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Care and Feeding of Your Freshmen Double Reeds Dr. Mark Rogers

Does this sound like a scenario to cost more than the The first year comes and goes. that you have witnessed a few times . When her parents ask If the young oboist or bassoonist in your career? A bright and talented about purchasing a student model is extremely lucky, contact has fifth grader enters your beginning instrument (since the school- been made with a private teacher band program. She/he is a bit of a owned instruments seems to have who is able to provide good reeds loner who doesn’t mind traveling been brought over on (or can tell the apart from the crowd and has taken the Mayflower) they In order for there student where to a look/listen to various instruments assume that since to be two players on purchase them), on YouTube. He has also gone out a student model and two players correct the to the internet and has found a web beginner alto sax- on survive wrong fingerings site that lists the various instruments ophone can be had in the [high school] in the beginning by their relative ease or difficulty for around $2000 (or program until the band book, and and is intrigued by the statistics far less if you buy one senior year, at least demonstrate a showing that oboe and bassoon are of those saxophone- three or four players characteristic considered to be among the most shaped-objects that on each double reed sound on the challenging instruments in regular can easily be found on instrument should instrument at use in wind bands. She decides the internet), a student be started in every every lesson. to take the plunge and announces line bassoon or oboe (If the private to you that playing a double reed should sell for about beginning class. teacher is unable instrument is what she wants to the same. Oops, a to satisfy any one do, so you arrange her schedule so beginner oboe will cost $3000 and a of these three, find another teacher that she starts the sixth grade in the beginner bassoon will cost $4500. The immediately.) beginner class that includes , beginner classes start and the bright Because the pool of double reed and . sixth grader can hardly hear himself players at the middle school is A bit of shock settles in when over the roar of the saxophones in rather shallow, the young player she discovers that saxophone reeds the room. In any case, there are so finds herself in the top ensemble, sell for about $25.00 for a box many more of them than there are preparing for and sight- of ten, while a student line oboe of him (oh, by the way, he is the reading contest in the spring. Oboes, or bassoon reed bought over the only bassoonist in the room) that the bassoons and low brass are among internet sells for $16.00 apiece (a over-burdened band teacher trusts the instruments whose players take professional reed will cost about that the young man’s above-average the longest time to mature to the $25.00). He goes to the sheet music intelligence will help him to survive point where a characteristic sound store to look at method books only the year with crummy reeds and can be produced. Our middle school to find out that there is a much a fingering chart in the beginning band’s low brass section receives smaller selection of oboe/bassoon band book that likely contains at lots of our attention because they music available and that it seems least a few wrong fingerings. are completely indispensable to a

Bandmasters Review • September 2011 19 Texas Bandmasters Association Care and Feeding of Your Freshmen Double Reeds

successful trip to UIL in the spring. The oboe and learn the drill. Some double-reed players are thrust bassoon players make fairly unattractive sounds at this into the wind section of the band where they find that stage, but there is practically no music on the grade 2 they have to memorize a show and learn stand tunes or 3 list that has essential solos for these instruments, on an instrument (usually saxophone, but occasionally so the director is always asking them to blend in with one of the mid to low range brass) where they are three the and (for the oboe) or with the years behind the skill level of the other members of saxophones and bass clarinets (for the bassoon). Over the section. Once summer band is over, school begins these two years, the young oboe/bassoon players learn and the young double-reed player, probably one of the to hide themselves as well as they can. It’s a lot like brighter members of her class, makes the adjustment being a groundhog­—if you are noticed, the attention to the new campus, with a different routine for class that you receive is seldom positive, so you learn to changes, A/B lunch, and deals with the shock of going keep you head down and hope for the best. from being top dogs at the middle school to being at the Let’s assume that our bright, socially bottom of the food chain at the high misanthropic double-reed player stays school. Although the young person with the program all the way to the was in the top ensemble at the middle freshman year. What happens now school, only a few freshmen make it is a nightmare of epic proportions. A into the top performing ensemble at decision must be made about what the high school, often due to policy area of the will be that restricts that ensemble to upper their home for the next four years. classmen. In spite of all this, the The color guard unit is a possibility for oboe and bassoon player is assigned only a few of the double-reed players. to the symphonic wind ensemble for If he or she was coordinated or the year. (Sorry, the pool of double a fine dancer, chances are that they reed players has collapsed over the wouldn’t have gone into the world years, so an exception will be made of oboe and bassoon playing anyway. to avoid those empty chairs at UIL in (The author of this article is a bassoon the spring.) Did we mention that all player, and he KNOWS what mis-fits members of the honors wind ensemble we are.) are required, as a condition of being Some double-reed players head in the top ensemble, to audition for for the “pit,” where they can find a district band (TMEA All-State) in home with the percussion players, but early November? So in addition to the some are lost to the percussion section stress of learning a new instrument for forever and others are bored standing marching band (or perhaps spending around for hours on end while the lots of quality time with the color wind players in the band master the guard instructor), our fearless oboe art of marching sideways or backwards or bassoon player is looking at three while playing their instrument as they All-State etudes in key signatures that

