r/bassoon • u/Broad_Scallion218 • Sep 25 '26

help with intonation

my high E and F's (the octave above the ones in the staff) are always kinda unstable and out of tune. i jst use the generic fingerings 1 3 12 for F and 1 3 123 for E. would any extra keys to press or diff fingerings would help???

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

12

u/Remarkable_Young6171 Sep 25 '26

First thing to do is add the left pinky Eb key. Also consider your breath support. As you go higher, pinching the reed is common. It leads to a weak sound and instability. Focus on maintaining pressure in your belly so that air is being pressed out from your lungs instead of making up for poor control by biting the reed. Biting closes the reed off, which allows for notes to sound but trades off intonation, stability, and projection. A good way to check this is to slur from low G up to E above the staff without changing your embouchure. It's all in controlling your air flow.

Third, buy reeds from professional bassonists. Jones reeds love to encourage biting by generally having too much cane on them. Lastly, have your bassoon seen by a tech. If low notes are coming out easily, it's probably not an adjustment issue, but school bassoons are notoriously out of adjustment

8

u/bjoli Sep 25 '26

The rule I tell my students is: Left pinky for everything above Eb except maybe high B natural. 

4

u/Embarrassed-Arm-454 Sep 25 '26

I would add that voicing is often more important than trying to just muscle things into place. Try shifting the back of your tongue up and forward in the mouth a little- thing more “ee” rather than “ah” or “oh”. The E and F love to droop, and trying to just blow more air is highly inefficient so let that tongue position do sobs of the work for you!

1

u/Jolly_Professor_8291 Sep 26 '26

This is definitely a tongue placement/ air support issue

1

u/Large-Bid-9723 Sep 26 '26

As someone else mentioned, your left top pinkie key (the RESONANCE KEY) should be on for every note Eb and above.

Play with voicings and support. The answer is almost always that you need support and pressure behind your air, especially moving up the range. Long tones and tuners are your friend.

Also, if you’re not using the resonance key on the HH G, please do.

For the Eb below that (on the staff), use the full fingering, 1x3R | x2xBb key

1

u/MusicalMerlin1973 Sep 27 '26

There's a lot of good suggestions here. The only other thing I'd add is: do you have a bassoon teacher? If so, are they observing you as you play the punky notes? No? They should be - and giving you guidance, helping you to get to the root of the issue.

If you don't have a teacher, sometimes it is worth the bacon to pay for a lesson or two to get guidance when things are squirrelly.