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Bassoon Master ClassMichael Burns

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Response Issues on the BassoonCracking Low Notes, Cracking High Notes, Bocal Flex - Voicing - Foghorn Eff ect

Michael J. BurnsGreensboro, North Carolina

What does “cracking” sound like?Th ere are many variants to the sounds and it depends on which register is being attempted, but it may be a growl, squeak, grunt, cough, croak, multiphonic, split-octave, incorrect partial (another actual note), howl, etc. Oft en it occurs just at the beginning of a note and then disappears (see below for a possible ex-planation) but sometimes it lasts the duration of the note.

What causes “cracking?”Here is where the categorization from above becomes useful. Th ese diff erent registers may each have diff er-ent causes of notes that may crack.

• In the ½ holing register, players must adjust and pivot the left hand index fi nger to create three dif-ferent sized ‘½ holes,’ Th e Fs requires the largest opening with about ⅔ to ¾ of the hole uncovered. G is more or less a true ½ hole while Af requires a much smaller opening and I describe it as a ¼ hole. Incidentally, I also use the same size open-ings for the octave higher G and Af respectively. A couple of distinct types of “cracking” can oc-cur when a ½ hole note is mishandled: When the opening is not large enough a low pitch usually will ensue—a growl, split octave, or if you are lucky just the correct note an octave low. When too much of the hole is uncovered a high pitch re-sults creating a squeak or multiphonic. Th is tends to happen mostly on the Af and G as the Fs hole size is already so large.

• In the fl icking register, notes crack because the desired fi rst harmonic partial is not sounding correctly. Debate continues in the bassoon world about how best to address this issue. Some man-date speaker key usage either by touching and re-leasing a speaker key at the start of each relevant

The bassoon is a unique instrument with a characteristically quirky and idiosyncratic sound. In terms of modern instrument de-

velopment it also is something of a dinosaur, lagging behind the other woodwinds in acoustical develop-ments by centuries in certain aspects. Th erefore, the bassoon has some intrinsic issues associated with its acoustical design that lead to response issues. A com-mon term for one form of response issue is “crack-ing” and that is what I would like to deal with in this article.

“Cracking”, a defi nition - my defi nition of cracking on the bassoon is: When an extraneous or non-musi-cal sound is created when attempting to execute a note on the bassoon.

Which notes can “crack” on the bassoon?Th ere are some who might answer ‘all of them’ and any note on the bassoon can be mishandled in such a way that an extraneous noise is produced but I be-lieve that the answer can be narrowed down further and categorized as follows:

• ½ hole notes: [Fs , G, and Af at the top of the bass clef staff and G and Af an octave higher (also the Fs in the higher octave with some fi ngerings)]

• Flicking register notes: the notes at the top of the staff and immediately above it that overblow an octave to the fi rst harmonic partial-A, B f , B, C, D—not Cs in this register for reasons that will be explained later

• High register notes: from F above middle C and up. Th ese notes all tend to be produced with a fi n-gering which derives a higher harmonic partial.

• Low register notes: those notes in the range ex-tending from low E down to low B f . Th ese are defi nitely fundamental pitches.

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Sate the perfect ½ hole size more readily time aft er time.

• In the fl icking register, I advocate learning to fl ick or vent for all of my students but must admit that I do not use these techniques exclusively. I like to address equipment possibilities, especially reed setup and another technique that I strong-ly advocate is learning to correctly “voice” the pitches.

By voicing I mean a couple of related things: 1. manipulating the size and shape of the opening in the oral cavity (particularly tongue position) by creating diff erent vowel sounds. Th is can in-fl uence response, tone, and intonation in various ways. 2. actually moving the vocal chord appara-tus in a way similar to (perhaps even the same as) when singing diff erent pitches. I can demonstrate this. If I sing an A in the bass clef staff and then an octave higher A, there is some sort of motion inside my throat (presumably the vocal chords?) in a distinct upward manner and to a defi nite lo-cation, the location for the A is one place, a B f , Af or any other note all have diff erent (but distinct) locations. Th is motion is also somewhat visible externally because of the motion of my Adam’s apple. Now, when I play those same octave A’s on the bassoon when I play them properly seemingly the exact same motion occurs and I feel that my vocal chords are traveling to that same distinct location as where I sang the upper A.

When I execute this properly on my regular bassoon setup I can get the note to sound clearly without any cracking. Likewise with the B f and the other notes in the fl icking register. Th ere-fore, I feel it would be hypocritical to require my students to fl ick or vent exclusively when I may not always do so myself. Instead I have a rule for them. Th ey are NOT allowed to crack but how they prevent it is their business. Most of them still need to fl ick or vent to be sure of the notes, but some can occasionally only voice the note (without fl icking) and still be certain of its clean response.

