SOLITARY

REFINEMENT
CHROMATICS, CHORDS & SCALES
Concepts for the Committed Bassoonist

by Nadina Mackie Jackson

Music Editor Kevin Harris
Illustrator Tobias Sid John
Editor Cadence Mandybura
Suite 300 - 990 Fort St
Victoria, BC, V8V 3K2
Canada

[Link]

Copyright © 2020 by Nadina Mackie Jackson

First Edition — 2020

Music Editor: Kevin Harris

Illustrator: Tobias Sid John
Author photo by Cylla von Tiedemann
Editor: Cadence Mandybura

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information browsing, storage, or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from FriesenPress.

ISBN
978-1-5255-7564-8 (Hardcover)
978-1-5255-7565-5 (Paperback)
978-1-5255-7566-2 (eBook)

1. music, musical instruments, woodwinds

Distributed to the trade by The Ingram Book Company

 iii

D
Edicated to my many teachers whose love of fundamentals shaped and steered my
whole career: Bernard Garfield, my first teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music,
always my ally and friend, truly inspiring me with his joyful and inventive love
for the inner workings of harmony and patterns; Sol Schoenbach, my last great teacher
at Curtis, who also taught with me one summer at Domaine Forget, sharing his humor
and wit, exhorting me to memorize and always bringing courage and insight; Christopher
Millard, my first truly great and formative teacher, having the same birthdate as mine with
only a small gap in years, and a friend to this day, who opened my ears to the enormous
beauty in the voice of the bassoon; Roland Small, my very first bassoon teacher (and adver-
sity coach), who inspired me with his elegant playing while providing zero encouragement
(well, he liked my drawings), allowing me to travel a round trip of over a thousand miles
from the interior of British Columbia to Vancouver for each of eight gruffly delivered $10
lessons, while I was in Grade 12; Gerald Corey, who gave me an unforgettable summer
of free bassoon lessons, for whom the details always mattered and the effort to achieve
them was as important and intrinsic as breathing; Alan Wu, an oddly brilliant pianist and
homeless mathematician who mocked the limitations of the bassoon and provoked me to
greater efforts; the great oboist Ted Baskin, who also was oblivious to the limitations of
the bassoon and its reeds, giving long hours of free coaching in my early orchestral years;
Mathieu Lussier, cherished colleague and composer who wrote music to utterly change
my life; Michael Colgrass, composer, thinker and writer, who treated me as a kindred
spirit while coaching me to use my imagination to create my reality; to my trainers, Nav
Seyf, Edith Werbel and, above all, David Slatbotsky, who never tire of the effort to inte-
grate body and mind; to my brilliant son, Jacob Jackson, who supports my efforts from
an entirely different perspective while keeping an eye on the bottom line; to my beloved
parents, Mary Mackie and B. Allan Mackie whose whole-hearted love for me was matched
only by their remarkable examples of self-reliance and boundless creativity, and finally, my
lifelong friend, the teacher and writer Leslie Magowan, who has believed in me and radi-
ated encouragement from day one when we met as university teenagers, attending more of
my concerts than any other human on this planet.

A deep bow to my colleagues, conductors, former students, ex-husbands, composers and

teachers whose lives have joined mine and have indelibly influenced my playing through
their own devotion to the fundamentals of our craft. All of these artists and thinkers have
collectively inspired me to keep practicing my scales while aspiring to make true music.
iv Nadina Mackie Jackson

Thanks for the meticulous and insightful work of my typesetter and music editor, Kevin
Harris. The offsets and inversions for all the exercises, and many other nuances, are among
Kevin’s many contributions, along with processing a thousand last-minute changes from me.

Thanks also to graphic artist, Tobias Sid John, for bringing the necessary superhero element
to the idea of the practice room and for rapidly converting the lush color images into black
and white line drawings to save my printing budget from immolation.

Thanks to pianist, conductor and my first-round editor, Philip Morehead, for taming my
punctuation and ameliorating the prosody.

A very special thanks to my principal editor, Cadence Mandybura, for her insightful ques-
tions and deft suggestions combined with her remarkably direct yet tactful ability to clarify
my intentions.

And a lifelong thank you to my high school band teacher, Gary Hartley, who showed all of
us how curiosity, compassion and discipline leads to knowledge. Mr Hartley made music
seem like the most comprehensively worthwhile pursuit in the world.

THANK YOU
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Solitary Refinement – Hone Alone 1
Routine – Learn & Return 2
Health – Body of Work 4
Form and Function – Moonlight on the Waves 5
Memorize – Playing by Heart 7
Nun with a Gun – Confidence and Humility 8
Benefits of Technical Practice – Psst, It’s All Technique! 9
Concepts for Conscious Practice – Boot Camp of the Imagination 9
Practice Techniques – Sometimes It Takes A Very Long Time To Get Just One Thing Right And That’s OK 14
General Practice Ideas – Carnegie Hall of Your Mind 16
Thoughts on Fingerings, Perfection and Never Giving Up – Life is Messy 18
Make a Note of This – Record Keeping 19

CHROMATIC SCALES AND CHORDS 21

Chromatic Mordents 22
Chromatic Up/Down Fill-Ins and Intervals 33
Chromatic Up Up/Down Down Fill-Ins and Intervals 88
Chromatically Modulating Scales 142
Chromatically Modulating Triads and Seventh Chords 160
Schoenbach Chords 189
Garfield Chromatic Scales and Double Tonguing 194

DIATONIC SCALES AND CHORDS 209

Modal Scales 210
Diatonic Triads and Seventh Chords 235
Common Tone Chords 404
LONG TONES AND BASICS 409
Senza Whisper Key 410
Tonal Trill Drill aka Tonal Facelift 412
Tchaikovsky VI Long Tone Drill 414
Vibrato Exercise or Kinetic Long Tones 416
Tuning Exercise 418
Articulation Guide 421
 Solitary Refinement 1

Solitary Refinement – Hone Alone

Each day that you continue on the path of becoming a musician is an act of imagination and gumption. The ideas
and examples in this book will reinforce your courage to embark on the long, solitary journey that underlies the
work of every good musician.

These scales and concepts can be used by all bassoonists, from the wobbly, doubtful beginner to the confident
veteran performer dedicated to maintaining a strong technique.

While not a method book in the usual sense of easy-to-hard progressions, all the exercises and concepts can be
individually tailored for different levels and abilities. These exercises can be used in sections (e.g., Low, Mid and
High ranges), in full range expansion or in targeted segments. I leave those decisions to you as part of your initiation
into voluntary solitary refinement.

The decision to play the bassoon to the best of our ability is personal, and so is the decision to practice enough to
achieve our goals. The world will keep turning if we never learn our F Sharp Major scales in fourths. And while
support and constant praise would make it all seem so much easier, there is nothing more profoundly solitary than
the training life of the classical musician. The skills we hone alone make it possible to step into the world after our
lengthy periods of solitary refinement and successfully join others as highly trained and effective performers. The
good news is that there is always something to do as you work towards your vision.

In reed-making, bassoon-playing and music-making, I prefer to imagine the best that is possible and consciously
work towards it. Your ability to pinpoint and address problems will grow with your focus on form, tuning and all
aspects of refinement. And while we might sometimes wish someone would tell us exactly what to do and how to
do it, then rate our success, that is not any way to live a fully expressive life in music. Listen to your teachers, and
develop your own routines and ideas using everything that has been presented to you. The goal is steady and con-
stant evolution, while knowing that life will always offer useful hurdles of different heights for you to leap.

I believe in a devoted technical practice. Our beautiful playing is an imperfect pearl that can always bear more
polishing. Now is always the right time to continue moving toward our greatest goals.

As you evolve through your life and career, you will notice that different styles of learning will work best for you.
Depending on your character type, you might need the kinetic work of multiple repetitions, incrementally increas-
ing speeds and steadily expanding tessituras. The same exercises can be turned into slow meditations to work on a
particular aspect of your playing. Sometimes it is enough to move through the exercise, reading and experiencing
the patterns. Other times, it is useful to memorize and sweat a bit more. Observe yourself and learn what draws you
more into the work.

These exercises and ideas have developed from my multi-faceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral
and opera orchestra player. Some exercises will seem strange at first, and all require serious repetition to master, but
if you stay with them, their logic and language will become your own.
2 Nadina Mackie Jackson

Scales and chords give a point of reference and stability that goes beyond mere facility on the instrument. Working
on scales and chords enhances your awareness of the structure and shape of the music; the repetition and dedication
sharpens your memory of notes and actions; the increased ability fuels your ambition and sense of independence.
This individualized study creates a strong platform for you to take courage and step into new realms; the end result
is increased stamina of mind and body. If you want to improve, it always makes sense to go into solitary refinement
and get to work.

The foremost goal is to develop speech-like agility in tone and articulation; this requires deep familiarity with all
intervals and the full range of the bassoon. Because the bassoon is capable of going much higher than previously
expected, the patterns are mostly written into the very highest range, just so that you start doing the practice and
research to eventually obtain these notes. And by all means, bracket the top range and turn around at any point. You
don’t need to summit Mount Everest every day.

Don’t be discouraged by the expansive scope of these exercises. Most of them have evolved from passages that chal-
lenged me in the concerto and orchestral repertoire. Sometimes a single passage has led to the creation of multiple
exercises and iterations. Now, instead of one difficult passage, I have hundreds! In all keys!

