How Do You Prepare Bassoonists for High School Band?

8 min readMar 9, 2022

Preparing for high school can feel stressful but this guide will help you select a marching instrument, know what to expect in high school band, and feel great about continuing your bassoon playing! This guide is based on my experiences as a private music teacher in Texas, so your timeline may differ but hopefully this will help you feel confident about progressing in your bassoon playing!

Example Timeline for bassoonists entering high school

7th Grade

Enjoy the bassoon!: Most bassoonists don’t need to think about marching band this early. But if you have the time, consider learning a second instrument that you could play later for marching band. As long as it doesn’t distract from your bassoon playing and your band director and/or bassoon teacher are supportive, give it a try!

8th Grade

January of 8th Grade — Start brainstorming about what marching instruments you might want to play. What are you interested in? What sounds fun to you? What do you think you would be good at?
Spring Break of 8th Grade — Talk to your Band Director and/or private lesson teacher to get ideas and confirm that your preferred instrument is available. Go ahead and decide on one instrument to focus on for marching band.
April of 8th Grade — Communicate with your future High School Band Directors to make sure you know about upcoming camps, training, and other important events. Marching percussionists usually start much earlier than other sections, so keep an eye on the calendar so you don’t miss any deadlines. Let the Directors know what you are thinking about playing so they can confirm that is a good choice for you.
End of Spring Semester + Summer Before High School — take lessons or work with other students on your instrument if needed. Attend all summer marching camps and events required for your school.

9th Grade

Fall of 9th Grade — keep practicing bassoon and taking lessons. It’s so easy to forget about bassoon during marching season. Make time to play every week and put it on your calendar! Even a few minutes a day of doing warm-ups, playing easy pieces, or working on your fall audition music will be a HUGE help in keeping your bassoon playing in shape.
Spring of 9th Grade — improve your bassoon skills as much as possible. Prepare your spring concert repertoire, consider learning a solo, do your best in concert band, and continue to improve your bassoon technique. Consider any changes you want to make to your marching instrument plan for the next year. Since marching season is over, this is the time to really focus on bassoon and push yourself to learn new music and improve your technique.

Marching Instrument Options

Choosing a marching instrument should be fun!

The things you should consider when selecting your marching instrument include:

How much time and energy do you have to learn something new?
Do you want to learn a new clef?
How much will this instrument interfere with your bassoon playing?
Do you want to march or not march on the field?

Great Choices

Baritone: my personal favorite option for students. It uses bass clef like bassoon and doesn’t cause embouchure problems. If you can buzz on a brass mouthpiece, this is a great option! It can be a bit heavy, so try holding one to see if it’s a comfortable fit for you. Since it requires a lot of air, it will help strengthen your breathing on bassoon too!
Tuba: same as above. Great if you don’t mind carrying a larger instrument. Some schools may have limited numbers of instruments available. The parts may also be slightly less complex, making them easier to memorize.
Front Ensemble Percussion: This includes all of the instruments in the “pit” such as vibraphone, marimba, keyboards, and auxiliary percussion. Percussion helps develop rhythm and counting skills without interfering with the embouchure. You will probably need to read treble and bass clef, but it won’t be difficult to learn. Some schools may have limited space in the front ensemble, but double reed players are usually welcome. I played vibraphone for one year in high school and really enjoyed it! The only downside for me was that I wasn’t marching on the field since front ensemble is stationary.
Cymbal Line (if available): technically part of the percussion battery, cymbals are a marching instrument and a great choice for double reed musicians. Cymbals are relatively easy to learn and great for improving counting skills. I marched cymbal line for 3 years in high school!
Color Guard: if you don’t feel like learning a new instrument but you still want to be in the marching band, consider joining the color guard! You will learn choreographed sequences with different props such as flags, sabers, and rifles. You won’t have the added pressure or confusion of learning a new clef or instrument, and your choreography will help you develop better rhythm and expression.

Good Choices

I believe anyone can be successful on any of these instruments, they just aren’t my top choice in terms of difficulty and interference with your bassoon playing.