One more word about voicing, I have found with students that if their voice range does not coincide with the instrument (for example a natural soprano) that octave displacement of this technique seems to work. If they voice A octaves ascending within their own vocal range the prin-ciple still seems to hold true to make the voicing work on the bassoon for playing A octaves even though the range is diff erent between the voicing

note (this is oft en referred to as ‘fl icking’), or by holding the speaker key for the duration of the note (sometimes called ‘venting’); others advo-cate no fl icking or venting as they feel that they can potentially alter the tone and intonation of the notes in question in an undesirable way and instead advocate altering the equipment setup (reed, bocal, instrument) or the player’s execu-tion (see ‘voicing’ below);

Arthur Weisberg, a bassoon professor at Indiana University in Bloomington has been de-veloping over the past several years the ‘no-fl ick system bassoon’ which can be read about and or-dered from his website www.futurebassoon.com. It consists of a somewhat complicated mecha-nism to automatically vent these notes with newly drilled holes and an automatic octave system.

Cs is generally not included as a fl icking or venting note as the Cs key employed whether using a ‘long’ (fi ngerings including both left and right hand) or ‘short’ (left hand only) fi ngering itself acts in a similar manner to a vent key. Th e note is therefore usually stable enough to not re-quire fl icking and also the left thumb is already occupied anyway!

• High register notes tend to crack because a lower partial sounds instead of the desired one, usually at the beginning of the note only but sometimes for the duration. Th erefore, the sound is most of-ten a lower than desired pitch and may sound like a grunt or growl. To address this I advocate “bo-cal fl ex”—see below.

• Low register notes tend to crack because a higher partial sounds instead of the desired fundamen-tal, usually at the beginning of the note only but sometimes for the duration. Th erefore the sound is most oft en a higher sound. I also address this by learning about and using “bocal fl ex.” In the low register this means ensuring that the bocal is NOT fl exed upwards.

How do you prevent “cracking” on the bassoon? Again, it depends on what caused it and therefore to a large extent, which register is being attempted.

• In the ½ holing register, care must be taken to learn and use the correct ½ hole size for each respective pitch. I strongly advocate learning to pivot or roll the index fi nger to create the open-ing rather than sliding the fi nger. By pivoting, the player can learn to control the angle that the fi nger makes at the fi rst knuckle and can recre-


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multiphonic. How does this help, you may wonder? To

explain I need to give a little history. My fi rst exposure to this technique was as a student of William Winstead’s. I was working on the Rite of Spring beginning solo and having diffi culty consistently getting the fi rst note to respond in time, in tune, and with an acceptable tone. One of the things he had me do was come up with a good fi ngering, have the tongue on the reed and prepare the airstream and “pull up on the bocal until you feel it rise.” When he told me this I at fi rst thought it was one of the oddest things I had ever heard and also thought that I would damage my precious bocal for sure. But, I tried it and, of course, it helps tremendously and my bocal is still going strong over a decade later with no signs of mistreatment.

Now, fast-forward several years and I was in my current position as the bassoon professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. One particular week one of those odd coinci-dences that seem to occur occasionally in teach-ing happened where several diff erent students all seemed to be suff ering from a similar ailment. Th ey all were playing pieces that involved some kind of exposed entrance on the F above the staff (e.g. Weber Concerto fi rst movement, fi rst bas-soon entrance) and all were ‘cracking’ the f with a grunt or multiphonic sounding at the beginning of the note in a most audible way. I was puzzled as to the cause. I tried their bassoons and reeds and all was fi ne, I checked their fi ngerings, had them play on my bassoon and/or reeds, checked the shape of their embouchures all to no avail. Th e problem persisted. Now, one of my favorite teach-ing techniques is to learn to emulate a student’s problem so that I can then determine what causes it and how it can be addressed and fi xed.

So I set to trying to learn how to create this problem with the F. At fi rst I was unsuccessful and could not get the note to crack but eventu-ally I lowered the lower jaw experimentally and succesfully recreated the problem, producing the multiphonic or the lower e. It was then that Winstead’s technique from the Rite of Spring came back to me and I decided to apply it in this other context. I also eventually came up with the term bocal fl ex for it both because it fairly accu-rately describes what we are doing and because it sounds like the name of a product being sold on a late night infomercial, which appeals to my

and the instrument.• In the High register, most fi ngerings are pro-

ducing overblown high harmonic partials. As mentioned above, cracking occurs when a lower partial sounds instead of the one desired. Some-times this can be fi xed by changing to a diff er-ent fi ngering and there are a myriad of options in the high register with some notes having a dozen or more fi ngering possibilities. See the Cooper/Toplansky Bassoon Technique, or the IDRS Bas-soon Family Fingering Companion at http://idrs.colorado.edu/bsnfi ng/fi nghome.htm for more information.

Aside from fi ngering adjustments, my pri-mary remedy for this is to use a technique I call Bocal Flex. Bocal Flex, as the name suggests, in-volves very slight fl exing of the bocal in an up-wards direction to achieve higher partials and can be demonstrated by doing the following: Play a low C and deliberately pull slightly upward with the lower jaw while not pinching down with the upper lip and jaw. Keep the embouchure relaxed and let the upper jaw and lip just rest on top of the reed as you would for the low C. You should be able to produce harmonic partials above the fundamental C. Th e fi rst partial is an octave C, the second a 12th G, etc. You are making the bas-soon act in the way that a brass instrument must which is to produce multiple harmonic pitches from a single fi ngering based on an embouchure change. Now, the control is most likely not there to accurately play specifi c harmonic partials and either random partials or multiple partials si-multaneously (multiphonics) may be produced at fi rst but with practice it is possible to play ‘bugle calls’ on the bassoon by fi ngering a single low note and adjusting the amount of bocal fl ex and/or embouchure aperture and pressure. Th is ele-ment of the technique will be discussed further again below when dealing with low register issues but I now want to move the demonstration up to a higher pitch.

