Talent Drills and Rhythmic Displacement (with a bonus transposition!)
Dedicated orchestrally-trained bassoonists spend thousands of hours refining and drilling orchestral passages for auditions and concerts. As Christopher Millard demonstrated on the first episode of Let’s Talk Bassoon, transposition is a wonderful way to explore the bassoon and all its tendencies by moving away from the original key. This has the effect of giving us new perspectives, new challenges and often make the original key seem so much more accessible once you return. It is more about exercising the mind which in turn, frees the power of the body to play the passage in the best way possible.
Likewise, you can use the concept of rhythmic displacement and different articulations to expose well-worn spots and tendencies for unevenness. In each rhythmic permutation, eighth notes, triplets, sixteenths etc, we successively move the passage over by one unit. While this is initially disorienting, over time and with practice, we build flexibility, strength, and confidence. It is particularly valuable to move the strong beats to a weaker point in the bar and see if you can maintain evenness and musical direction. Add different articulations to enhance the challenge (see Figaro below). And in low register excerpts, leave the whisper key off to encourage steady and connected air supply.
Use your metronome, start slow, stay steady and over time, build each increment to concert tempo.
Take a look at the Talent Drills and give it a whirl!
For pdfs (best image quality) click on links:
Talent Drill Ravel Piano Concerto
Talent drills for Marriage of Figaro
