Good intonation is one of the biggest challenges for bassoonists at all levels.

Instruments

Reeds

Intonation - How do you tune a bassoon?

Intonation on the bassoon is a very perplexing problem. Bassoonists at all levels struggle with the problem of playing "in-tune". A number of factors are involved in this issue which can make solutions difficult to find, but the following information should help point you in the right directions. For detailed information on each topic, click the link. For a brief overview, read on!

• Equipment
  • Instrument
  • Bocal
  • Reed
  • Instrument adjustment problems
• Student
  • Air support
  • Embouchure
  • Fingers
  • Ear!
• Individual note problems
  • Look up notes on the annotated fingering chart and find suggestions and alternate fingerings to correct common problems.

There are two, somewhat independent problems that are common: 1. intonation is consistently flat or sharp throughout the range of the instrument, 2. most notes are satisfactory while a few have bad intonation tendencies. Problem #2 cannot be addressed until #1 has been solved so we'll look at that first. [more to come!]

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© 2002 Bruce Hammel. All Rights Reserved.
Site last updated: January 22, 2007

Bruce Hammel
Music Department - VCU
922 Park Ave.
Richmond VA 23227
Phone: (804) 828-4018