Routine – Learn & Return

Decide on a routine, establish and maintain your routine, constantly and subtly vary your routine, change your
routine. Learn and return, over and over. Obstacles should be thought of as catalysts to increase your skills and
abilities. Routines and plans will always be interrupted, yet you can always return.

Discipline leads to greater skill and freedom. Like the explorer’s map of a new country, detail is added to the basic
structure as your perceptions become increasingly refined. Repeated gestures eventually become instinct, and you
move on to the next challenge.

Knowing how many hours to practice is not the answer to our eternal question of how long it takes to achieve mastery.

Instead, schedule a certain number of hours for a specific task, and then test how long it takes to develop a continu-
ing awareness of your practice. In other words, explore the skill of building on your work from day to day. If you
practice the same thing every day (or regularly, at least), you will notice that it will no longer be the same thing. It
will usually transform into something better than you ever could have imagined.

Comprehensive mastery of tone, tuning and technique depends on slowly and thoroughly building all aspects of
your skill over time, and occasionally rebuilding these skills – maintaining, expanding, then refining.

Practice is much more than blowing into your bassoon, though that is essential. It is MUCH more than simply doing
what your teacher tells you, though that too has value. It is about discovering the depth of detail required by your
mind and body to perform music in the way that you want.
 Solitary Refinement 3

If you aim to practice two, four or six hours every day, you can find those hours at different times and places. Then,
when the luxury of practicing in a well-appointed and stable studio arrives, it will be exactly that, a luxury and not
a necessity. Working musicians are on the road or simply away from home most of the time and must stay in shape
without the comforts of an office.

If you practice every day, then the elemental phenomenon of relatedness kicks in of its own accord: when you hear
an illuminating comment from a non-bassoon source, it will shift in your spirit to become “something to try” the
next time the bassoon is in your hands.

Discovery lies in conscious exploration and experimentation. Stability lies within you, built by your work and thought.
You become the reference for the reeds, the instrument, the sound and the goals. The more you demand of yourself, the
stronger this feeling will become, but also, the more frequently it will be threatened as you become more sensitive.

Imagination is a huge part of practicing. When you practice every day, none of the other non-practicing moments
are wasted. Through daily work, you develop mental and physical skills that can also become an extended form of
practicing. With the constant reference of your practice, you can relate other information to this skill. Distressing
rehearsals can be reframed as a means of concentrating on a specific aspect of your technique, e.g., secretly practic-
ing double and flutter tonguing during an out-of-tune fortissimo passage in a wind ensemble. Time spent on the
tour bus can be an opportunity to imagine a cadenza in shape and spirit. Or imagine, without moving, the motions
that your fingers must make to go from F sharp to G sharp. Or imagine yourself on stage with the audience in front
of you. Or in an orchestra with a conductor raising her baton to start The Rite of Spring.

Every professional bassoonist and teacher has a roster of exercises based on their own career and education. Use the
exercises your teachers give you, learn them, and avoid deifying them. Honestly, you will become skillful using any
intelligent set of exercises, and so will your students. My compendium reflects both the ideas inherited from my first
teachers and the many patterns and concepts that have evolved from my orchestral, chamber music and solo career.
Though I have hundreds of exercises, many more have fallen by the wayside over the years as I’ve determined which
are the most useful. You will do the same.

Learn from your teachers by thoroughly practicing what they tell you, then moving ahead on your own as soon as
possible. Even with exercises that you keep for your whole career, develop them until they are tailored to your goals.
Scales and chords are the structure for the voice of the bassoon, the loom upon which we weave our sound, the ruler
with which we measure the distances between notes, the furnace to temper our talent and the bridge to our goal.
They provide lifelong familiarity with patterns and combinations that help us learn new repertoire more quickly.

Practice calmness in connection with challenging passages and train yourself to take time while moving very quickly.
Use very small finger movements, neat and quick — no cirque-de-soleil fan hands flaring up from the bassoon.

Like all tools (and metaphors), you will choose the ones that work best for you. As you develop calmness and confi-
dence through steady practice, you also open the door to greater flights of imagination with your increased technical
command and confidence.
4 Nadina Mackie Jackson

Health – Body of Work

Be kind to your body. Sometimes, in the pursuit of excellence, we push hard and start substituting coffee or air for
meals. Regardless of how you push yourself, life can intervene in the most unexpected and challenging ways. Be
kind to yourself.

Understand the cycle of exertion and recovery at the mental, physical and spiritual levels. Learn to anticipate the
time needed for all of these. Get enough sleep. Eat well. Exercise. I’ll say it again, be kind to yourself. And if you do
face illness, you will recover more quickly with kindness.

Learn life skills. Make your bed when you get up. Wash your dishes after each meal… which means buying groceries
and cooking your own meals. Be boring! Avoid drugs and don’t drink to excess. Spend your money on cane or bas-
soons and spend your time on practicing. Do your laundry, sweep the floor, help your neighbor, but do not take on
extra household duties due to gender roles. Call your parents. Add all that to practicing, performing and learning,
and you will learn time management for real life. And you will be a delight to your roommates.

Practice feeling confident every day. Learn not to blame others but stand up for yourself when necessary. Believe
it or not, these things all help with your health and chances of achieving your goals, and you will (probably) still
have friends.

Take breaks during practice sessions, stop and walk – it will always be better afterwards. While you always need
a plan, allow yourself to build your practice time in many ways, through increments grabbed between rehearsals,
in well-scheduled and efficient blocks of time or in the much more elusive long hours of ruminative research and
practice. All are essential. Don’t get addicted to any single approach. Alas, there is no guaranteed silver bullet. Have
a plan and know that you will always have to change it.

Getting out of bed and practicing early is really only possible when you are young, out of work or completely without
family responsibilities. Having said that, when circumstances allow, do it! It’s a minor effort that leads to major
skill. When life’s demands crowd into your schedule, you’ll have the discipline to work whenever time allows. Rely
on yourself.

Doubts might (will) bubble up along with the ideas. It takes the discipline of consciously practiced courage and
confidence in your goal to overcome the demons. Maybe this conscious confidence will initially feel odd, but your
mind will adopt the concept quickly and you will build the strength needed to transform the many challenges that
will come your way.

Trust is necessary to make great music, but don’t be reckless in your trust. With kindness and circumspection,
analyze every situation and above all, protect yourself from excessive demands.

Read your contracts. Or if you are doing the hiring, pay your musicians on time. Think about the wellbeing of your
colleagues, even the ones you don’t trust. All of this will contribute to your well-being.
 Solitary Refinement 5

The principle of perpetual movement towards your goals will eventually get you to where you want to go. And if not,
at least you will have learned something valuable.

Many concepts will overlap with those you already understand; some of the exercises might show new avenues of
access to the skills you need.

Throughout your career, troublesome passages (and experiences) are the catalyst to develop exercises and practice
them in ways that strengthen your confidence, compassion and resilience.

Form and Function – Moonlight on the Waves

Practicing systematically builds the many small muscles in the embouchure and this is essential for reliable reed-
making. Whatever you practice will become second nature, so it’s best to be conscious of form from the very begin-
ning. Over time, you will learn to make reeds that cover all but the most extreme demands and practicing your
scales in all registers and dynamics will help you develop this skill. It makes little to no sense to create an individual
reed for every range or dynamic on the bassoon.

Some of these exercises grow to include great angular leaps, yet the goal is always to land like a panther, smooth and con-
trolled and fully focused on what lies before you. Once you achieve this level of control, you have a choice of expression.

Developing fluent technique requires lightness in all movements: light attacks, light touch, luminous sound, scintil-
lating and spirited movement, moonlight on the waves.

Every motion you make will have a reciprocal follow-through in your body, almost imperceptible, just like when you
touch the side of a glass of water. The slightest movement will cause ripples to register throughout the water. If the
water were frozen and static, the glass might break. In other words, if you become rigid and hold excessive tension
somewhere in your body, you might hurt yourself. Stay pliant.

If you stay supple and aware of this effect of movement throughout your body, you will become capable of tremendous
surges of power. Strength comes from lightness. Movements can be small or large, but they must relate to your center of
gravity. You have to feel the relaxation in your muscles and a balance in your body and bassoon that allow the ripples of
sympathetic movement to pass through you. There will be alternating cycles of tension and relaxation (waves).

Awareness of movement is something you can practice constantly, even while standing in a boring lineup to get on
an airplane – imagine yourself playing and the slight movements required. These will be invisible to those around
you yet will contribute to your awareness when you next have your bassoon in your hands.

Think of articulations as enunciations. Experiment with multiple vowel sounds to both initiate and sustain tone, e.g.,
hard, soft, misty, driving, vibrant, mellow. Use as many varieties of articulations as you would use words in speaking.
Sometimes go beyond the usual Ta or Da, or Dha or Tha, and even think of Wha and Ha, the latter being more of a
strong air pulse than a contact of the tongue. Replace beginnings of slurs with accents, especially in cross rhythms
6 Nadina Mackie Jackson

(e.g., two against three). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, listen closely to a singer or a truly great wind
soloist and identify the many different ways of starting a note.