Bandmasters Review • September 2011 20 Texas Bandmasters Association Care and Feeding of Your Freshmen Double Reeds

they have never seen before, with extreme high and The highest priority should be given to securing the low notes that have never appeared in any band music services of a good teacher for oboe and bassoon to work that they have seen (do fingerings exist for notes that with the students outside of regular beginning class time high?), and to add insult to injury, the bassoonists are to work on individual problems and make sure that the looking at something they are seeing for the first instruments and reeds are functioning properly. Most time—tenor clef. of the better private teachers want to How many double-reed players The highest priority work with beginners rather than will survive this shock? Not as many should be given avoiding them; it is far better to as we would like. What do we do to to securing the establish good habits at the beginning fix it? Here are some ideas. services of a good than to try to get rid of bad habits in th th The long-range health and success teacher for oboe the 7 or 8 grade when they are of the band program at the high well established. and bassoon to work school level and beyond should be There is no easy solution to the the main focus of the public school with the students problem of expensive instruments, band program. The high school band outside of regular reeds and sheet music. The laws of is in the public eye to an extent that is beginning class supply and demand have left us with unimaginable for the middle school time to work on an unalterable situation. As long as band, primarily due to appearances individual problems there are far fewer players on oboe at football games and marching in and make sure that and bassoon than on , the occasional parade. If the middle the instruments and saxophone, then instruments, school program thrives while the reeds and sheet music will always be and reeds are high school program struggles, the more expensive due to the smaller situation that creates this imbalance functioning properly. level of buyers for those products. will not be tolerated for long. If the As long as oboe and bassoon reeds pool of high school double reed players is going to be have to be made by hand, there is no hope that prices able to meet the needs of grade 4 and 5 literature, then will fall to the level of clarinet and saxophone reeds. As two or three players on each double reed instrument is easy as it is to chip saxophone and clarinet reeds, it is needed in each grade level at the high school. Attrition easy to see that clamping these reeds to a mouthpiece is a fact of life in all extra-curricular activities. In order gives them some small measure of protection. Without for there to be two players on oboe and two players the protection of the mouthpiece, it can’t be helped on bassoon survive in the program until the senior that oboe and bassoon reeds are exposed to all kinds year, at least three or four players on each double of accidents that seldom befall clarinet and saxophone reed instrument should be started in every sixth reeds, nor can we do much about the inherent grade beginning class. Of course this means that the clumsiness of students at this age. As these students inventory of every middle school should include six mature, the number of crunched reeds will fall, but to ten each of oboes and bassoons, and it goes without until that happens, a chipped or broken reed will be saying that all of these instruments need to be well a common sight in your band room. Remember, you maintained and in proper playing condition. get what you pay for. You can’t guarantee that the most

Bandmasters Review • September 2011 21 Texas Bandmasters Association Care and Feeding of Your Freshmen Double Reeds

