Got Bassoon?

So, today I picked up Dear Daughter after school and we headed for our local music emporium to pick up her band rental instrument. You may have already guessed that Dear Daughter marches to her own different drummer. Actually, her intent when she picked band as her sixth grade elective was to be the different drummer. Or maybe the tuba player. Either would have been fine with me, so long as she was happy and willing to put the work into it to make some progress.

I guess I should not have been surprised when she came home and announced she had selected the bassoon instead. I'm truly delighted that she is willing to tackle such a complex and challenging instrument. She's had some piano and reads music, so that's at least part of the hurdle. She's fascinated by her instrument and has spent some time tonight practicing assembling and disassembling it (five pieces counting the bocal -- or the pipe that goes from the reed to the body of the bassoon).

Some of the world's loveliest music features bassoon, including works by Vivaldi, Telemann, Ravel, Stravinsky, Elgar and others. Who can forget the theme for Peter's Grandfather in Tchaikovsky's Peter and the Wolf?

So here we go, off into a new adventure. She's excited. I'm excited. In the meantime, did somebody step on a duck?