Though you may perform with wild abandon, practice with quiet centered attention:
○ Quiet hands, your fingers resting on the guide keys.
○ Relax the backs of your hands and wrists; many problems with fingerings involving the pinky and ring
fingers can be solved by relaxing the back of the hand.
○ Fingers soft and very close to the keys; feel the warmth when your fingers are close to the body of the
bassoon; the independence of each finger depends on calm development of soft and fluid form.
○ Finger passages without playing, refine your touch to the point that the keys don’t click or clack.
○ Quiet arms, with elbows relaxed and not held at cartoonish angles to the body. Check that you can actually
move your arms while playing and that you can also keep your arms still and floating.
○ Quiet shoulders; consciously release them once in a while, particularly the left shoulder.
○ Quiet embouchure, keeping the jaw steady and still at all times, even when tonguing and making large
leaps. A bouncing jaw interferes with tuning and clarity.
○ Relax your eyes. Keep your neck easy, particularly in the high register.
○ Keep your jaw parallel to the floor and keep your neck relaxed, neither tilting your head back nor craning
forward. Check that you are not locked in position and have some freedom of movement while balancing
your head above your spine.
○ When in doubt, check in with gravity. Lower your head to see if your neck is loose, then slowly lift back to
a proper balanced position, lift shoulders and drop gently, let hands drop and naturally curve into position,
let your heels feel the weight of your body if you are standing, or your butt if you’re sitting.
○ Embouchure should be stable, and the structure of muscles must be consciously developed and main-
tained: corners anchored, chin flat, no biting, bunching or puckering. Great speed and agility in articula-
tion is only possible when the jaw is steady. Likewise, true legato is possible with a steady jaw and steady
stream of air.
○ Economy of movement throughout your body is necessary to allow you to eventually perform with
energized freedom, aka wild abandon.

Once you have studied the movements and practiced them with calm focus, then it’s time to forget all of this and let
’er rip. Let go of the sides of the swimming pool and start splashing.

To recap, while movement is always permitted in performance (including solitary performance), practice first with
a quiet, centered feeling in mind and body, including shoulders, arms and hands. Keep your embouchure steady,
never chew the reed. Keep your neck easy and your gaze level and calm.

All aspects of form and expression can be practiced in the context of scales and chords.
 Solitary Refinement 7

Memorize – Playing by Heart

Can you remember walking through your childhood home, or any other house that you have lived in? Or maybe
even all of them? Then you have the capacity to memorize.

Memorizing reflects a deep commitment to the music; it focuses your efforts, defines your time and allows you to
be your own authority. Memorization takes time and it gets better with practice. Start early, but remember, it’s never
too late.

Another expression for memorizing is “playing by heart”. Metaphors for acts of courage and empathy come from the
heart, as do the metaphors for frailty. To be lion-hearted or broken-hearted will all be part of your journey. To be
whole-hearted or half-hearted will also be a choice, likewise pure-hearted, hard-hearted, faint of heart or heartfelt.
Every dedicated musician knows exactly what all of these words mean.

Great struggles are not always followed by great triumphs, yet even the process of making mistakes and heading into
dead ends can be pivotal in propelling you towards your goals. Memorizing will help with all of this.

Every physical gesture that you make in playing the bassoon and every thought that sings in your mind will remain
with you in some way, and therefore is an act of memory. It is essential to practice with vitality and fluidity, never a
rote doggedness.

Mastery requires the ability to sustain commitment, and in this way, playing by heart means remembering with your
whole body.

By memorizing the great music of other musicians, you develop an understanding of harmonic structure and thus
internalize their ideas. Sometimes by memorizing you will spontaneously perceive harmonic structure in a way that
was not possible when you were staring at the printed page. Same with the scales and exercises: memorizing them
will help you navigate the path through the thorny thickets of challenging repertoire with extra confidence.

The first gesture of intent, grounded and graceful, is like an arrow shot from Cupid’s bow – the journey may take
years, but the momentum of the arc, the integrity of the intention, will eventually guide the arrow to its mark.

Despite all the theories and lesson plans, we don’t fully understand how we learn. It’s never a totally direct or linear
process, but an alchemical event fueled by desire and intention, joined at intervals by insight and reason.

Without denying the value of reason, we must also trust our heartfelt wish to be fluent and articulate musicians.
Playing by heart (memorizing) is part of the path through the unknown… in stepping away from the printed page,
you become even more open to the music and may discover something that cannot be found any other way. Even if
you end up using the sheet music for performances, the fact that you have memorized it is life changing.

Learning to memorize develops technique and discipline; playing by heart is an act of generosity and grace.

Learning to perform by memory in public is also a skill to be practiced.

8 Nadina Mackie Jackson

There are so many ways practice memorization. It is a skill that always improves with intentional practice.
○ Work in small sections at first and visualize the group of notes before playing.
○ Then play the group of notes forwards and backwards.
○ Add a small group at a time, playing forwards and backwards.
○ See the intervals in your mind’s eye, then play.
○ Imagine the fingerings before playing, then play.
○ Test by:
▪ recording
▪ playing for someone else
▪ writing it out
▪ playing on another instrument, such as piano or contrabassoon.
○ Once memorized, play as often as possible for supportive people in low-pressure situations.

Nun with a Gun – Confidence and Humility

You must practice confidence. And be humble, finding your teachers and lessons in unexpected places. Embrace
failure equally with success, because both success and failure are the natural results of aiming high. Learning involves
stumbling before mastery is achieved. Constructive repetition involves determination and success requires all of
these elements.

There is something profoundly devotional about the chosen life of classical musicians. Yet we have to step into the
world after our lengthy periods of solitary refinement, to play concerts, teach and participate in all that the world
will have to offer.

We want to be honest about our level of accomplishment, never claiming more than we have earned on the road to
mastery, yet remaining aware of the vast potential that resides in all of us.

And somehow related to this is the necessity of supporting the ambitions of others, which can mean many things,
including speaking well of colleagues, providing them with opportunities for growth, and at the most fundamental
level, understanding one another’s musical intentions and seeing if you can negotiate and facilitate an ideal reality
using all of your refined skills and instincts.

It is all the same material fashioned into different forms. I do not know exactly why this is true, but I have expe-
rienced it repeatedly in my career. The ability to be flexible and supportive can also grow from intense personal
practice and awareness.
 Solitary Refinement 9

Benefits of Technical Practice – Psst, It’s All Technique!

Technique is not a thing in itself, but instead, the degree to which you can control the elements that define your
goals. Profound musicality, authentic expression, refined tone, precise intonation – all of these require exquisitely
refined technique.

The obvious benefits of dedicated practice are increased fluency, improved tuning, and stronger rhythm, tone and
embouchure. The less obvious benefits include increased courage, fortitude, ambition and sense of structure.

While reed-making doesn’t count as practice time per se (alas), you need a good embouchure to build good reeds. A
comprehensive scale routine throughout the full range of the bassoon, practiced mindfully over time, will help you
to develop a strong embouchure.

Patterns build structure and technical practice creates shapes (structures) that you can access through trained
memory, providing a solid foundation for your musicianship.

In working on technique, I always think of my teacher Bernard Garfield, who gleefully showed me his basic routines
and expected me to develop my own versions. Once I learned his concepts, he did not require slavish adherence
to every nuance of his versions but expected me to mature and develop my own demanding routines. I share this
expectation and recommend that you work on these concepts and exercises for as many years as you want, leave and
return, mix and match with your existing routines, and develop your own ideas and work.

Concepts for Conscious Practice – Boot Camp of the Imagination

You need to devote real time to practice and you need a personal plan… maybe a few plans. And while there is never
enough time in one day, month or year, it all adds up to enough time once you devote your life to the practice.

Two basic types of practice techniques to develop and combine:

DETAILS
Working on precise details of clarity and tuning in very specific areas is an important aspect of practicing. This
builds sensitivity and awareness.

When adding challenges or starting new exercises, practice from back to front, adding one beat at a time until
you are back at the beginning. Loop and repeat a specific passage until it sounds(and feels) clear and relaxed. This
takes time.
10 Nadina Mackie Jackson

BROAD SWEEP
Broad sweeps are done incrementally as you learn a pattern: develop each beat, then expand to the full interval, the
complete low range up and down, likewise middle range and high range to full range. Return to detailed practice
(see above) whenever a trouble spot is encountered.

In long exercises, oxygen deprivation in the latter half of the pattern adds to the challenge. Sometimes, start the
exercise in the middle (at the top) and work to the bottom, then return to the top. The descending portion of all
exercises usually needs more attention.

Everyone needs to practice basics; all complex exercises can be reduced to basics.

SLOW PRACTICE
If done with care, slow practice is always part of a full routine, but it is never the whole story. All aspects of form
must be maintained in slow practice, never giving in to excessive finger movements. Fingers must be light and fluid,
the reed must be responsive. Playing is slow yet the movements are very quick and supple.

Practice backwards, carefully and slowly, beat by beat at first, building up to the same tempo as the forward version.
Gradually increase the speed if it is a technical passage, but also return to slower speeds even if you are playing with
complete clarity. There are many good reasons to practice slowly with true attention to form and feeling.

In the beginning, one of my most effective practice strategies was to imagine every fingering for every note without
producing a sound and identify in advance the movement of each finger. Sometimes this took hours as I did not
permit myself to move forward until I could fully visualize the next fingering in every detail and imagine how it felt
to move to it. Needless to say, I had the time to do this when I was young, yet even a short session of this intensely
mindful practice can be effective at any stage of your career.

