New Year’s Resolutions?

January 14th, 2022

Over the last couple of weeks the media has been full of pieces about how to improve our wellbeing – how to get fitter, how to eat more healthily and how to improve our mental health. Most of us would admit there is a lot to be said for taking these messages on board.

For us bassoonists, though, it is a little more complicated in that our wellbeing is intimately tied in with playing our bassoons – playing, and playing well or at least feeling we are making progress, are important aspects of our wellbeing.

How often we feel like playing, and how well we play depends on two things – us and our bassoons. A poorly performing bassoon can affect our wellbeing by demotivating us and reducing our ability to play at our best. After all, our bassoons are extensions of ourselves and we spend hundreds and thousands of hours holding and touching them, listening to how they react to us and responding in turn in a continuous feedback loop. If this isn’t going well it can be hugely demotivating.

To maximise our wellbeing, then, means maximising the wellbeing of our bassoons. 

So in this new year, with playing opportunities opening up once again – hopefully permanently this time – is now a good time to give some attention to the wellbeing of your bassoon? Here are a few things to consider: 

• Is your bassoon playing as well as it used to?
• Does it take more mental and physical effort to play than it used to do?
• Are some notes difficult to get out, or are no longer in tune?
• Are the key mechanisms silent and tight or loose and noisy?
• Are the pads yellow and hard, and therefore unlikely to seal well, or white and soft?
• Are there any more serious problems needing attention – cracked tenons, rot in the bore, keywork falling apart, plating on touch pieces worn through?
• Are there any cosmetic defects needing attention which have been annoying you?

We have a fully-fitted workshop with advanced bassoon repair equipment and three fully trained technicians on hand, and we can work wonders with almost any bassoon, so please discuss with us the wellbeing of your bassoon and how we can improve it.

Alternatively, maybe you have reached a point where you feel you would benefit from a different bassoon altogether? We have options to fit almost any requirement. We usually have more than 50 bassoons in stock, every one different; some awaiting a service or overhaul, some undergoing an overhaul and some on our website. And a handful of really specialist instruments sitting waiting for the right person to come along.