Begin with the F third space above the bass clef staff . Fingering this note deliberately allow the lower jaw to drop down as if playing a low register note (like the C from earlier) the bocal should essentially un-fl ex and lower down also and one of two sounds will result: a multiphonic, or, when you have lowered the jaw suffi ciently an e in the staff with a slightly strange timbre. With practice, one can go back and forth between the ‘e’ and the f or even hold on the intervening


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Sproduce ‘bugle calls’ or harmonic partials above a fundamental while fi ngering the low C. Some cracking in the low register is caused by exactly that. Th e player is inadvertently fl exing the bocal upwards, at least at the beginning of the note so that a harmonic partial, or perhaps several (the multiphonic again) sound at the beginning of the note instead of the fundamental.

To illustrate this I can again emulate the problem by deliberately allowing my lower jaw to be too high at the beginning of a low register note and then drop it down into place. If I do this quickly at fi rst and then slower and slower it becomes obvious that the note is doing what the brass players might call a “splee-ah” with a mul-tiphonic or harmonic sound beginning followed closely by a fundamental. Th en I use an analogy (yet another of my favorite teaching techniques) this one I call “training the puppy.”

I ask the student having the cracking problem in the low register to imagine that they are train-ing a puppy to “stay.” At fi rst the puppy doesn’t understand and wants to go everywhere that the master goes but with some dedication and pa-tience one can teach it to stay on command. Now lets think of the lower jaw as the puppy and the tongue as the master. At fi rst the ‘puppy’ (lower jaw) is untrained and wants to follow everywhere the ‘master’ (tongue) goes. When the tongue comes up to the reed, the lower jaw follows and rises up also. Th is motion is fairly common in activities outside of bassoon playing, when chew-ing, the tongue moves in tandem with the jaw and also in some speech, etc.

Now back to the bassoon. In many registers it will not aff ect the note too adversely if the lower jaw follows the tongue upwards as the tongue moves up to the reed, but in the lower register it becomes more noticeable and more problematic as it oft en results in an incorrect partial sounding instead of the fundamental at the beginning of the note (splee-ah.) To address this then I suggest the student teach the ‘puppy’ (lower jaw) to ‘stay.’ Th ey need to send a message from the brain to the lower jaw to fi nd and hold the correct lower position so that the fundamental will result while the tongue independently moves up to the reed. Th is is easiest to achieve when playing repeated notes in the low register (see the Foghorn exer-cise below) but eventually needs to be addressed for a note beginning.

When starting a note in this manner the

sense of humor. By introducing this concept to all of the stu-

dents concerned, I was able to get them to elimi-nate the cracking on the f and we also learned to apply it to several other high register notes. Now part of the trick is to NOT bite. You lift up SLIGHTLY on the bottom of the reed with the lower jaw but do NOT clamp down with the up-per jaw. Instead it sort of rides upwards slightly also, maintaining the correct aperture size as op-posed to narrowing it, but slightly compressing the bottom blade of the reed and fl exing the bocal upwards gradually and gently.

Another element that I fi nd essential to this discussion is that one has to learn to separate the bocal fl ex and associated jaw position and aper-ture between the teeth from what happens be-hind it in the oral cavity. For many high register notes one must combine bocal fl ex and a some-what narrow aperture with an open oral cavity and low tongue position in order for it to come out but with low enough pitch.

I now maintain that I cannot correctly play the F (or perhaps any other higher register note above it) without using at least some bocal fl ex and that I probably had been using it all along without realizing it. I dare say that many (most? All?) other bassoonists probably do likewise.

Bocal fl ex has now become an essential part of my teaching technique and seems to bring much better success and consistency to my stu-dents. When I have presented the technique in a masterclass situation it oft en merits raised eye-brows and looks of skepticism from participants, listeners, students, and teachers and I remember my own fi rst response to Winstead’s suggestion but I encourage you to try it out for yourselves. I really think that it works.

• In the Low Register, again several factors can lead to low notes cracking: A fi ngering issue may lead to a tonehole being uncovered and creating a leak; the instrument may be out of adjustment and either have pads not covering or the link be-tween the low C and D key may not be engaging properly; reed problems can certainly play havoc either from a leak, or just poor response from scraping issues, etc., the student may not be put-ting enough air into the horn, etc.

However, all things being equal I fi nd that again bocal fl ex can be a major issue but this time at the other end of the spectrum. In the demon-stration on the low C described above one could


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during the string of articulated notes following the E-Bf slur of the foghorn.

I hope that some or all of these suggestions prove helpful in reducing the incidence of cracking for some of you. Bassoon tones that are unmarred by cracking can be enjoyed more by all. ◆

player fi ngers it correctly (of course), brings the tongue up to the reed WHILE MAINTAINING THE CORRECT LOW FUNDAMENTAL PO-SITION of the lower jaw, sets the airstream and, on command, releases the tongue to begin a note that should sound as a fundamental from the outset. Another exercise that can prove useful in diagnosing and fi xing low register issues I call the Foghorn. Th is gets its descriptive name because it sounds, well, like a foghorn!

