The author wishes to thank Andrew Brandt and others on the Doublereed list who aided the development an ascii encoding of bassoon and contrabassoon fingerings in August of 1994. The ascii encoding of bassoon-family fingerings is employed instead of a pictoral representation because it requires less computer memory to store, saves downloading time for the viewer, and it is accessible to those with text-only readers. Perhaps the earliest version of ascii encoding of bassoon fingerings is found on page 36 of Gerald Corey's "How to Make the French Bassoon `Work,'" Journal of the International Double Reed Society 1 (May 1973).
Below please find the Heckel-system (German) bassoon, Buffet-system (French) bassoon and contrabassoon ascii encodings of all tone holes covered and all keys down:
e eb Eb Db c# Bb F# x x x | x x x F Ab d c a c# wlock Bb E F# Ab Bb B C D
f e f# eb C# W s
x x x | x x Bb x F Ab
d c a w E F#
Bb C D Eb
C# Eb Db Bb F# x x eb x | x x x F Ab d c c# Bb E F# Bb B C D
f# eb C#
x x x | x x Bb x F Ab
d a Bb eb E F#
Bb C D Eb
C# An "x" indicates a covered hole or G key, an "o" (not shown here) indicates an open hole or G key. When the name of a key is given the key should be depressed. The sign "/" stands for a half hole, or in some instances a venting of the hole 1/4-3/4 open. The fractions 1/4 and 3/4 designates openings more or less than a half hole when the author specifies the size of the hole. Parentheses "( )" indicate an optional hole or key. Trills are designated as "tr," with more complex trills written out as two or three fingerings.
PICTORAL REPRESENTATION ASCII REPRESENTATION
PICTORAL REPRESENTATION ASCII REPRESENTATION
Please now proceed to Acknowledgements.