expensive reeds will be good, but you can rest assured dispensation given to the oboe and bassoon players, that inexpensive reeds will be uniformly awful. the more understanding band members will be aware Directors of your middle school bands should be that playing the oboe and bassoon at a high level of encouraged to program music that exposes the double proficiency is usually quite enough of a challenge. reeds rather than hides them. It simply is not true If the middle schools have failed to produce that a botched solo from the oboe or bassoon causes sufficient number of double reed players to fill the a band to get a lower rating at contest. When bands chairs when concert season arrives, don’t give up hope. make a 3rd division at concert competition, it isn’t Start looking for players to make the switch to oboe or the ugly oboe sound or the sharp bassoon that was bassoon in the first weeks of school. the cause, it was the overall level of success in the Here are a few things to remember when you preparation for the performance. I have never heard contemplate who should make the switch: of an instance when an adjudicator lowered the rating 1. The double reeds are well-known to be the most for a band because an oboe or bassoon player had a challenging instruments in the woodwind section; a bad day. We need to choose music that gives these struggling 3rd clarinet player or 2nd band saxophone students the chance to be heard and appreciated. The player is unlikely to have the talent to make the switch selection of the proper program for contest may be all successfully. You may not wish to encourage your first that is needed to encourage your double-reed players chair clarinet or best saxophone player to make the to rise to the challenge. If these young players are kept switch, but if this player has any thought of a career hidden for two years of middle school band, we are in music, they will bless you in later years that you doing nothing more than kicking the can down the encouraged them to make the move to the double road instead of fixing the problem. reeds. Saxophone players at the university level have When scheduling play-offs for the show music very little opportunity to make chamber music with for your high school marching band, please bear in their fine colleagues, but after taking up the oboe mind that the oboists and bassoonists who have been and gaining proficiency to handle the 2nd oboe part in thrust into the saxophone or brass section, or who are a Mozart or Beethoven octet, they will have many more now spending lots of time in the “pit” will need lots doors open to them than before. Remember that the of remediation if they are to be productive members Broadway “doublers” (musicians who show up to play of those sections. It may be worth considering that the Reed books in the touring production of “Wicked”) the double reed players might be instrument carriers are almost entirely clarinet and sax players who have rather than players, or perhaps they could be assigned taken up the flute, oboe, and/or bassoon. It is very rare to operate the band’s sound system. One very large and to find an oboe or bassoon player who has taken up the successful band program in suburban San Antonio had flute, clarinet or saxophone, although they can be found. such large numbers that the double reeds were excused 2. Consider brass players (if you have excess from marching with the band altogether, instead numbers) to make the switch, thinking about which spending their time indoors in the practice room and of these players might have dexterity that you don’t taking their private lessons while their classmates see when they play an instrument that has only three were outside pounding the asphalt. Seldom will it valves or none at all­. One of the most successful be found that other members of the band resent the bassoonists in San Antonio in recent years switched

Bandmasters Review • September 2011 22 Texas Bandmasters Association Care and Feeding of Your Freshmen Double Reeds

from before going on to be a multiple year private teacher. It is easy to see that very few band All-Stater. Remember that the student who has played directors are themselves double-reed players. This can brass during middle school but taken up the oboe or be confirmed by a conversation with the person in your bassoon in high school doesn’t have to worry about region who is given the task of assembling judging what he/she will play at football games. panels to hear district and region band auditions. Ask 3. Contrary to what you might think, bright that person how easy it is to assemble a or low percussion or piano players are not good candidates brass judging panel and ask them how difficult it is to for the switch. It takes more control of the air stream to put together a panel to hear the oboes or bassoons. play oboe and bassoon than nearly any other instrument How often those panels of five judges have no more in the band, so a percussion or piano player who has than one actual double reed player on them? never had the need to control their breathing in this The long-range goal should be to encourage our manner will likely take years to master this aspect most successful high school oboe and bassoon players of the instrument. It is certain that somewhere a fine to follow our lead and seek out a profession in music oboist or bassoonist can be found who began life as a education, just as we did. But until that golden age pianist or percussion (or violin) player, but I haven’t dawns, we should do everything in our power to find met that person in my four decades of professional life and keep a good private lesson teacher for our oboe and as a bassoonist. bassoon players. If the student musicians are willing to While I encourage band directors who want a go the extra mile to give us that touch of color and healthy double reed section to keep all of the things beauty that will make this year’s performance of “Four that I have discussed in mind, I want to stress again Scottish Dances” or “Incidental Suite” memorable, we that the most important part of the equation is the must go the extra mile to give them the help they need availability and support of a talented and qualified to succeed.

Dr. Mark Rogers is Director of Publications for Southern Music Company in San Antonio and is the author of editions of the music of Percy Grainger and John Philip Sousa that have entered band repertory worldwide. He is also widely published as an arranger and transcriber, with performances by all five of the Washington, DC service bands. He has degrees from Texas Tech University and the University of Texas, and is the founding conductor of the Heart of Texas . Dr. Rogers is on the adjunct faculty of San Antonio College, Texas Lutheran University and Trinity University, and prior to coming to San Antonio was on the faculty of the University of South and a staff member of the University of Texas Longhorn Band. He has guest conducted numerous community and professional bands, regional honor bands and , and is an active clinician for area high school and middle school bands and orchestras. A bassoonist, he performs with the Corpus Christi Symphony , the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the Laredo Philharmonic, the Mid-Texas Symphony, the Austin Symphony Orchestra and the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he sings in the at Northern Hills United Methodist Church and from time to time dabbles in musical theater, most recently appearing in the San Pedro Playhouse’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL. Sudie, his wife of 35 years, teaches elementary music in the Northeast ISD and his three sons and daughter-in-law are also involved in music and .

Bandmasters Review • September 2011 23 Texas Bandmasters Association