Have you ever wished that you could get some special high note fingerings from one of the world’s great bassoonists? Thanks to William Short of the Metropolitan Opera, now you can.
His blog post The Stratosphere provides fingerings he learned from Bernard Garfield. You’ll have to link to his blog for the actual fingering diagrams, but here are some other tips he gives:
Keep your embouchure very close to the first wire, with very little overbite.
The vowel sound in your throat should be very closed (an “E” rather than an “O”).
These fingerings don’t respond well to heavy articulation – air attacks are generally best.
Your air stream requires a bit of finesse in this register – you can’t overblow.
Build your own fingering diagrams for free with Bret Pimentel’s fingering diagram builder.