If your recording equipment allows, try playing back a recorded passage at half or quarter speeds to better inform
your slow practice.

Another way to practice slowly is to play one beat (or two or three beats, or a small phrase) in tempo, then wait one/
two/three beats before playing the next. This gives you the experience of practicing the notes at tempo without the
push to sustain the whole exercise. Next add another beat or phrase until you can maintain tempo throughout whole
exercise. This is a very effective approach. Slow practice alone will never get you to speed if the passage is to have a
virtuosic effect. You must combine slow and rapid practice with intelligence and care.

It is important to maintain precision, relaxation and awareness in slow practice.

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PRINCIPLES OF OPPOSITES (CONTRASTS OF POLARITIES)

Through methodical discipline and practice, we integrate the notion of opposites into a refined and resonantly
musical approach to playing the bassoon.

Think beyond “slow” and “fast” and think of other nuances such as “relaxed” and “flexed”. Add your own idea
of opposites. Plan precise breathing for specific exercises; practice calmness in the face of new challenges. Persist
and experiment.

Interestingly, knowing one polarity automatically fuels understanding of the other; sometimes focusing your work
on the exact opposite of your intended goal can provide unexpected insight.

Developing extreme contrasts enhances our perceptions. Here are some examples of some experiments you can try
in your own practice:

PRACTICE GOAL PRACTICE OPPOSITE

Methodical practice of preset ideas Free improvisation
Slow control of a delicate passage Fast articulation
Loud and resonant playing Soft and immediate articulation
Rough to the point of ugliness Smooth to the point of blandness
Beautiful, whatever that means Ugly, just try to play ugly!
Loose, relaxed, easy Control, either forced (tense) or natural (precise)
Leading with ideas or motion Following, absorbing and reflecting ideas
Flat Sharp
Swashbuckling Delicate

Relatedness:
○ Which aspects of slow playing apply to fleet (fast and light) playing?
○ Which aspects of rapid playing apply to slow playing?
○ Which aspects of loud playing apply to soft playing?
○ Which aspects of soft playing apply to loud playing?
○ Which aspects of high playing apply to low playing?
○ Which aspects of low playing apply to high playing?

Speed = lightness (memorization/confidence)

Slow = connection (insight/thoughtfulness/comprehension)

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EXTREMES – CHOOSE FROM EACH LIST BELOW AT EVERY PRACTICE SESSION:

Make a Passage Harder
○ Go slower (yes, sometimes it is much harder to play slower).
○ Go faster.
○ Play louder.
○ Play softer.
○ New articulations.
○ Alternate articulations within bar, e.g., slurred/slur by two, or slurred/tongued and many other variations.
○ Set metronome to contain many beats (e.g., one click per two beats or one click per six beats, or any other
number that suits the challenge).
○ Change relationship of pattern to beat, i.e., have metronome click on the “&” of each beat.
○ Change rhythm, e.g., impose triplet grouping on sixteenth notes and vice versa.
○ Expand your range; play same passage octave(s) higher or lower.
○ Repeat a beat of a pattern multiple times before continuing; in some contexts, repetition is difficult par-
ticularly if you are tense.
○ Play the passage backwards.
○ Consciously get tense (be sure to release, be sure to explore the idea with care).

Make a Passage Easier

○ Go slower.
○ Go faster (yes, sometimes it is much easier to go faster).
○ Play louder.
○ Play softer.
○ Limit the number of notes in the pattern and repeat.
○ Memorize.
○ Limit the tessitura.
○ Limit the articulations.
○ Change rhythm, e.g., reduce complex rhythms to straight eighths or sixteenths.
○ Play at comfortable metronome settings, on the beat.
○ Take a break.
○ Consciously relax different areas, e.g., back of hand, forearms, forehead, etc.
○ Take another break.
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STRUCTURE OF PRACTICE
○ Train and exercise your reflexes;
○ Discover new possibilities;
○ Test your concepts through planned repetition;
○ Develop techniques through daily repetition;
○ Expand abilities and understanding through flexible and dedicated practice;

Or
○ Build towards a specific goal;
○ Rebuild by altering the method;
○ Maintain the development through planned practice;
○ Expand by using new skills to access more skills;
○ Refine by focusing on one aspect;

Or
○ Invent;
○ Memorize;
○ Reinvent.

Need I even say it – universal principles of thoughtful practice, excellent intonation and form apply to all of
these exercises.

Here are some things to ask yourself:

○ Do you work only to fulfill demands from a teacher or conductor?
○ Are you lost without direction from an outside authority?
○ Do you work to achieve goals set by yourself?
○ Are you flexible enough to execute ideas that differ from your own?
○ Can you confidently see where these goals overlap and where they diverge?

So much of our training is based in self-defense, i.e., the necessity to be enormously flexible and responsive in facing
all the challenges and requirements for the many types of playing that we encounter. While these skills are utterly
essential, the greatest artistry will emerge if we also set challenges for ourselves. Great skill emerges when we train to
respond to external demands. Artistry, skill and interest blossom when you can combine all of these.
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Practice Techniques – Sometimes It Takes A Very Long Time To Get

Just One Thing Right And That’s OK

SPECIFICS
Set big goals and tackle them in small stages.

Be kind to yourself while following the plan. Push yourself while being kind to yourself. Know that it is complex and
don’t be afraid.

Know your current metronome marking and note it with the date and keep a practice log.

Turn your metronome off, then back on to check, so that you don’t become numb to the sound. Other techniques
include using the metronome for offbeats or every other beat. The metronome is a great tool to use inventively to
develop your internal pulse.

Play the patterns very slowly at first, learn/memorize beat by beat. Take rests between the beats, then measured
rests, then eliminate the rests. Play the beat backwards and forwards (loop), then expand the loop to two beats, then
three etc.

Expand the practice into body awareness. While looping, lift one shoulder and drop it (continue playing), lift the
opposite shoulder, drop it. Move the shoulders in small circles, first right, then left. Lift a heel, then the other… you
get the idea.

Memorization is necessary and can be practiced while learning the notes.

Relaxed and organized form is essential with hands relaxed and fingers resting on guide keys at all times, as close to
the holes as possible. Guide keys are the ones that don’t move when your fingers rest lightly on them, e.g., left-hand
E flat resonance key; right-hand B flat; G; A flat. Never do circus hands with fingers flying high above the bassoon…
it just slows you down.

Articulations are the quickest way to develop agility. Aim for a full tone and at first, all legato (slurred). This stage
can last a long time, months and years, and you will always return to it as a touchstone. Then add a completely stac-
cato version. Combinations of articulations are very useful (slur by four; slur by two; slur by three plus one; tongue
one then slur two, then continue to slur two).

Some of the patterns involve the potential for compound tonguing (more on that later). Light accents can also
replace the slurs, e.g., accent the first note of a slur group while tonguing all notes smoothly, with dynamics in
each group. This is a very good exercise to make sure you don’t slow down when making the accents. Refer to the
Articulation Guide (p. 421) for further ideas.
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Once you have mastered the patterns from the bottom to the top and back to the bottom of the bassoon, you can
reverse this, and start the exercises at the top, go to the bottom and return to the top.

FLICKING
What a silly word, but an unavoidable concept for fluent virtuoso technique on the bassoon. Flick the bass clef fifth
line A with the high A key, tenor B flat, B and C with the high C key and, depending on your bassoon, tenor D with
the high D key.

Flicking is essential to fluent tone and technique. Always flick, unless it’s utterly impossible. Even if not immediately
required for clarity, it is necessary to practice this movement (small and efficient) as part of the fingering. I do this by
resting my left thumb lightly on the requisite key, or between, aiming for a light press/release rather than a stabbing
jab (or a jabbing stab). Imagine releasing the key rather than pressing it. Leave off the whisper key if it permits a
more fluent touch. Strong, steady and fluent air support is always necessary.

TONGUING
In single and double tonguing, many of the same principles of flicking apply. For light and fluid articulation, imagine
releasing the tongue from the reed. You can achieve agile and eloquent articulation by touching only a portion of the
reed (lower blade, or corner) or in the case of double tonguing, not touching the reed at all!

Tonguing is entirely based on air support, likewise with phrasing. Double tonguing is like learning a dance step in
that repetition provides the awareness and the skill. The only “trick” to double tonguing is to do it daily throughout
the range of the bassoon. If you can speak at least one language, you are already halfway there.

Double tonguing will be useful for all of the scales and exercises in this book and beyond.

Enthusiastic and methodical daily repetition allows you to master double-tonguing technique. It not only will give
you speed, but it will also give you a variety of nuances in your articulations at all speeds. And it will give you greater
freedom when playing early and modern music. For some reason, all composers know that the bassoon can speak
quickly and with infinitive variation.

When learning to double tongue, or when working to boost your existing skill, take many breaks, as these are often
completely new muscles and concepts. Give your brain time to connect with your body in new ways.

Further discussion of specific double-tonguing technique will be found in the Garfield Chromatic Scale chapter
(p. 194).
16 Nadina Mackie Jackson

General Practice Ideas – Carnegie Hall of Your Mind

To achieve your goals on the stage, you must go beyond them in the practice room. If you need to double tongue
a solo passage in the middle register in Beethoven 4, then you need to practice your double-tonguing scales and
intervals at full range, especially low, and at speeds both faster and slower than your ideal. Find other passages from
concerti and orchestra repertoire that challenge this skill even more, then transpose the passages into different keys.