Th e exercise has two parts. Th e fi rst is to play a nice strong low E with the left thumb ‘hover-ing’ over the cluster of keys on the long joint (bass joint) then drop down the left thumb to simulta-neously cover all of the keys necessary to play a low Bf . Th e exercise can show if the player’s em-bouchure and air are working correctly to pro-duce the Bf . Also many students inadvertently pull one of their left fi ngers off of the tone holes (especially the third or lowest fi nger on the wing joint) when reaching the thumb over to the low Bf key creating a ½ hole or leak which makes the low note response tenuous.

By starting on the low E with no left thumb, the player can ensure that the tone holes are cov-ering completely and I usually then have them move and rotate the thumb in multiple directions while maintaining contact with the tone holes on the wing joint to demonstrate that the thumb’s mobility is not dependent upon pulling the fi n-gers on the tone holes out of position before fi -nally dropping the thumb into place onto the Bf key and C-D cluster.

Once the player can execute a lovely solid slur from the low E down a tri-tone to the Bf then we move on to part two of the exercise which is to add an articulation element. It begins the same with the slur from E-B f but once a good Bf is established then the player tongues slowly but repeatedly on the Bf while maintaining the same open lower jaw position. Th e tongue should be the only thing in motion and the B f s should speak easily and evenly. Many players will try to bounce or “chew” with the jaw when moving the tongue and this must be eliminated. Once consis-tent clean attacks can be implemented on the low Bf aft er slurring down from the E then the player should try to begin on the Bf but setting the same jaw position, open throat, tongue position, voic-ing, etc. If all elements are successfully accounted for and executed then the response on the low Bf should be just as good from the fi rst note as it was


SOME THOUGHTS ON PRACTICING by Michael Burns

Every Musician is told at some point that they need to practice. This advice may come from ateacher, band director, conductor, section leader, or from numerous other sources but how often arethey told what to practice, and more importantly how to practice? In this article I would like tooutline some hints and suggestions concerning the practice process.

Practicing can be broken down into several steps, some of which are outlined below:

1. Many people will start out the beginning of a practice session by doing some kind of warm-ups.These frequently consist of long-tones and/or scale exercises. This literally warms-up theinstrument and the fingers, gets the air moving to create good support, and gets the brain ready foraction. There are many diverse types of warm-up routines available for woodwind instruments andit is perhaps less important which of them is used just so long as a player utilizes one consistently.

2. After the warm-up the player may have several options--solo repertoire, ensemble music,technical exercises and etudes, etc. Depending on the time available and the amount of repertoire tobe covered the player may choose to do a little work on each of the various items or a lot of work onjust a few. Either approach can be fine as long as all materials are covered sufficiently over thespace of a week or so. This may mean doing detailed practicing (see below) on one or two itemsone day and then working on another couple the next day.

3. Once the player has determined what pieces to start practicing after the warm-up then the realwork begins. In some ways practicing is a bit like surgery. A surgeon cuts out the tissues that arediseased and damaged, trying to leave the healthy tissue alone. Practicing is most effective when wework to remove, or at least improve the problem spots, rather than merely playing through thepassages that we can already play (the healthy spots.)

There are a couple of common practicing errors that I have observed in many students. One is tostart at the beginning of a piece and play through continuously until a mistake is made, then go backto the beginning and start all over again, progressing until a mistake is made, starting over again, andso forth. The problem with this approach is that the student is essentially practicing what they canalready play (the beginning up until the mistake) and frequently the mistake that causes the return tothe beginning is at the same point. If the player repeats up to that point playing the same mistakeover and over then they are reinforcing and actually practicing the mistake. The second error isone that comes about when students are practicing somewhere that others may hear them. Atendency is to want to impress your 'audience' and to play passages that you sound good on i.e.passages that you can already play well that sound impressive. Obviously these passages need lesspractice than those that you cannot play and time would be better spent determining where thetrouble spots are and concentrating on them.

In order to find out where the areas that need practicing are it is sometimes good to do an initialplay through, stopping to mark tough spots with a pencil for future reference. I like to enclose theseareas in square brackets. If the passages are marked then it is easy to leap right into effectivepracticing on those passages on subsequent days. Practicing to fix errors and remove problems isnot always pleasant and fun, and often does not sound very good during the process but it will givethe greatest benefits in the long-term.

4. Once the troublesome passages are marked then the player needs to know how to work on them.There are several effective methods of doing this of which I will outline a few. Firstly, the playershould try and determine what is the cause of the problem: e.g. wrong note or notes, difficultfingerings, register changes, difficult articulations, rhythmic problems, physical problems (air andembouchure,) etc. Depending on which of these areas are causing the problems different

approaches to fixing the passage may be necessary. Sometimes a passage can be fixed as simply aspenciling in a reminder accidental in front of a note, often it requires more work than that.

