<p>My daughter is a graduating high school senior. She played bassoon throughout high school, but we never bought one. She’s a bass guitarist who doubles on double bass so she played it in orchestra in middle school and the first year of high school (and she loved playing a double bass) but the same thing - we definitely never bought a double bass. And now she is off to a large college where, if you aren’t in the music school, you aren’t a musician (except in the marching band - and our “squad leader” kid says she is looking forward to watching a football game from the stands for a change of pace.) </p>
<p>Her college is (you need to fly) far away, so even transporting one of her bass guitars or one of her saxophones there is a problem. And even if we had a double bass or a bassoon, transporting one of these would have been a challenge.</p>
<p>So, after eight years of sax, seven of jazz band bass guitar, sort of six of double bass, and four of bassoon, it feels like her music is going to be over…</p>
<p>I find myself wishing she will find an opportunity to be in an ensemble of some sort and we will be figuring out how to get our hands on an instrument there (borrow or rent one) or ship down a sax or bass guitar… </p>
<p>I was a biology major in college but my small college it was not difficult for a non-music major to be in the jazz band, and it was such a nice break from my more academic classes. It makes me sad to think of her leaving her music. She especially loved her bassoon and bass guitar lessons.</p>
<p>You should check and see if the college has one for her. I also played bassoon and it was not my “primary” instrument and I did not own one. I was not a music major, but there aren’t a “whole lotta bassonists” and I had played bassoon in our “hometown symphony” so my LAC was very happy that I wanted to keep playing in college and happened to have one that I used all four years I was there. Since this is a large college you’re talking about you might have her contact the town’s local wind ensemble’s etc if the college music department is less eager to help a non-music major. There might be a local group she can play with who can get their hands on a bassoon for her.</p>
<p>MidwestMom, I absolutely understand the sadness. We watched D give up the violin entirely, after 11 years - but she was ready to do it. </p>
<p>It sounds as if your D will be glad to give up marching band, but may very well find herself looking for that bass to borrow. And if that’s the case, it should be easy - the more local (or at least, not airplane-ride-away) kids who play bass and guitar will have them, and the music department may, too. And as momofthree boys says, very likely the school will have a bassoon. Well worth checking.</p>
<p>Midwestmom, You might comfort yourself with the thought that not playing right now doesn’t mean that she will never play again. If she really wants to play at college, she’ll find a way to do it. </p>
<p>My husband was an avid trumpet player throughout HS (first chair in the state band his senior year) but after deciding not to major in music after the first year in college he put down his instrument and didn’t pick it up for about 20 years. He now plays in a wedding band and is busy playing out a few weekends a month. (His Mom is so happy! )</p>
<p>My daughter also played the bassoon in high school, and wanted to continue in college for her own enjoyment–she was not considering majoring in music, and was still fairly new to the instrument. On a whim, I called the music department to see if they had any suggestions. The Dean of the music school called me back and said that they had four symphonic bands. The top two were for mainly music majors and very serious players, and needed an audition. There was another group that was fairly serious and an audition was suggested, and then there was one group that was for students who loved to play their instruments, didn’t need an audition, were mainly in other majors, and met once a week in the evening so as not to compete with daytime classes. Since the high school loaned her a bassoon, I asked about the possibility of renting one. He said that if she enrolled in that course, the university would provide her with an instrument and a locked place to keep it. He also said that she could take lessons from profs, grad students, or capable undergrads depending on what she wanted to spend. This was at Ohio State–a large school, and I was very impressed with their willingness to help students find a way to continue with their enjoyment playing an instrument.</p>
<p>MM2K: My S gave up saxophone after sophomore year in HS, after being first chair in regular and jazz bands during junior high and HS. My H and I were sad, because he played so beautifully and had worked so hard. But my S wanted to concentrate on other things, and it was his life, after all. </p>
<p>He’ll go off to college this year with no musical instrument. I am confident, though, that if he ever has the urge to make music again, he’ll find a way. With his musical knowledge he can easily pick up his old instrument or take on a new one. My D tried violin this year after not playing for 10 years, and I was amazed at how well she still could play, even though when she learned she was on a half-size instrument. I learned violin as an adult, just because I wanted to.</p>
<p>So take heart, MM2K, the music is there whenever we want to play it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I have the impression that the bassoon is one of those instruments that not enough people play, and that someone who can pull her weight on bassoon can probably get as many opportunities to play as she wants. She might have to get an instrument, though.</p></li>