Some days you will be tired or fragile and it is completely ok to not push boundaries at that moment. Play an old
favorite exercise that you know sounds good. Often your ambition will be renewed by this, or at the very least you
will still have done something toward your goals.

INCREMENTAL PRACTICE
Do a bit, take a break, do a bit more. If I am out of shape, or if I have a huge amount of repertoire to master, I set my
practice schedule in twenty-minute units, with a sliding scale of breaks between (e.g., 20 minutes scales; 5 minutes
break; 20 minutes chords; 5 minutes break; 20 minutes new concerto; 60 minutes break, etc.). Once I am in slightly
better shape, then I set the timer for one hour on, one hour doing a million other things. This gets adjusted depend-
ing on the circumstances. The point is to shape your time.

STAGGERED PRACTICE
Work on one thing, and then practice something completely different; then return to the first thing.

PRECISION PRACTICE, aka NITPICKING

Identify the hardest spots and give them some extra work. It is ok to spend hours on details, as long as you have a
plan to return to the big picture.

Pay attention to where you have arrived in the segments; make notes so you can return. Don’t always return to the
beginning; sometimes, start the whole exercise in a different place, just like rehearsing a piece of music.

ENDURANCE PRACTICE
Designate times for play-through of full movements, then the full pieces and, eventually, full recitals. Your endur-
ance is ready when you can play your recital at least twice, back to back.

When practicing long and hard, stop once in a while, bassoon still in your hands, to think about something else…
it is always better after the pause. Take many breaks in the initial phase of learning new techniques (texting is not a
sin in this scenario).
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PRACTICE THE IDEA

Suppose you want to play a three-octave F Major scale.

First you work on the high notes, but then, you must also experience the arc, the distance that your embouchure
and fingers must navigate, from the lowest note to the highest F. Imagine traveling the distance with confidence and
clarity, smoothly cresting the peak and returning calmly to base camp. For the first several times, you may need to
pretend that the high notes came out—then one day they will.

If you cannot immediately play a high note, keep playing the fingerings in your scales and imagine the note – even-
tually, it will emerge. Adjust speed within the context of the pulse, and aim for the note, slowly if needed, but never
sloppily. Practice the idea of the scale, imagine the arc of notes, practice as if they already exist, developing fluidity
of movement and continuing to develop reeds and physical technique. And I know you will already be practicing
those parts slowly and methodically.

The same idea applies to your other ambitions. If you want to be in an orchestra, collect the bassoon parts and
practice as if you already had the job. Memorize the solos so that you can watch the conductor. If you want to
play a concerto, get the score and memorize your music. Write the orchestra parts out. You will be ready when the
opportunity comes because you have practiced the idea. And you might also have all the parts on hand, a wonderful
bonus for everyone.

RECORDING
It is sometimes hard to tell exactly what we are doing when we are immersed in playing, so recording can help very much
in detailed practice. If you have a program or an old-fashioned tape deck that allows you to slow the playback to half or
quarter speed, that is ideal.

HOW TO TURN BAD HABITS INTO USEFUL SKILLS

Take note of your basic tendency to rush or drag the tempo. While this is to be steadfastly disciplined and corrected, there
are times that you will also want to command (summon) these tendencies in certain situations. For example, when you
have been working steadily to develop a new skill, such as double tonguing in the lowest range, there is a tendency to
be cautious and gradually slow down; once you know that you’ve put in enough slow practice, then definitely gun your
engine and see if it averages out to a steady, but fast tempo. And if you notice that you chronically slow the tempo down
in certain interval passages, pretend to rush and see if that activates you to become accurate. On the other end, if you find
yourself rushing in certain scale passages, or through long notes, summon your ability to drag and see if that allows you to
drop into the pulse with more security. Of course, these cures should not be permitted to become new bad habits!

The same concept of conscious transformation applies to tuning. For example, see if you can bend sharp notes, such
as F sharp, down a semitone; then see if you are able to attack the note at that pitch, or any of the others in between.
The bassoon is almost as flexible as a string instrument.

Flexibility requires a range of self-understanding, combined with awareness of others.

18 Nadina Mackie Jackson

REEDY OR NOT
Always have your reed tools with you. You do need to adjust your reed while practicing. And take your tools to
every practice session, lesson, rehearsal and concert. In a small case (black for stage), have your plaque, sandpaper,
mandrel, knife, file, pliers and a screwdriver. Three times in my career I have needed a screwdriver onstage (and I
don’t mean the drink), most memorably before a huge bassoon solo in a Mozart piano concerto while on tour with
the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Ours is not an entirely glamorous profession.

PRACTICE EVERY DAY

I joined the Montreal Symphony Orchestra when I was twenty-two and immediately began touring the world with
them. I discovered that if I got up early and slowly played my chromatic routines before getting on the bus and
heading to the airport, I would be more ready to play once we flew to another town (or country) to play the evening
concert. I checked with the musicians who were next to me in the alphabet (hotel rooms were assigned alphabeti-
cally) and they always gave me their blessing (bassoon is quiet and world-class colleagues always understand).

If you practice every day, then in the days when you are traveling or dealing with being a human, the memory and con-
nection to your bassoon will be strong. Through routines and patterns, you develop the route to greater freedoms. The
map that you’ve created in your mind starts to lift and change from being an abstract representation to living, breathing
musical phrases. Patterns that have been repeated thousands of times transform into instincts and you move to the next
enticing challenge.

Sometimes you might feel shy about practicing, such as in hotels while on tour, worried that you might bother
someone who is trying to rest. Remind yourself that this is your life and your work, and even if you do not feel like
doing it all the time, you benefit by putting yourself through your paces. And once you start, the ideas take over, the
confidence grows and energy pours through you. Give yourself time and you will be amazed.

Thoughts on Fingerings, Perfection and Never Giving Up – Life is

Messy
There are many excellent fingering books available both online and in print. Don’t worry about having the perfect
fingering but take the time to discover the ones that are the most resonant and in-tune for you and your bassoon.
Always remember, a bassoon has many possibilities. Please keep your own fingering book as you will learn dozens
of special fingerings throughout your career.

Be flexible, adaptable and courageous. Learn the full fingerings but be open to simplifying them when faced with
extreme challenges of speed, tuning or dynamics. And, interestingly, “easier” fingerings need as much woodshed-
ding as the full fingerings to secure the tuning and tone. I will spend days and weeks, months and years learning the
full fingerings that sound the most sonorous on my bassoon, only to switch to something simpler or different in the
heat of the moment. The final decision rests with you and your bassoon.
 Solitary Refinement 19

Learn the highest notes, go higher than you’ve ever imagined, learn about multiphonics, quarter tones, microtones,
learn those weird low subharmonics, learn fingerings for historical bassoons (they sometimes really help solve prob-
lems on modern instruments) and develop your own fingerings.

We sometimes get snagged on the stultifying obligation to be perfect and irreproachable. I suggest that instead we
pursue our ideas valiantly and with full understanding that exploration will sometimes make perfection elusive
for a period. Your highest vision of fluidity, articulateness and precision can be pursued both incrementally and
relentlessly. Just as you don’t have to do every gym exercise with the grace of a Russian gymnast to become stronger,
you can dive into bassoon technique with your hair flying and your pearls askew. Practice slowly and also, you
must practice quickly. Give yourself many challenges and enjoy pursuing them with the eagerness that comes from
knowing that almost all is possible over time.

Make a Note of This – Record Keeping

Keep notebooks on all aspects of your playing: practice diary, reed diary, performance diary, fingering books, tuning
charts. Add the date for posterity. These can be made from blank pages or they can be customized books or com-
puter apps. At the very least, you will get a good laugh every decade or so when you review the writing. And more
likely, you will see your core thoughts and principles forming over the years, giving you the courage and confidence
to keep exploring.

I also believe that sound recordings fall into this category of tracking your musical development over a lifetime. The
more polished the recording, the more intense and lasting your experience.

There are many paths to the mountain top. I hope that my ideas will hold sparks of inspiration and encouragement
for players of every level. And every once in a while, skip all the scales, long tones and chords and just play to your
heart’s content.
The world needs your voice. Let’s hear what you have to say.
 21

CHROMATIC SCALES AND CHORDS

Chromatic Mordents
Chromatic Up/Down Fill-ins & Intervals
Chromatic Up Up/Down Down Fill-ins & Intervals
Chromatically Modulating Diatonic Scales
Chromatically Modulating Triads and Seventh Chords
Schoenbach Chords
Garfield Chromatic Scales
Double Tonguing
22 Nadina Mackie Jackson

Chromatic Mordents
After some early experiences of playing the bassoon solo from Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra, I used that marvelous
solo as an inspiration to make several technical exercises, starting with this one that examines every semitone on
the bassoon.

While we have printed the patterns going to the very highest notes of the bassoon, always feel free to bracket the
point where you will turn around.

Always pay attention to tuning, tone, dynamics and fluidity between notes. Keep your fingers close to the guide keys,
touching lightly without pressing on E flat resonance, Low G and Low F as a way to ensure that your hand is relaxed.
It takes concentration at first to keep your fingers on the keys while playing other notes.

Start with the quarter notes before advancing. This slow start is a really good warm-up and even when you have
mastered the whole exercise, always start with the quarter notes.