One of the most universal truths concerning practicing is that it should be done slowly. Theplayer needs time to be able to hear and feel all of the necessary changes in fingers, air, andembouchure from one note to the next to the next. The discipline required to play a passage that issupposed to go very fast very slowly to fix it is difficult to achieve for many young players, but it isessential to becoming a fluent performer. I found a wonderful image describing this process on theinternet, it says On the train journey the railroad ties are blurred to invisibility. But in laying thetrack you were painfully aware of the weight and placement of each tie.As well as playing the passages slowly, the player needs to use repetition to build the correctpatterns into a habit. Care must be taken to ensure that all repetitions are correct. If you repeat anerror over and over in the passage then that error also becomes habit.

Many practice techniques also vary the repetitions in some manner by changing the rhythms,articulations, or both (see below.) This can be very effective when applied to practicing a passage asyou play varied repetitions that are even more difficult than the original, making the original seemeasy in comparison. They also place the emphasis on different notes within a passage which canfurther pinpoint where the problems lie.

Another technique that I like for pinpointing problems is one that I call Backwards and Forwardspracticing. If I have a passage that is 8 notes long then I would practice notes 1 and 2, then 1,2,3,followed by 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4,5, etc. all the way through the passage forwards. Then I would playnotes 7 and 8, 6,7,8, 5,6,7,8, 4,5,6,7,8, etc. This is, of course, the backwards part. This techniqueshows the same passage from two different viewpoints-coming and going if you will. Since musicis so goal oriented it often helps to see and practice a passage as starting here and goingsomewhere, or ending here having come from somewhere. I frequently find that the passage can bereduced down to one or two crucial notes that can be isolated by this technique. If I get those notescorrect then the entire passage is correct. If I miss them then the passage falls apart.

Further practice techniques that I advocate are:Spend a lot of time practicing passages that involve a lot of difficult finger/tonguecoordination all slurred. Doing this allows me to concentrate on the fingers and the air. Oncethese are correct I can add the tonguing back in. An additional step may be to practice tonguing atthe tempo and rhythm required all on one note before putting the passage back together. In my lastarticle I also mentioned practicing a passage by singing it out loud. This eliminates theinstruments, reeds, fingers, and embouchures from the equation and can often be very valuable.Coupled with this I firmly believe that every note that a wind player plays should be sung(mentally.)Practice passages that involve ornamentation (trills, grace notes, etc.) without the ornaments, makingsure that the rhythmic durations are correct. The trills and grace notes should be practicedseparately also and then added back in.

Know your enemy. When a student has been working on a piece and is preparing it forperformance I have them make a list of potential mistakes that they could make in the piece,being as specific as possible. We then go through and try to find a remedy for each mistake usingsome of the practicing techniques listed above. Then when they play I tell them that there is noexcuse for making any of those same errors.

5. Players need to spend the majority of their time practicing to fix errors as described above,necessitating a stop/start approach usually concentrating on small areas. This needs to beperiodically balanced with practicing performing, i.e. a straight run-through of the entire piecewithout stopping no matter what happens! This is particularly important when students arepreparing for such events as concerts, try outs, auditions, recitals, etc. When a player is used to

being able to stop to go back and fix errors it is very difficult to keep playing without stoppingunless it is also practiced.

Practicing should be a regular occurrence. It is far more beneficial to the player to spend sometime every day practicing rather than to do longer practice sessions several days apart. That is, itwould be better for a player to spend 30 minutes practicing every day for a week than to do twopractice sessions of two hours each. Even though the latter example has given more practice hours

in the week (four instead of 3 1/2) over time the regularity will pay off more.

Obviously, the more time spent in each of the regular practice sessions the better. However,spending hours in the practice room does not necessarily mean that you are practicingwell. Practicing needs to be efficient, and usually a short intensive practice session is moreproductive than a longer inefficient session. Practice to fix mistakes, not reinforce them. Simplyrunning through a piece several times is NOT efficient practice. See the last article for somesuggestions on how to increase practicing efficiency.

Don't just practice notes, always aim for the music. You should always monitor and work ontone, intonation, dynamics, and phrasing, not just technique.

EVERY musician should own a metronome and use it when practicing. We all need todevelop a strong sense of rhythm, and a metronome helps in this task immensely. Mostinstrumentalists need to be able to follow an external beat, whether it be from an orchestra or bandconductor, colleagues in a chamber ensemble, piano accompanist, or what have you. In order to dothis we all need to develop a strong sense of inner rhythm and a working familiarity with theconcept of subdivision. This should be worked on in the practice room using the metronome. It canbe very useful to a student to set the metronome at the faster tempo of one of the subdivisions(perhaps 2,3, or 4 times the beat tempo) rather than at the given beat level. Conversely, practicingwith the metronome only clicking once per every two, three, or four beats, or even once per measuremakes the player have to subdivide the inner beats to stay in time. Of course you will also set themetronome to the beat itself often. Which tempo you set the metronome to would be determined bythe music and the individual player. Remember, the metronome never lies! If a player is not usedto using one in their practicing they may be surprised at how much their tempo fluctuates.