<li><p>As for bass guitar: If you have a hard case and don’t need it overnight, I don’t think it’s prohibitively expensive to ship a bass via UPS or some equivalent. And if that doesn’t work, or is more expensive than I think, I also don’t think it’s prohibitively expensive to buy a functional bass in a college town at a used guitar shop or pawnshop.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>For bassoon, you have to blow air through a double reed and then through 9 feet of 1/4" piping to get the sound out the end when you play bassoon. It’s not for the faint LOL!</p>
<p>“Ages and stages.” She will find a way to get her hands on a bassooon if she wants to. I remember doing my Honors credit report for a Symphony course- on bassoon reed making- and being able to check out a university owned one for the project (fortunately I wasn’t graded on my playing skills, I was rusty after a couple of years). I am also reminded of the Viola safely sitting in son’s closet as well as the feelings I had when I finished with my undergrad Chemistry major and switched to medical school. There is a sense of loss with each abandonment. That is the nature of life, having to put aside things in order to do other things. There is never enough time to keep pursuing everything we start or even those we become proficient at. Sigh, there would have to be a thousand hours in each day to do only the things we enjoyed at some time.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of your support and suggestions. Maybe she will go back to the bassoon one day. And JHS, you are surely right about the bass guitar. This is the least expensive of her instruments and it has always been her most “fun” instrument. We can have her get an inexpensive used one that will just fine (in Austin - there must be ten million bass guitars floating around town) or - in our basement right now the hard case is on the halfway decent Fender and the gig bag is on the older cheaper electric bass - we could put the older cheaper bass in the hard case and ship it down via Fed Ex Ground, which appears to be the cheapest method of reliable shipping. One of the bass players I work with told me last week that there are instructions on the internet about safely shipping electric basses.</p>
<p>Right now my daughter isn’t asking for the electric bass to come down but we will see. I guess it is good that she’s not planning to start a rock band in the dorm…</p>
<p>*Meanwhile, 14-year-old Midwest son, a trumpet piano boy, won an electric guitar at the ring toss at Cedar Point and he and his friends are sure that with a good set of strings, it will be quite playable. (He had been asking for an electric guitar for several months and an electric guitar has appeared.) Now it’s “When can we go to Sam Ash?” *</p>
<p>It is my week to be thinking about instruments…</p>
<p>her college has a music school, which means it will have bassoon players.
if the D wants musical activities, I’m sure she’ll find them,even colleges with schools of music have ensemble levels open to non majors.
Take heart in my S’s musical progression…gave up the sax, now entering his third yr of college he’s taking up the harmonica (for credit!) and looking into learning to play the bagpipes, a lifelong dream! As someone said…ages and stages !</p>
<p>D (not a music major) has her own bassoon and she played it all through HS and college. She brought it as carry-on luggage whenever she traveled to school in the fall or home in the spring. It didn’t seem to be a problem. </p>
<p>What was a bigger problem was that she also loves to play percussion, and unbeknownst to me she bought herself a marimba somewhere along the way during college. So when it came time for graduation earlier this month I was unexpectedly staring at a marimba that I had to figure out how to pack up and ship home.</p>
<p>My sister-in-law played violin until college where she happily gave it up for choir. She’s 20 years out of college now, but still singing. I’m sure if your daughter wants to, she’ll find a way to keep music in her life.</p>
<p>I spent a year as the world’s WORST bassoonist in high school. I give a ton of credit to anyone who can even hold that instrument properly, let alone get it to sound good. Any school that wants a bassoonist usually has their own bassoon; I don’t think anyone but music majors or professional musicians would buy their own bassoon.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see an era end, but if music means as much to your D as it seems to, she will find a way to keep it in her life. It may take awhile… I played an instrument (piano, clarinet) and/or sang from 5th grade until college graduation. I had been married about 10 years when I realized how much I missed it. I joined the church choir, and found a local summer wind ensemble that was for area adults, and any high school/college kids who were interested. It had been 10 years since I played the clarinet, but I was pleasantly surprised how quickly it came back to me. After 8 weeks of rehearsal we played a concert, it was an eye-opener for my kids to come and see Mommy be part of something like that.</p>
<p>(My own D has been dancing since she was 4, and been dancing on a competition team since 2nd grade. I know I’m going to be a teary mess at her last recital in 2 years, because she doesn’t plan to continue to dance in college. I’m still holding out hope for her joining a dance team and doing halftime at basketball games or something… I think she’ll miss it, and I KNOW I’ll miss watching her!)</p>
<p>I really encouraged my boys to pick “lifetime” sports as opposed to the football route for the very reason that I hope they don’t have to give them up some day. I stuck with my bassoon and ballet well into my twenties and gave those up as marriage and babies (and weight on the old toes) came on the scene, but it’s alway poignant to think about those things we were really, really good at that had to give way for other things in life.</p>
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