Set the metronome at a very slow speed as the incremental diminutions make this a challenging technical exercise
by the time you reach the dectuplets.

The tempo remains the same for the whole exercise and each section increases the number of notes in each beat.
In a sense, this is a trill exercise, but it will also improve your awareness of tone colors and tuning. This, along with
relaxed fingers and arms, is essential to rapid playing.

First practice all slurred, then all tongued. Odd-numbered groupings of quintuplets and sextuplets are particularly
useful in double-tongue practice because the principal beats alternate between a Ta and a Ka.

When first learning each new exercise, practice in segments:

○ low range (ascending and descending),
○ mid range and high range (ascending and descending),
○ then full range (ascending and descending).

Mark different articulations in light pencil – refer to the Articulation Guide (p. 421) and feel free to tailor your own.

That which seems difficult today will one day become your warm-up.
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Chromatic Up/Down Fill-Ins and Intervals

Also inspired by the main bassoon solo from La Gazza Ladra and by the end of the first movement of the Tansman
Sonatine, all intervals are divided into semitones in a scale outlining the intervals (fill-ins) in an ascending and
descending pattern (up/down). I expanded this exercise to all intervals up to an octave as I found it an excellent way
to develop both stamina and courage in the extreme high ranges required in all of my commissioned concerti.

Practicing the outline of the interval through chromatic scales allows you to visualize the interval while playing the
“filled in” chromatic ladder up and down.

While we have printed the patterns going to the very highest notes of the bassoon, always bracket the point where
you will turn around.

When first learning each new exercise, practice in segments:

○ low range (ascending and descending),
○ mid range and high range (ascending and descending),
○ then full range (ascending and descending).

To save paper, we’ve given an example in the Major 2nd sections, and you can customize the subsequent intervals.

Mark different articulations in light pencil. For further challenges, choose from the examples in the Articulation
Guide (p. 421) and feel free to tailor your own.

Odd-numbered groupings such as quintuplets (major thirds) and sextuplets (augmented fourths) are particularly
useful in double-tongue practice as the principal beats alternate between a Ta and a Ka.

In all the scale patterns, keep fingers soft, relaxed and as close to the bassoon as possible, with little fingers and
thumbs of both hands resting on the guide keys.

The benefits of the chromatic exercises are improved tone, better command of full range, endurance, embouchure
and intonation. Technical fluency is the side benefit.

After the fill-ins, move to the Up/Down intervals. This exercise combines a semitone with intervals; the interval
is represented both ascending and descending with a semitone in between. As we have a tendency to rush scalar
movement and drag in intervals, this exercise trains you to maintain your tempo in both semitones and increasingly
large intervals.

Keep head in place when doing intervals, no moving up and down. Same with embouchure: keep corners firm
and steady.

In more advanced practice, you can also bracket both the fill-ins and the intervals into different rhythmic
groupings, echoing the rhythmic groupings of whatever challenging solo passage you are working on.
34 Nadina Mackie Jackson

It is important to start slowly and carefully, always returning to slow careful playing when glitches occur. And it
is equally important to press forward, steadily and methodically, one metronome click at a time, retreating when
necessary, gradually moving into hitherto unexplored realms.

In dreams begin responsibilities – Delmore Schwarz

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Chromatic Up Up/Down Down Fill-Ins and Intervals

These exercises outline the traditional upward and downward movement of the intervals and the chromatic fill-in
scales, with the added challenge in the fill-in section of the exercise with increasingly augmented leaps at the end of
each octave.

While we have printed the patterns going to the very highest notes of the bassoon, always feel free to bracket the
point where you will turn around.

When first learning each new exercise, practice in segments:

○ low range (ascending and descending),
○ mid range and high range (ascending and descending),
○ then full range (ascending and descending).

To save paper, we’ve given an example in the Major 2nd section, and you can customize the subsequent intervals.

And as in the Chromatic Up/Down Intervals, we present them in eighth notes, triplets and sixteenths. You can take
this idea further and group the notes in quintuplets, or alternating rhythmic groups.

Mark different articulations in light pencil. Use the examples in the Articulation Guide (p. 421) and feel free to tailor
your own.

Odd-numbered fill-ins such as quintuplets (major thirds) and sextuplets (augmented fourths) are particularly useful
in double-tongue practice as the principal beats alternate between a Ta and a Ka. These same fill-ins can also be
made more challenging with articulations (above).

Be sure to land smoothly at the beginning of each fill-in after the large leap. Refinement and control will also allow
you to play with strength and resolve.

Keep fingers soft, lightly curved and always relaxed. Rest little fingers and thumbs on guide keys.

Keep head in place when doing intervals, neck relaxed and no moving up and down (i.e. no nodding with the
interval). Same with embouchure: keep corners firm and steady.

The benefits of the chromatic exercises are improved tone, better command of full range, endurance, embouchure
and intonation. Technical fluency is the side benefit.

Nothing will be attempted if all possible objections must be overcome. - Delmore Schwarz
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Chromatically Modulating Scales

These major and harmonic minor scales are a series of linked, one-octave scales, modulating every eight notes by
a semitone.

While we have printed the patterns going to the very highest notes of the bassoon, always feel free to bracket the
point where you will turn around.

In some ways, this is an easy exercise, because you cover only one octave at a time; yet in other ways, it is challenging
because you must learn all your key signatures, eventually developing the stamina to cover the full range of the bassoon.

This exercise can also be used as a gentle and abbreviated warm-up as you can turn around at any point.

As in all technical development work, it is important to practice the whole exercise, ascending and descending. You
can also start the exercise at the top, go to the lowest note, and return to the top. Having said that, you can also zoom
in and spend time refining specific scales or sections of any scale.

Mark different articulations in light pencil. Use the examples in the Articulation Guide and feel free to tailor your
own. Be sure to breathe after each modulation to new scale in order to practice the sense of leading to the next scale.

This is very good exercise for developing and practicing circular breathing and eventually a good exercise for vir-
tuoso technique, when played with maximum fleetness and clarity. Build slowly towards this, testing every few
months to see if you have achieved real lightness in your hands and steadiness in your mind and airstream.

I recommend learning full fingerings for the high E flat, E and F; the speed fingerings are relatively easy, so take this
opportunity to learn the more complex fingerings. Likewise, use full fingerings for tenor C sharp and third space
bass clef forked E flat. As always, once you learn these fingerings, you should also practice the speed fingerings for
tuning and tone. The final decision for the best fingering rests with you.

Even if reading from the page, always imagine the notes and fingerings in your mind’s eye.

Hear the resonance of each gesture, each leading tone and each scale. This is not a merely technical exercise, but one
that definitely benefits from a sense of phrasing and shaping.

Practice rigorously with the metronome, and then turn it off to test your internal steadiness.

Sometimes, when working on a particularly challenging scale, practice backwards, i.e., from the end of the scale,
adding one note at a time. Notice which key signatures require the most attention and give it to them. In this and in
all the exercises, always feel free to isolate difficult sections and work carefully before proceeding.

And just a note about the term “offset” used throughout the book. We use it to mean starting on a different note
from the first example, a semitone removed, so that you experience the ascending and descending scales in a differ-
ent order and develop more fluency. All minor scales used here are harmonic minors, but of course you can use any
minor scale.
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Chromatically Modulating Triads and Seventh Chords

Chromatically modulating diatonic triads and seventh chords provide an intellectually challenging exercise that I
sometimes call the “progression of perpetual dissatisfaction,” since it never commits to one tonal center. Yet there is
satisfaction in the flow of chromatics through the chords.

Start in root position, first and second inversions, followed by the offset version, starting on Low B, and followed by
chromatically modulating major and minor seventh chords.

In all the exercises, if you want to improve a small section, you can repeat the individual beats in a looping pattern.
You can reduce the tempo by half, then resume the loop.

These are very developmental exercises and you can always chase them with the Common Tone Cycle of Fifths or
Schoenbach Chords to restore well-being and happiness.
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Schoenbach Chords
This enjoyable exercise starts on a tonic that allows for a comfortable high note and constantly modulates down-
wards by semitones to produce a stream of chords from the top to the bottom of bassoon range. You may choose
higher or lower starting notes.

To be used as a treat in the midst of more aerobic exercises, Sol Schoenbach gave me this concept one summer
when we taught together at Domaine Forget. You can do the original version, which repeats the octave on the last
sixteenth note for each of the three beats, or my variation, which adds a major seventh on the last sixteenth of the
third beat of each tonal grouping.

Play all slurred, or slur in groups of six, and then all tongued. When taken to top speeds, this is a very good double-
tonguing exercise, useful in preparation of Vivaldi concerti or the last variation in Weber’s Andante and Rondo.

As pleasant as this exercise is, it can become extremely challenging as you want when you push yourself to extreme
tempi with the added requirement of extreme accuracy. As always, hear the resonance of each gesture, chord group
and modulation. Also to be used as a tuning exercise.

MEMORIZE! - Sol Schoenbach

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Garfield Chromatic Scales and Double Tonguing

I received this exercise in its most straightforward version from Bernard Garfield when I started studying at the
Curtis Institute of Music. Then I customized it throughout my career as it encompasses many articulation challenges.

The pattern can be tailored to every level of playing, from beginner to extreme expert, through systematic use of
rhythmic and articulative combinations. Given the basic unit of twelve notes, the exercise can be divided into many
groupings: triplets, four sixteenths, sextuplets or eight thirty-seconds.