If possible, a regular time should be set aside for practicing every day. This time should beadhered to no matter what. If you have a scheduled practice time you are much more likely to use it.It is all too easy to procrastinate, put it off, get involved with other activities and the practice getsneglected and forgotten. This situation often leads to the scenario mentioned above where the playerneeds to catch-up and do a long practice session to try to make up for the skipped practice time.

The more you practice, the better your playing becomes. When you improve on yourinstrument it becomes far more rewarding and enjoyable to play. Music is supposed to be fun!Many see practicing as a drudgery that has to be suffered through, but when done well it isextremely satisfying, and yes, practicing can and should even be fun.

The following is a list of some recommended sources for bassoon warm-ups:

Bassoon: Fernand Oubradous. Complete Exercises for BassoonSimon Kovar. 24 Daily Exercises for BassoonChris Weait. Bassoon Warm-Ups

Many teachers also advocate having students create or write their own warm-ups for theirinstrument. Others may borrow warm-up routines from other instruments, for example many

woodwind players use the famous brass warm-up patterns outlined in the Arban-Clarke method forcornet.

This is by no means a complete list. There are many other wonderful and successful practicetechniques that I have had to omit for reasons of space. I would like to conclude with some finalthoughts on practicing.

Telephone numbers must be accurate, close is not good enough. A number with area code is 10digits. Even 90% accuracy could have far-reaching consequences!

Fast is exactly the same as slow, only quicker.

Know the results of your actions before you do them. You should learn, through practice, how tofeel if the note that you are about to play will speak, be in tune, and have the correct volume.

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Thoughts and Strategies for Bassoon Vibrato

Michael BurnsGreensboro, North Carolina

This article had its beginnings as a handout for a session on vibrato for my bassoon repertoire class at UNCG. As I began research and gathering my own thoughts

on the topic I discovered that it has not been dealt with very extensively or recently in The Double Reed. Perhaps this is due to the fact that vibrato on the bassoon (or oboe, or any wind instrument) is a somewhat contentious issue. I would therefore like to share some of my own personal thoughts on this topic along with some strategies and exercises aimed at helping to learn and control this technique.

Vibrato is defined in the New Grove Dictionary as:“A regular fluctuation of pitch or intensity (or both), either more or less pronounced and more or less rapid1.”

WHAT IS IT ON THE BASSOON?Pitch Oscillation, Volume Oscillation, or Both (a combination)?

Pitch oscillation is when a note is made sharper or fl atter alternating with the ‘in-tune’ pitch. If this approach is taken then there are additional questions relating to the relationship to the starting pitch. See the diagram below: 1. at pitch and oscillating below2. at pitch oscillating the same amount above and below3. at pitch oscillating above

In terms of pitch oscillation I advocate type 1. above as I believe that the ear hears the highest pitch as the primary note. This is also how many excellent string players do vibrato (although some also oscillate equally above and below).

Volume or intensity vibrato is when a note is supposed to stay at the same pitch but alternate LOUD-soft-LOUD-soft-LOUD-soft, etc. I believe that this is done in combination with some pitch change. Another argument for going to the pitch below the note is that this can coincide with the softer volume oscillations as a slight relaxation of the sound.

WHAT PART(S) OF THE BODY CREATE IT?Abdomen, Diaphragm, Throat, Lips, Jaw, Larynx, or a combination?There are proponents of each of the above locations. Most American bassoonists say that they use diaphragm (medically impossible), abdomen, or larynx or a combination of the last

two. English and French players (and some German) often advocate lip and jaw vibrato. Chris Weait’s Fluorographic study2 shows NO motion of the diaphragm and suggested that the larynx or vocal cords may be responsible for the oscillation. The diaphragm in fact cannot produce vibrato as it is an inhale only muscle—all muscles work in only one direction and are usually opposed by a muscle that works in the opposite direction (e.g. there is one set of muscles (the biceps) to raise your arm and another set (the triceps) to lower it.) Therefore, I feel that in most instances that people cite a diaphragm vibrato they probably

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Smean an abdominal vibrato. Furthermore, I believe that a slow vibrato is often abdominal but that it travels up to the larynx as the speed increases. This results in a very ‘vocal’ quality to the vibrato. Video evidence from inside the throat while playing defi nitely shows the larynx in motion when producing vibrato. Some argue that the vocal cords are just vibrating in sympathy with an oscillation generated from lower down (perhaps the abdomen) and this may be correct. Nonetheless there is very defi nite oscillation of the larynx and vocal cords during my own vibrato at least. I know this as I have video of the inside of my throat while playing courtesy of a visit to the surgery offi ce of an adult bassoon student of mine, Karol Wolicki, an ear, nose and throat surgeon and IDRS member. Karol made a presentation on these and some other fi ndings at the IDRS 2003 Conference in Greensboro showing some of the video we had recorded. Charles Veazey, the oboe professor at the University of North Texas College of Music, has also done extensive research involving fi ber-optic video of the inside of the throat while playing.

A further quick word about “throat vibrato.” The type of vibrato that I refer to as perhaps originating in the larynx is not the same as what some people refer to as throat vibrato. The image many have of throat vibrato is of the “nanny goat” or “Elmer Fudd” vibrato that sounds like a rapid series of eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh, etc. This seems to be caused by a series of glottal stops of the airstream and I agree that it is generally not a desirable form of vibrato for the bassoon. It IS also produced in the throat but that is, in my opinion, the only similarity with laryngeal vibrato.

