Bassoon/Writing: What's the Difference?

Bassoon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Playing the bassoon and writing equals the same thing. Note: I used the verb 'equals', not the weaker verb 'are'...totally different meaning.

Technicalities aside, how you ask? Glad to answer.

1. Lonely time. You spend hours alone, creating, honing, perfecting. And you know you are GOOD. (Until you hit rehearsal or receive the correct copy from your crit partner).
2. Never perfect. Your rehearsal/crit demonstrate your weakness, so you spend the next week perfecting.
3. Hit the wall. Your embouchure or your muse walks out on you. You threaten to walk out on the whole lifestyle.
4. Rehearsal (AKA Conference). You get to  celebrate with like-minded geeks who love nothing more than to spend hours practicing and sharing their craft.
5. Performance. When you're ready to quit, then the performance comes. You get to dress up, put on make-up (hopefully only if you're female). The house is packed. For writers, you get your contract.

Is any life better than writing or music?

Tootling My Own Horn

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12

Ah. The bassoon. Who could ever create a finer sound and look so cool doing so? My dream, ever since I saw it in high school concerts, was to play one. But I never got a chance to learn it. Until...

Ellen and I searched for instruments to rent when I was in my thirties. She could find the ones she wanted: clarinet, flute. Instead, for twenty bucks, she bought a recorder.

Me? The owner of a music store told me I would have to buy bassoon. No one rented them. However, at a cost of $4,000, it wasn't an option. My daughter insisted on eating and having a roof over her head. (Demanding child). So I prayed, "Lord, if you want me to play the bassoon, You'll have to find one."

And guess what? Yep. He did. For ten bucks, I found one in a garage sale. And our band director at school had been a bassoon major. So now you say, "The rest is gravy. God willed it. Presto-virtuoso!"


Nope.

A few things interfered:

1. Abdominal surgery. It's hard to blow a bassoon with belly stitches.
2. The said band teacher moved.

But a dear friend who majored in music at Crane alerted me to a professor who would give non-Cranies lessons. You repeat, "Abra-ka-tah-tah-tah."

No again.

1. Seven years of traveling to Crane, produced a mediocre player.
2. So mediocre, my teacher got a job elsewhere.

 So what's my point?

Throughout this time, I knew God had answered my prayers. I met my husband who told me about the Adirondack Players. They took me on and taught me to play with a band. A member there alerted me to performance opportunities at Crane. I expanded my skills.

I now play second bassoon in a community band, in addition to first (read: only) bassoon in two other bands. And lo and behold (it's my blog and I can be cliche if I want to), I've been sight reading music, playing fast and accurately and sounding pretty good.

It took many years. It took due diligence and no symphony would ever take me on as even a stage hand, but I'm playing the bassoon.

God answers prayers. Usually not the way we expect, but if we're faithful, we will walk in His perfect way.

Little Known Bassoon Facts

     My annual Christmas cantata has ended to thunderous applause and requests for us to return in the spring. Before I, personally perform, I want to clarify some little known facts about the most wonderful instrument in the band.
     Did you know?

1.  The bassoon is indeed the prototype of a bazooka. If you wet tissues, roll them into the size of a golf ball and shove it down the bell joint, when the bassoonist hits a high C, it will easily shoot one thousand feet. I have heard that the designers of the game "Angry Birds" use a bassoon at its highest level.

2.  The bassoon also is the forerunner of an IED. Watch a bassoonist roaming around before a concert and see how many innocent attendees she bops with the horn. Few survive.

Bassoon

3.  The bocal is not a hookah.

4.  The bocal is a good substitute for a water balloon. Innocently look ahead as you blow the condensation out of it at the end of the concert. Your neighbor will be saturated.

5. It does not make the same noise as a dying cow or a moose in heat.

6. When someone points at a bassoonist and says, "das faggott," they are NOT insulting her. That's the German name for it and it means those sticks.

7. No ships are ever lost at sea when a bassoon yields its low notes.

8.  The bassoon is not an oboe.