The first page shows the options for practicing:

Single Tonguing
#1 to 5 and #7 to 10 show basic articulations (all long, all short, long-short, short-long) and #6 is
glottal flutter tonguing (described on page 195)

Double Tonguing
#1 to 10 can be used for beginner patterns, also useful for advanced players
#11 to 18 show additional ways to develop control, fluency and flexibility

The tonguing exercise begins on the third page. Note that the printed scales start on the second-line B flat and go
to the lowest B flat, then return to second-line B flat and go to the highest notes in tessitura. This is the friendliest
introduction, but you are welcome to start on any note that best suits your routine.

This exercise gives you plenty of opportunities to concentrate on refinements of form, such as keeping fingers relaxed
and very close to the keys. Also concentrate on crystalline clarity of notes, with accurate half holes and coordinated
flicking for immediate clarity of response in the tenor register.

Choose a slow metronome marking to start with and work through the four basic articulations on the first page (all
long, all staccato, long-short and short-long).

Work on a single octave or tackle the whole range depending on your level. Keep track of where you stop in the
pattern and start there the next day.

Keep track of metronome markings, and when you have completed the entire range, move the metronome up one
click until you reach double-tonguing speeds.

Depending on your level, this can take several months or even years, possibly lifetimes. This is also a good exercise
to determine the response and refinement of your reed. It’s worth reviewing this exercise occasionally even after you
have mastered it.

And now that we’re here, let’s talk about…

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DOUBLE TONGUING
Once upon a time, I walked into a rehearsal with my baroque bassoon in Montreal, to play the St John Passion. While
all Bach is challenging, this bassoon part is quite manageable, until we got to chorus #54 (“Lasset uns den nicht zer-
teilen”) and the conductor announced that the well-known cello obbligato was to be played by solo bassoon. Since this is
never done, I had not practiced it. And since we were preparing for a concert that was also going to go to disc as a “live
performance,” I practiced baroque bassoon as if my life depended on it. Luckily, I already knew how to double tongue
and you will too.

Double tonguing practice is part of your daily technical routine. Surprise solos aside, it is an essential skill to play all
repertoire to a standard that string players demand, and we all want to play with the best string players.

If you can say “tick tock,” you are capable of double tonguing and more.

A workman-like attitude and attentive daily repetition will reward you with the skill of double tonguing. Our goal is
to use fleetness of articulation to allow variety and nuance in your phrasing in addition to mere speed. Beethoven,
Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Vivaldi and other early composers paired the bassoon with strings, as did later composers,
including Mendelssohn, Smetana and Saint-Saëns, and contemporary composers such as Jolivet, Paul Frehner, Berio
and many more. Composers know that the double reeds can move as quickly as the strings – it’s up to us to prepare.

When learning to double tongue, or when working to boost your existing skill, take many breaks as these are often
completely new muscles and concepts. Give your brain time to connect with your body.

BASIC DOUBLE-TONGUE DEVELOPMENT

COMPARISON

A fundamental principle of productive practice is to compare something that you do beautifully with the new tech-
nique that you are learning. Pick a resonant note, such as second space C in the bass clef, and play a loud, clear, reso-
nant and tidy staccato note using the tip of your tongue (or, if you’re like me, the area just behind the tip of tongue):
TA! Repeat this process and match each repetition of the note. Use your airstream to produce a clear, ringing tone.

When it is perfect, play another staccato note, this time using the back of your tongue: KA! Repeat this until you can
produce a series of strong, matched tones. The KA will initially have a tendency to sag in pitch at the end; counter
this with an extra strong puff of air and sustained muscle support. Some reeds are better than others for double
tonguing. Avoid soft, weak reeds or unfinished, heavy reeds.

GLOTTAL FLUTTER TONGUE

I find it helpful to use glottal flutter tonguing (the sound that you make when gargling) as a way to awaken the new
muscles. Make the gargling sound first without your bassoon, then with your bassoon on the same C in the bass clef
(or an octave higher on middle C). Initially, it will demand more air than you expect and will be flat in pitch until
you speed up the airstream. This pinpoints the right muscle groups and teaches you how much air is required—and
gives you a necessary technique for contemporary music.
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You can practice this technique with the Garfield Chromatic Exercises or with any scale routine.

ARTICULATIONS

A virtuosic and listenable bassoonist speaks with a wide range of articulations at all speeds.

As we already discussed, short notes are one method to develop double tonguing and allow you develop a strong
airstream for clear initial attacks. Another very useful technique is to sustain the notes when alternating between TA
and KA… this teaches you to sustain the airstream well enough to maintain stable pitch, i.e.,

Taaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Taaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Practice both methods to aid in the development of smooth flowing articulations, such as in Mozart and Beethoven,
and brilliant, biting articulations, such as in Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, the overture to The Bartered Bride by
Smetana or the last movement of the Tansman Sonatine. And everything in between and beyond. There are so many
ways to speak fluently.

ADVANCED PRACTICE TECHNIQUES

As in every other area of technical practice, go to the extremes of range and dynamics to develop mastery.

Reverse the articulations, e.g., Ka Ta or Ka Ka.

Experiment with different syllables: Da Ga, Dee Gee, Woo Wah (kidding).

Experiment with air attacks, particularly if you are cracking in the middle range. Use Mendelssohn’s Midsummer
Night’s Dream to try this. It is impossible to clearly produce all the notes without the tongue, but the effort of trying
makes for very good air support, with the result that you will sound clearer when you add the tongue.

Try Huh-ga-da-ga-duh, i.e., just a strong aspiration to start the note with no tongue.

Alternate long and short while using double tongue, or short and long. For example, the Ka sound tends to be longer
than the Ta, so reverse the tendency and play a long note on the Ta and short on the Ka.

Sometimes, practice slurring two by two, as this combination mimics the pattern of double tonguing while allowing you
to clean up other problems. It is sometimes productive to make things a bit easier in order to work on different aspects.

Practice triplets in double-tongue pattern, such as the final variation in Weber’s Andante and Rondo. I prefer to use
the double-tongue pattern in triplet passages. It never hurts to practice triple tonguing (Ta-Ta-Ka), even if you don’t
choose to use it. Diversity in tonguing patterns always improves the chosen pattern.
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STABLE EMBOUCHURE

Maintain embouchure and jaw position when doing any type of tonguing. This forces you to support properly, and
more importantly, allows you to move more quickly. Do not bounce the jaw or chew the reed… these habits just slow
you down and impede tuning.

Methodical, conscious practice will reward you with a reliable, lightning-quick and controllable double tongue.
Practice slowly with complete attention to pitch and tone; systematically and incrementally increase the speed so
that you overlap the “break” between single and double tonguing. Practice the full range of the bassoon; low double-
tonguing practice will greatly enhance your ability in the more common mid-range solos.

Start with a few minutes per day, every day, gradually increasing the practice time. Stop if your throat gets tight and
use the glottal flutter tongue to release tension. Practice every day and you will wake up one morning with the ability
to double tongue. And the side benefit is that your single tonguing will also improve.
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Patterns open paths to possibilities.

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DIATONIC SCALES AND CHORDS

Modal Diatonic Scales

Modal Diatonic Triads and Seventh Chords
Common Tone Chords
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Modal Scales
Major and minor scales and chords are the most familiar vehicles for becoming deeply acquainted with our instrument.

Playing them in the cycle of modes (a scale on every degree of the available tessitura both ascending and descend-
ing) simply gives us more time in the key. Each major scale is followed by its parallel harmonic minor version.

You can add variations to the scales by doing other minor scales, mordents, intervals (thirds and beyond), trills
or varied articulations, rhythmic patterns and syncopations. These exercises can be tailored for any level through
changing the speed (slower/faster), repeating scales (looping), reversing the direction (top to bottom) and range
(reducing/expanding). As always, you can bracket your top notes to turn around where you choose.
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Diatonic Triads and Seventh Chords

Diatonic triads and seventh chords are built on each degree of the diatonic scale and are presented in root position,
first and second inversions, followed by the offset version (starting a semitone higher), then in seventh chord ver-
sions in root, first, second and third inversions in all keys.

We start each key from the lowest note in the key and not the tonic… if that bugs you, start on the tonic (I do when
I have a headache or am feeling sorry for myself).

This is the shortest introduction to the longest section in the book. All previous practice suggestions apply to these
chords. You know what to do, and bon voyage!
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Common Tone Chords

This is one of my favorite exercises and it came from touring with folk and jazz artists, Valdy Horsdal and Karel
Roessingh. These musicians think in terms of chords and harmonies, less frequently in scales. And they would
rather write songs than practice scales any day of the week, so maybe this exercise will lead to a flowering of song
writing amongst bassoonists. In discussing improvisation and technical practice with pianist Karel Roessingh, he
said he always thinks in chords, even when playing scales.