There is discussion of the issue of “From Whence Springs This Vibrato?” from an oboist’s perspective as the last section of the excellent article “Vibrato Awareness” in the Double Reed by Geoffrey Burgess.3

WHEN SHOULD IT BE USED?All of the time, none of the time, or some of the time? If some, then how do we decide when?This is a topic unto itself. I was taught at one point that EVERY note should have vibrato and further, that vibrato was inexorably tied to air support to the point that no vibrato equaled no support. Now I don’t agree with this or use it in my playing. There are also those who advocate the use of no vibrato at all sometimes stating that they don’t want to use vibrato as it distorts the sound. I must agree that some vibratos do disturb me and that one defi nition of an oscillation could be thought of as a distortion of a “pure” tone. However, I feel that a well-modulated and well chosen vibrato can add a lot to a sound. In my opinion, it is a coloristic tool that can be added or not, manipulated at will and used to enhance the music. I do NOT advocate or agree with those who suggest it as a means of disguising poor intonation.

As for usage, vibrato is more often used on longer note values than shorter and often a decision should be made about how short a note can be and still sustain a vibrato. To use the Mozart Bassoon Concerto K191 fi rst movement opening as an example most players who use a vibrato would not use it on the dotted eighth and sixteenth notes at the ends of the fi rst two measures, some would have it and others not on the quarter notes at the beginning of the fi rst three measures, but almost all that use vibrato would have it present on the half notes in the fi rst two measures. These are matters of personal taste mostly but also involve what vibrato speed a player likes and can produce. At the tempo that most would play the Mozart concerto then in order to have any oscillation on a note as short as an eighth or especially sixteenth note one would have to have a very rapid vibrato. Even if one could produce a vibrato that fast the decision would need to be made on if they actually wanted to.

There are those who feel that notes below a low E on the bassoon should use little to no vibrato because of the already low frequency of the pitches (see the discussion of frequency below.)

AMPLITUDE AND FREQUENCY OF THE OSCILLATIONAmplitude can also be called ‘depth’ or ‘width’ of the vibrato. Frequency is the number of oscillations per second or speed. It is possible to have a slow and wide vibrato, slow and shallow, fast and wide, fast and shallow, etc. I aim to change either or both of these variables to suit the specifi c character and context of the music. There also seem to be regional or national tendencies in favored vibrato speed and depth. Another factor that I consider is what register am I playing in? If you listen to

A graph of vibrato amplitudes


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good singers then you may notice that a bass’s vibrato tends to be different from a soprano’s. Usually a bass sings with a slower and wider vibrato and a soprano sings with a faster and narrower one. This seems to go along with natural acoustic theory as lower pitches are from slower frequencies so a slower vibrato matches it better. Likewise higher pitches are a faster frequency so faster vibrato oscillation matches. This effect is such that when I hear a bass with a fast shallow vibrato or a soprano with a wide slow vibrato I feel less comfortable with their overall sound. Therefore, I actually aim to change my speed and depth at least somewhat according to the register in which I play on the bassoon. I also use vibrato as a tool, in addition to dynamics, to increase or decrease intensity by altering speed and/or amplitude appropriately.

The graph on page 2 shows some different types of vibratos with speed measured horizontally and amplitude measured vertically. The types shown are: slow with a large amplitude, fast with a large amplitude, and slow with a small amplitude.

TURNING VIBRATO ON AND OFFThere are many times when I feel it is appropriate to play with no vibrato. Playing in an ensemble with clarinets and horns who typically use none I often opt to play with no vibrato also in order to blend better. However, when I join fl utes and oboes, or string players who are using it I may well join them. If possible making the speed and depth of my vibrato match and blend as well as possible with theirs. It is also something that I will choose to take away or add on a single note at the ends or beginnings of phrases occasionally. In a solo, I may use a type of vibrato designed to make me stand out more from the accompanying texture. It is very important that a player be able to play with no vibrato. Some players cannot turn their vibrato off! To me, this is a problem in that they therefore do not have total control of it. I try to advocate being able to play the same passage with multiple different types of vibrato (e.g. none, slow and wide, fast and narrow, starting with none and adding it, starting with and taking it away, speeding it up or slowing it down along with the phrasing or making individual notes stand out by having none in a context of overall vibrato, etc.)

In order to fi x a poor vibrato a student may already have I often fi nd that I have to get them to eliminate it totally and play with no vibrato for a period and then rebuild again slowly, consciously and correctly.

VIBRATO EXERCISESThere are a number of exercises that can be useful in learning to produce or control one’s vibrato. My favorites are as follows:

1. Put a metronome on at q = 60. Have the player play a sustained tone at an mp dynamic (I usually have them start on the C in the bass clef staff (C3) as it is such a good, stable note.) Then have them pulse to an f dynamic on each quarter note beat as a sudden spike similar to the heart monitor in a hospital e.g.

Then have them pulse each eighth-note, each triplet, and fi nally each sixteenth-note.