Saxophone: While saxophone is fairly easy to learn, it can interfere with your bassoon playing. The embouchure on saxophone is so different from bassoon that almost every student I had that played saxophone went through a period of having problems with their embouchure and/or remembering fingerings on bassoon. If you are set on playing saxophone, remember the section may be competitive and the music will be challenging but it can be done! Start as early as you can and try to make sure that you continue to practice bassoon regularly while learning the saxophone.
Clarinet: all of the problems that apply to saxophone also apply to clarinet. I’ve heard from some students that clarinet was more difficult to learn than the saxophone. But if you absolutely love it, don’t let that stop you. You will need to learn treble clef if you don’t already know it.
Flute: doesn’t typically cause any embouchure problems with bassoon but is definitely challenging to learn and since there are a lot of players, you might have a hard time placing in the “varsity” group right away. You will need to learn treble clef if you don’t already know it.
Battery Percussion (Snare, Bass, Tenors): these percussionists march on the field. Percussion is a great choice as listed above, however, the battery has a very limited number of spots and is very competitive since percussionists will also be auditioning for these spots. If you are interested in battery, I recommend playing in the Front Ensemble for a year or two before trying out. It will take a lot of practice and training to prepare for a battery audition, which is easier after you’ve already completed a year or two of high school band. Snare, quads or tenors, and bass drums require you to learn a completely new system of music notion along with new techniques that will not translate from the bassoon.
Trumpet, French Horn: These smaller brass instruments can be more difficult for some people to learn. They are also usually featured in marching shows more often, meaning you will have more challenging music to learn. Since they are larger sections you may also have more competition for limited spaces in the marching band. You will need to learn treble clef if you don’t already know it.

When it comes down to it, I think the most important factor is that you find an instrument you enjoy playing since you’ll spend a lot of time learning and practicing it!

Fall Auditions & Placement

Your fall band class placement will most likely be based primarily on your instrument in marching band, not your bassoon playing. Since you’ll hardly be playing bassoon in class anyway, they may need you in a special freshman class or brass, percussion, or woodwind class instead. Don’t stress if you don’t make top band your first semester, it probably doesn’t have anything to do with your audition or performance as a bassoonist. Remember, you have the entire fall semester to keep practicing and prepare a great audition for Spring.

Spring Auditions & Placement

Spring band placement will be based more on your skills as a bassoonist, but again don’t expect to rocket to the top ensemble right away. Depending on the size of your band program, there may be several experienced upperclassmen ahead of you and each ensemble probably only needs 2–3 bassoonists.

Factors that affect your placement include audition results, in-class performance and attitude, grades, and your end-of-semester audition.

Your goal shouldn’t be to be the first chair, it should be to perform the music to the best of your ability and listen to the upperclassmen’s performances to see what you can improve for next year.

High School Region Band Auditions

If you are a Texas bassoonist, the TMEA All-State Audition music is released at the end of July each year. The music is MUCH longer and more challenging than the middle school region audition music. It can be overwhelming for 9th Graders to tackle this music on their own. Lessons are essential during the fall to help them progress through the region music gradually and ensure that practicing doesn’t increase mistakes or bad habits. Most bassoonists won’t be able to learn it on their own.

Auditions take place in December for Region Band. A select few people may be chosen to attend Region Orchestra Auditions in November as well. Students who advance from either competition can participate in the Region Band in January and a select few get to audition again at Area Auditions in January. The best players from Area get to attend the All-State Convention in San Antonio in February.

Making Region Band (especially in Texas) as a Freshman is rare, keep in mind you are competing against people 2–3 years more experienced than you. It can definitely happen, but the goal is really to learn the music, improve your technique, and see how you do at the audition so you can prepare better the next year.

Looking to improve your bassoon technique? Check out the #BassoonGoals: Scales & Arpeggios Book available on Amazon. This scale book includes warm-ups, major scales, and arpeggios in all keys, chromatic scales, and a complete bassoon fingering chart.

high school marching band