The Bassolino is an instrument meant for bassoon education to young children or to introduce older children to this instrument within the context of school activities or projects like “the orchestra at school”. It is also used in classes that welcome disabled children.
The Bassolino was thought out, designed and developed by a professor with a CNSM degree. It comes up to the real expectations of a category of instruments.
This small bassoon is in fact an educational device meant for the young, made out of PVC tubes, joins and collars.
Traditionally, apprenticeship of the regular bassoon starts rather late, because of the space between the holes of the instrument. These are too much apart for young children to handle. Furthermore, the bassoon is heavy and the price is too high for parents that want to invest in a first music instrument. Music schools also hesitate to create a bassoon class, due to the fragility of the instrument in operating circumstances.
The Bassolino allows solving all these problems. It is used in the first years of apprenticeship. The instrument is physically accessible to the youngest. It can be used in music classes or other educational groups at lower costs and less damage risk due to the PVC construction, even when the child is older.
The Bassolino is an F instrument of which the sound is one octave higher than a normal bassoon. Its ambit is sufficient for its intended use and comes with 1 octave. A C model is also available, the ambit of which doesn’t exceed one fifth with the semi tones . The fingering of these notes is identical to those one can find on a normal bassoon, whatever the system is. The Bassolino comes with a bassoon bowl of normal size and uses bassoon reeds, so that teachers don’t have to purchase or scrape special reeds.
Rate : The price of a Bassolino is 400 GBP or 600 USD A demonstration for teachers and/or their classes is possible (allow extra travelling expenses). During the demonstration we will put together a bassoon in front of the audience and tackle the reeds problem. We’ll also talk about repertory. A teacher’s tutorial is available on order.