Move the metronome up to a higher speed and repeat. Also repeat the exercise on different pitches on the bassoon until the entire range can work. If you wish you can also do quintuplets, sextuplets, etc.

Obviously this exercise is actually teaching and training primarily intensity vibrato but I also usually notice an associated pitch change. I also try to have the player notice if the generation is always from the same ‘body part’ usually it at least begins in the abdominal muscles at the slower speeds but for some (including myself) they feel the movement move upwards in the body with increased speed. Others sometimes cannot easily make the pulsing ‘migrate’ upwards and can therefore have diffi culty reaching or sustaining a faster oscillation speed. To me it makes sense that the large muscles of the abdominal group would have diffi culty in moving very rapidly.

2. The “Train.” In this exercise the player begins a note with a slow oscillation, increases the speed as much as possible and then slows it down again. This is supposed to be similar to a train leaving a station, building up speed and then pulling into the next station, hence the name. It should be within one breath and one sustained note of course and, as with exercise 1. above, the player should then try it on different notes throughout the range of the instrument.

3. Vocally try to produce a vibrato away from the instrument. This is most likely to have a pitch element along with a slight intensity element. Have the player sing a note that they can comfortably sustain a steady pitch on a syllable such as Ahhhh. Again with a metronome have them shift to a syllable like


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San OOOh at each quarter note pulse with a simultaneous slight drop in volume. When successful have them try at different speeds and perhaps different pitches. Then try to achieve the same effect on the bassoon. This should, one imagines, produce a ‘vocal’ quality in the bassoon vibrato.

4. This exercise was suggested on the idrs-listserve by Martin Bebb of Muskogee, OK and I have adapted it slightly for my own use. Have the player play a sustained tone (again starting on C3 by preference) and then drop the air pressure while maintaining a steady embouchure. As the air pressure decreases, the note should be allowed to drop in volume and pitch until it stops altogether. Once this is achieved, the player is asked to repeat the exercise but before the sound stops they should catch it and bring the air pressure back up to normal regaining the original pitch and volume. Next have them work to control the rate of descent and recovery in pressure so that they are as equal as possible. This should all be at a very slow rate of speed.

METRONOMIC VIBRATOThe reason that so many of these exercises use a metronome is to help establish control of the vibrato. However, in use a vibrato should NOT be metronomic if possible. After the player has begun to successfully create a vibrato (or perhaps several vibratos) they may start to gravitate towards a personal favorite default speed and amplitude. I try to ensure that I never have an exact measurable number of oscillations per beat of the music—rather my vibrato speed will be totally independent of the music tempo. Remember that I also try to change my vibrato to suit the music as stated above so one of these decisions is to ensure that the tempo and vibrato oscillation speed do not interfere with each other. Beginner vibratos often are set at exactly triplets, sixteenths, etc. and the player needs to be gradually weaned away from this tendency otherwise the vibrato often sounds artifi cial and sometimes labored. The player also needs to learn and practice being able to produce vibrato in all dynamics.

These are my own personal views on bassoon vibrato and I hope that they are helpful to some and are not too ‘out there’ or contentious. ◆

ABOUT THE AUTHORMichael Burns is associate professor of bassoon at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and is a Yamaha Performing Artist. Burns has performed in numerous professional orchestras including the Cincinnati and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and played principal in the Midland/Odessa, Richmond and Abilene Symphonies, and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Currently he performs regularly with the North Carolina, Greensboro, and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras. He is also bassoonist in the Eastwind Ensemble and the Cascade Quintet. Burns remains active as a solo and chamber performer with numerous performances at IDRS conventions, recitals and masterclasses throughout North America and the South Pacifi c. He has recorded for the Centaur, CAP, Telarc, EMI, Klavier, and Mark labels. In summers, Burns

is associated with the Eastern Music Festival and the Bands of America Summer Symposium. He is also an active composer with many of his pieces being published by BOCAL Music and frequently performed throughout the country. Burns has published articles and reviews in the Double Reed, the TBA Journal (Texas Bandmasters’ Association), the NC Music Educator for which he serves as Woodwind Notes Editor, Notes (the journal of the Music Library Association) and on the Yamaha Educator Series online. His mentors include William Winstead, Sherman Walt, Leonard Sharrow, and Colin Hemmingsen. He is archivist for the International Double Reed Society and was co-host for the IDRS 2003 Conference in Greensboro, NC. His website is: <www.uncg.edu/~mjburns>.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:G. Moens-Haenen. ‘vibrato’, Grove

Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2 October 2004), http://www.grovemusic.com

Weait, Christopher and John B. Shea. “Vibrato: an audio-video-fluorographic investigation of a bassoonist” Applied Radiology, January/February 1977.

Burgess, Geoffrey. “Vibrato Awareness”, Double Reed Vol. 24, No. 4, 2001. 127-135.

ENDNOTES1 G. Moens-Haenen: ‘vibrato’,

Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2 October 2004), <http://www.grovemusic.com>

2 Weait, Christopher and John B. Shea: “Vibrato: an audio-video-fluorographic investigation of a bassoonist” Applied Radiology, January/February 1977.

3 Burgess, Geoffrey: “Vibrato Awareness”, Double Reed Vol. 24, No. 4, 2001. pp127-135.


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