schools in Grand Marais, and she said there was one there that nobody had used in SEVERAL years. It was just sitting there on the shelf in the band room. I decided to purchase it!
I bought Standard of Excellence Book 1, the same thing I started with on clarinet 21 years ago, and the same thing I start each one of my students on. I took home this bassoon I had just acquired, and sat down and got started. This was November 6th.
I learned to assemble it, and I made up a song to help me remember the correct order to assemble all the pieces. I don't need to sing the song to myself anymore, but in the future, my beginning bassoon students may like to use it.
I went through many of the same things I went through as a young clarinet player at Esko back in the day. Struggling with fingerings or lines in the book, or with reeds, or spit in my instrument, or trying to read the bass clef. I struggled a lot, but I also had more "juice" in me this time than I did back in 5th grade. I was able to see for the first time since 5th grade all the things my students see when they learn their instruments. My bassoon teacher was myself, and she was tough! She made me play every line perfectly before I was allowed to move on in my book. December 6th rolled around, one month later, and I had done it! I completed Book 1!
I held myself to the same, if not higher standards as I do my other students learning to play an instrument. I'm not only learning about bassoon, I'm learning about teaching. Meanwhile, I'm having a great time, regardless of the struggles I run into. Can't finish the maze without running into a few walls first, right? The cheese is being a bassoonist, so it's worth the run :-)
Meanwhile, I have accepted another bassoon related challenge. I have been an oboist in the Duluth Symphonic Winds Community Band for over 7 years now. I have taken on a bassoon playing spot in the group now since we gained another oboe player. Luckily, my good friend Kerry is the best bassoon player I know, and I'll get to sit with her every week at rehearsal, so she will be there to help me out :-)
*Enjoy your day*
No comments:
Post a Comment