Just for bassoonists: a companion method to beginning band curriculum

Abstract

The general scope of resources used in band classrooms and private bassoon instruction differ greatly and result in pedagogical gaps that frustrate both teachers and students. Exclusive instruction based on classroom series fails to equip students with appropriate fingerings and bassoon-specific techniques, but succeeds in establishing music as a life activity and relating performance aspects to music theory, music and world history, and audience interaction. Contrary to this, exclusive instruction via bassoon methods enables students to be more technically proficient, but does so in a musical, academic, and oftentimes expressive vacuum. The most viable and highly recommended solution is to use both approaches simultaneously by participating in school band programs and taking additional private lessons. This, however, results in issues with the compatibility of skill and concept sequencing, creating gaps in student learning. With the goal of bridging these pedagogical gaps, this document explores current literature treatment of the following areas: introduction of new pitches in relationship to assumed range and metric and rhythmic complexity, treatment of bassoon-specific half-hole and venting techniques, and emphasis on comprehensive musicianship. The document concludes with a new method design to fill the gaps with a supplement to standard classroom curriculum. Ultimately, this new method serves as a “just for bassoonists” companion text to the current leading texts for the first year of beginning concert band programs. To align contemporary bassoon pedagogy and sequencing and multidisciplinary approaches found in heterogeneous instrumental group classes, this method analyzes overarching goals of classroom curriculum and backward-designs bassoon instructional material to work toward those same goals. Through this approach, bassoonists and their teachers will avoid many of the aforementioned frustrations, and the bassoon can become as approachable and accessible a beginning instrument as any other member of the woodwind family.