Practice slowly at first, all slurred for several weeks/months/years. Concentrate on smoothness and tuning. Plan your
breaths. Memorize as you go. Make a mental note of each key as you modulate. Start on different notes to develop
overall fluency. Add articulations, increase speeds very slowly, eventually playing it at high speeds, all tongued.
This is an excellent warm-up for Weber’s Andante and Rondo (final variation), Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique and
similar virtuoso works by Vivaldi and others.
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LONG TONES AND BASICS

Senza Whisper Key

Tonal Trill Drill
Tchaikovsky VI Long Tones
Vibrato Exercise
Bassoon Tuning Exercise
Articulation Guide
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Senza Whisper Key

I started weekly bassoon lessons at the age of sixteen when I entered the University of British Columbia to study with
Christopher Millard, the newly appointed twenty-two-year-old principal bassoonist of the Vancouver Symphony
Orchestra. He gave me this jewel of a small exercise that helps bassoonists learn to depend on their airstream rather
than the whisper key to maintain a centered tone and full resonance in the lower range of the bassoon.

Written in the range that normally requires the whisper key, for this exercise, leave the key open and support more
with your airstream.

You can expand, invert, augment, transpose and generally own the concept in all notes which normally use the
whisper key. Try the idea with the Marriage of Figaro excerpt, both slurring and tonguing the famous tutti passage.
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Tonal Trill Drill aka Tonal Facelift

This exercise falls into the Spring Cleaning category, allowing you to focus with systematic rigor on tone color,
tuning and smooth fingerings between every chromatic interval on the bassoon.

Tuner and metronome are essential. Play without vibrato and assiduously match tone color on each semitone. When
tuning is stable and tone colors matching, move steadily through the rhythmic diminutions. Stay as long as neces-
sary on each section until tuning and tone are either perfect or better than they were. Once you are moving into the
decuplets, this becomes a trill exercise, though criteria of tuning and tone always remain intact.

I joined the Montreal Symphony at the age of twenty-two and continued studying regularly with our principal
oboist, Ted Baskin, a keenly focused player with consistently high standards, who gave me the idea for this exercise.

Expect frustration along with guaranteed improvement of tone and technique, even if your execution feels less
than perfect.

I recommend doing this exercise in small stages over several days. Make a simple chart to take notes and help you
remember which notes you’ve covered and what their challenges were (tuning and tone color).

If you get ambitious and do the whole thing in one sitting, that is enough for the year. Honestly.
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Tchaikovsky VI Long Tone Drill

So many orchestral solos require the most precise and delicate of entries, with refined tapers at the ends of notes, in
very soft dynamics and often on incredibly challenging notes on the bassoon. While these skills are necessary for all
types of music, they are germane for professional orchestral playing.

The example here, while in a different key from the famous opening solo of Tchaikovsky VI, covers the same ridicu-
lously touchy notes. Needless to say, you will do this exercise in all keys.

Note that the first crescendo is over four beats, while the decrescendo is done more rapidly over two beats.

This might be the hardest exercise in this book, yet it is also the most peaceful. A perfect opportunity to concentrate
on the basics of relaxed yet precisely applied support, fluidity of airstream, tone and vibrato.
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Vibrato Exercise or Kinetic Long Tones

This is a supremely simple and effective exercise that awakens your vibrato muscles and teaches you about the
different resistances of each note of the bassoon, something that bassoonist Kika Wright dubbed the “aptitude
of amplitude.”

With practice you will develop vibrato along with the ability to control speeds and understand the shapes of differ-
ent pulses.

And to be very clear, real vibrato is NEVER measured, but the exercise is measured to develop your control.

This is also an excellent exercise for developing support and tone.

Here’s what you do:

Use the tuner, ideally one with a needle indicator, or something digital that is similarly concretely visual and also
responds to overtones.

Set the metronome to a very slow speed.

Pulse on first beat of a whole note with no other vibrato, perfect tuning, and then pulse on second whole note, then
release; repeat until you are satisfied with tuning and stability.

Next, pulse on two half notes, then four quarters, etc.

Spend as long as necessary on each diminution, repeating many times; then play one beat of the next rhythmic
group before breathing. Take your time.

Always finish the exercise on each note with real vibrato. Even if you feel you cannot yet do real vibrato.

Pause for a moment…

Then move up or down a semi-tone and repeat the exercise.

At the end of the session, play a scale, one octave (your choice) of quarter notes with quarter note rests. The goal is
to have immediate and healthy vibrato. No slow start.

Remember, this is an exercise to develop your body’s ability to produce different styles of vibrato. Real vibrato is
not measured in these predictable ways, but is as flexible and fluid as all other aspects of your virtuoso technique
of expression.
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Tuning Exercise
If any one aspect of technique can be identified as the most important, it would be tuning.

Any note or interval on the bassoon can become a tuning exercise, but this excellent little study helps you focus on
the perfect intervals and the all-important major third.

This exercise is presented in major keys with another instrument holding the pedal tone while referring to a tuner.

If you don’t have another bassoonist or bass instrument handy, you can do it with an electronic drone, or with a
piano (with sustain pedal).

At first, play each interval in an exploratory manner, seeing where the tendencies lie and correcting them. Then play
all the intervals by articulating the start of each note. Next, when you are strong and stable, slur to each interval.
Once you are ready, increase the speed and see how quickly and accurately you can hit the correct pitch, just like in
real life. The person holding the long pedal notes will be grateful!

If you have to adjust the pitch (and you will), then re-attack the note so that you train yourself to land quickly on
the right pitch. Sliding to the correct pitch may sometimes be necessary in the real world, but it should be done so
quickly that we don’t hear it.

The goal is to hear the interval before you play and to have a very quick response time for corrections. This exer-
cise also gives you the opportunity to study the intervals, and above all, to study your bassoon’s innate tendencies.
Practice until you can land accurately on each interval, and repeat the exercise frequently with different partners and
different reeds.

Your future audiences and all your colleagues thank you for all your hard work in learning to play the bassoon
in tune.
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Articulation Guide
Using different articulations is one of the best ways to develop many fundamental skills, including fine control
throughout the entire range of the bassoon, improved form and even enhanced rhythmic awareness.

Each style of articulation will help you develop different skills. Legato will bring the greatest clarity in smooth finger-
ings; different styles of tonguing throughout the full tessitura of the bassoon will ensure that you will develop highly
responsive reeds. Combining different styles of articulation will help you refine your embouchure, leading to the
greatest economy of movement. It is fundamentally important to not move the embouchure excessively. Refining the
reeds and refining support and stability of the embouchure will allow you to articulate all the patterns at all speeds.
Needless to say, this takes time and awareness.

Your greatest asset in all articulation is the airstream. It can be driving and powerful for marcato effects, or soft and
broad for diaphanous effects. We are all taught to have a strong and muscular support system, but actual articulations
use the whole range of physical involvement, exactly the same as speaking with different inflections and intensities.

Beyond developing skills on the bassoon, different styles of articulation can prepare you for all styles of repertoire,
from baroque to jazz to modern. Integrating supple and rapid dynamic effects can enhance all styles of articulation.

Some of the articulations that are suggested can refine your awareness of cross rhythms and subdivisions. Others can
test your memory and reflexes when you use a mirrored pattern or a mix of tongued and slurred effects.

You can explore a variety of articulations or stick to a limited number of styles for extended periods. This is one of
the most accessible tools for developing a truly speech-like (and song-like) level of communicative musicality.

These are articulations and concepts that I recommend from my practice. As always, feel free to develop and refine
your own variations.

ALL OR NOTHING – the articulation pattern stays the same throughout the whole exercise.
1. All slurred – excellent for developing smooth fingerings and full resonance.
2. All tongued – excellent for developing responsive reeds in all registers and for refining clarity in all regis-
ters, particularly the tenor (flicking) register.
3. Very short tonguing is a specific skill that requires steady concentration to maintain the distance between
each note without rushing.
4. Long tonguing is useful in different styles of music and requires steady concentration to maintain tempo
and not slow down.
5. Alternating one beat of short tonguing with one beat of long tonguing throughout the exercise is a good
exercise for maintaining tempo.
6. Alternating one beat of long tonguing with one slurred beat is a good way to compare subtle differences in
articulation and an exercise in maintaining tempo.
7. Create your own variations.
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TERRIBLE TWOS – they look easy but can quickly become challenging, but oh so worth it.
1. Slur two by two with equal values.
2. Slur two by two with a distinctly shorter second note.
3. Air pulse every two notes (good for developing clarity of tone especially in tenor and high registers).
4. Marcato attack on every first and third note.
5. Alternate short and long articulations every two notes (good test of agility and ability to maintain tempo).
6. Alternate long and short articulation every two notes (very good for training you to keep embou-
chure steady).
7. Six notes, slurred two by two.
8. Six notes, alternating two slurred and two tongued throughout pattern.
9. Create your own versions.

ONE-OF-A-KIND – choose one single and unusual note to accent in each group. This requires concentration and is
a good way to spot-check and drill technically difficult passages. Requires repetition to master. Think of other ways
to use this concept.

OFFBEAT – use slurs and accents to emphasize weak beat; just like “one-of-a-kind,” this is a good way to spot-check
and drill particularly difficult passages. There are hundreds of ways to combine this idea with other concepts.

MIRROR, MIRROR – use mirrored patterns in each set of two beats to enhance control and refine memory. Develop
your own mirrors.

THREE’S COMPANY AND 4 X 6 – impose slurs of three-on-four note groups. This idea can be extended to any
groupings, such as slurs of four-on-sextuplet groups, or slurs of five-on-four note groups. All develop your alertness
and control. Combine this with other articulation concepts. In this as in all exercises, repetition and awareness
is required.
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The time you spend alone gives you a voice you can share with the world.