14 August 2023, 02:08 PM
Qaanaaq-LiaaqPlayers of Large and Heavy Musical Instruments
I played a bassoon in junior high and high school. It’s larger and heavier than most musical instruments but not as much as the ones listed below. I had to carry it home and back for practice. The school didn’t have enough bassoons for students to have an at-home practice instrument. The school didn’t have any of these larger and heavier instruments: double bass, tuba, baritone saxophone, and contra bassoon.
Just wondering with school starting:
Do school students carry these instruments from school to home for practice and then back again? Or does the school loan them a second instrument to keep at home so they don’t have to tote it back and forth?
How do professional musicians of these instruments handle it? Do they carry their instruments to/from their symphony hall/opera house, etc. and home? Or do the musicians have two: one at home and one at work?
14 August 2023, 03:28 PM
Piano*DadA good contrabassoon costs in the neighborhood of 30-40K.
Most musicians couldn't afford to keep two of them.
14 August 2023, 03:30 PM
dolmansaxlilAt my high school students carried them back and forth. We had baritone saxes, bassoons, tubas, and a double bass in our concert band. I played clarinet, partially because I didn’t want to take a big instrument back and forth on the bus.
14 August 2023, 04:01 PM
rontunerI played bassoon too!
Almost everyone I knew with bigger instruments either just left them at school, or lugged them back and forth...
There are wheel adapters for string basses, tubas and bari sax cases that I've seen in use.
14 August 2023, 07:11 PM
AxtremusI outsource to profesional movers or use locally available specimens.
14 August 2023, 07:49 PM
ShiroKuroI feel like there ought to be a joke in here somewhere, given that we all play basically the largest and heaviest...
14 August 2023, 08:13 PM
piquéi quit the 'cello after only 3 months in fourth grade because I had to carry it the half a mile to school every day. I was 8 or 9 years old. I took up the flute instead.