h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you are looking for a new instrument to learn, then there is one that is the best of all of them. It is fun to operate, has a great sound, and is relatively uncommon, so you can be better than much of the rest of the world without being very good at all! So what are you waiting for? Go get started!

By the way, it is the bassoon.

I was wondering would anyone give in and ask you what it was. Yes, I've heard the bassoon is a wonderful instrument but somewhat tricky to play. Anything that has nine separate keys operated by the Left Thumb must be complicated!

The tricky part is not the number of keys--that's just memorization. The trickier part is keeping the double reed playing in tune. Dang thing has a fantastic sound though. And the metal cap on the end makes it useful for self-defense.

Another tricky part of the bassoon, and for that matter trombone and cello, is that once you get good enough to be allowed to play in public you start playing high notes, and oftentimes they write them in a different clef (tenor) to avoid too many ledger lines and to confuse the poor bassoonists.

Those high notes don't even have that quality in the sound that makes the bassoon fantastic either. It is my theory that the powers that be of music just want to make life difficult. But then, I feel that way about a lot of things some days...

Those high notes at the beginning of Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' really lend themselves to the Bassoon and no-one else could do it quite the same (obviously I am not a Bassoonist and have never tried to play them!)