Bassooning

Today was really exciting because I got to share my bassoon with the elementary classes! I love playing bassoon and it was one of my main reasons for considering music education so I was enthusiastic about sharing it with my students. Another cool thing about today was they got to explore early instruments on an interactive website- one of them was an early bassoon. It's officially called 'the rackett', which I thought was rather hilarious because when you first start playing, the bassoon does make quite a racket! The kids were really amazed by the transformation from a jug-like instrument with a pipe sticking out to a modern day bassoon. As I put it together, their eyes kept getting wider as the instrument got bigger. (A bassoon is about 4ft tall.) I led the discussion about how it's a low instrument because the sound has to travel through all the pipes. We talked about how I could change pitch by opening up the keys closer to the bocal and mouthpiece or sound really low notes by closing all the holes. To get the kids involved, I played 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game' and they sang along with the last verse. I allowed some time to ask questions before playing another piece and they came up with such great questions! We talked about how I made my reeds, what were some challenges of playing bassoon, and the styles bassoons normally play. Then, I played a classical, but fun piece called 'The Squirrel', which they also really liked. Overall, it was a very positive lesson (both for me and them) and I was really pleased how it went. I also noticed that I'm much more comfortable in front of a class this week; it seemed almost natural!