Etudes for Bassoon in All Keys

This set of 24 short etudes is designed to allow students to work on a variety of musical styles, articulations, meters, and tempi throughout all major and minor keys. There are also several technical issues idiosyncratic to the bassoon employed throughout the etudes. By design, these etudes do not employ extreme high range (above G4), preferring instead to focus on tone and evenness of technique through the low and middle registers. Pieces written in the more common "band keys" are generally more technical, whereas those in less common keys tend to be of lyrical or repetitive styles to allow students to begin to work in these keys without having to focus all their energies on navigating the key signatures.

Students are encouraged to experiment with improvising changes to the pieces - ornamentation, articulation, dynamics, melodic and harmonic ideas - once the pieces are relatively well mastered. This type of experimentation allows a more personal ownership of the music they play. Teachers are encouraged to foster this additional creativity in their students, relying on their musical sense for guidance. Though these etudes comprise a wide range of scales, arpeggios, and intervallic motion, they have been written in musical contexts and styles which students will find enjoyable to play simply for the sake of the music.